Awning Life Span

TucsonJim wrote:
I replaced my vinyl awning material last year when it was seven years old. The sun had gotten to the top of the rolled up material and it failed. I keep the awning covered with plastic drain pipe now.

doxiemom11 wrote:
From a depreciation chart of an insurance company

Canvas Awning - normal useful years - 20 years
Vinyl Awning - normal useful years - 8 years

Sometimes times it pays to spend the extra for quality materials when replacing an awning.

Ok, so it seems I have a bit of time to go….all good info here but here is a good idea to cover the top part when retracted, I'm going to have to look into this. Good maintenance I see is the key and keeping the mildew off as well. There are times I cannot help but to retract when it is wet but finding a time to dry it out is challenging so that is one of the variables….

Thanks all

My TT awning is 21 years old and is still in what I would call Fair shape. It is discolored but, only has a couple of small pin holes. I live in MN and the trailer sets inside my shed quite a bit of the time. I've only owned it for a few years but, I'm under the impression that it must have set inside at least part of the time for the previous owner and it doesn't look to have been used very often.

They last about 2-3 years in the hot So Cal sun around here. After learning that lesson, I made myself a cheap cover for my new awning on our new trailer. The sun just kills 'em.

Homemade Awning Cover

$0.43/day as you can buy new fabric for $250. With an aluminium cover instead of 12 years, 2 months, and 5 days you could get 25+ years.:W

The awning on my RV is now 14 years and has been in California and Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and been down South to central Mexico, been buffeted by high winds in Palm Srings and this month we get a new awning.

Began to develop pinholes and some delamination on the rolled part exposed to the sun, also started tearing at the corners where it meets the chanel on the RV

I am going top protect it with a rain gutter when rolled up, thanks you all for the idea.

navegator

Started getting bubbles in the vinyl after 7 years, still okay but it's starting. I'd guess at 8-10 years for normal use, which is when my neighbor had to replace theirs and mine will go too. You use yours a bit more then we do as we're only 3 season up here.

FWIW, Carefree warranty's theirs for a whole year.

It's the last wrap that fails on most awnings, and always from U.V. exposure- put something over it when it's rolled up and it'll go ten years or more.

P.S.

Dunno where that "canvas lasts" statistic came from- awnings haven't been made out of real cotton canvas for MANY years, and when they were, unless continuously ventilated they grew mold/rotted like nobody's business, cotton being a digestible material and all.

From a depreciation chart of an insurance company

Canvas Awning - normal useful years - 20 years
Vinyl Awning - normal useful years - 8 years

Sometimes times it pays to spend the extra for quality materials when replacing an awning.

Mine see's very little sun but the UV has finally made it so brittle I will probably have to replace it next year. So best case maybe 10 years and much less if it see's sun.

These newer fabrics are only cold laminated… 2 sheet of vinyl glued to the center fiber… technology has allowed them to make the vinyl so thin that it isn’t uncommon to find pinholes in new fabric… the exposed area will weather faster but I have seen the vinyl cracking and peeling at or near the seams at both ends…
Almost all of them have bubbles in them and if there is a pin hole near the bubble water will get in a separate it much faster…

One awning I saw looked like a half inch thick water bag at the lower end on the tilt side and the water weight was causing it to delaminate even faster… we put a pin hole in the underside and water dribbled for several hours from the fabric… the separated vinyl was so thin and brittle when you handled it, it cracked as if it were dried peeled paint…

Older awning fabrics were hot vulcanized… the upper, lower, and center fabric were cross-linked and didn’t delaminate… my one Franklin trailer has a 24 foot awning that was installed in the mid-90s and is still in useable condition, but not for much longer…