Electric awning questions

wa8yxm wrote:

Nvr*lost wrote:
Can an electric awning ever be manipulated manually? Will it run just off of the trailer battery? What if you are boon-docking and do not have access to electricity, can you open and close the awning? Something I am considering for a new trailer with the option of an electric awning.

What I am about to type is specific to A&E Weather pro by Dometic, I do not know if it also applies to Carefree.. Someone else can comment.

On the weather pro the foreward arm is where the motor hides (In the roller at the end of the arm) Near the end of the arm is a "Flat 2" connector (this is like a flat 4 but 2 wire) in your owner's manual bag SHOULD be a long flat-2 pigtail..

Unplug the motor from the rest of the RV, plug in the emergency pigtail and any 12 volt battery capable of starting a car (Fully charged Jump pack, or the car/tow/towed vehicle's battery) can operate the motor If it goes the wrong way,, Reverse leads.. NOTE do not leave connected once it's reached the end of travel.. No safety cut off.

IF the motor is shot, or the brake fails to release
(motor shot you hear the CLICK as the brake releases but no wirr, Brake it runs but really drags, may not run in fact, no CLICK.

There is a manual retract procedure, NOTE this will cause damage if done as described.

First, slide the manual pull down strap into the vacant channel.. This strap should be in the bag with your emergency pigtail, if not, get one at an RV store.

Now, there are one or two screws in the head of the arm, remove them, you may now roll up the awning manually, When rolled up replace at least one of the screws THIS WILL REQUIRE A LADDER. The manual says ONE screw, I found two on the one I had to do it to.

You can also remove one bolt and pull the head off the arm but.. It's hard to re-attach when it's rolled up.. This method will NOT damage but is much much much much harder. I do not recommend it.

NOTE on the damage.... The wire that breaks when you roll it up per the manual.. Well you are going to get a new wire with the new motor anyway.. At the time (I think it was 2007) I assisted another RVer, the motor was $400.00.. And he had to have it replaced twice (Thankfully under warranty) due to a controller being bad. (See do not leave connected too long above, his controller was not disconnecting like it is supposed to). and a sticky switch (It too was not opening like it should).

It was kind of fun.. I told Rachel (The professional technician) as she got ready to pull the motor that I wished to watch cause I'd never seen this done before.. Her response "Neither have I... But how hard can it be, it's mechanical" is so close to how I approach a job I've not done before that we both broke down laughing.

Rachael is good at what she does.

Well, that was quite informative so thank you. I think I would need a visual to understand and see all of the steps, but maybe there is something on-line if it ever came up. There are interesting comments about the effect of wind on an electrical awning vs manual awning. In the ten years of having an awning on Class Cs, I only opened them once or twice. I was thinking if it was electric maybe I would use an awning more, but maybe not.