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Trumpeterb's avatar
Trumpeterb
Explorer
Jun 24, 2018

Automatic awning issues

I have a Dometic 17’ automatic awning on my TT, and it now extends and retracts very very slowly, and sometimes stops alltogether. My wife will have to hold the button down while I manually help it along. I am not sure if this might be an issue with the awning motor or not. I do know the battery is not very good and doesn’t hold a charge well...but I am plugged in most of the time, so I haven’t replaced it. Anyone know if a weak battery will affect the awning even if plugged into electric? Other suggestions?
  • Between 12.5-13V both at the switch and at the motor connection. I noticed that the awning isn’t rolling up straight too. Maybe it is due to me manually rolling it up, but the arms are not operating parallel to each other...one side is out slightly further than the other. Maybe the wrong tension on the spring?
  • My Dometic Eclipse SOK III has a common car door window motor and it's an easy replacement if that is your problem. The end cap also stripped which could be the type of noise you are hearing. A broken spring or internal part could certainly cause some noise.

    My arms are adjustable and hence not necessarily the same. But it winds up straight.
  • Between 12.5-13V both at the switch and at the motor connection.
    The voltage is good IF it's at the motor itself AND under load - ie motor turning. Is that the case? Bad wiring or connectors can have good voltage until under load due to a high resistance type of connection.

    Connect a 12V battery directly to the motor can help to isolate the problem.
  • It wasn’t under load.. I can’t get the voltage tester anywhere on the motor while running to check it. I can only unplug the motor and test it at the connector. Unless I remove the motor...which may be my next step. Not sure how to connect a battery directly to the motor...i don’t have a connector thing that would work....maybe i will take the motor out—need to anyway, as I am going to replace the fabric—and then take it over to the local event place to have it tested....I don’t know enough about these things to know what to look for.
  • My motor has 2 terminals for connecting a battery hence good for testing also. I would expect to find connectors near the motor and it should be possible to tap into them to measure the loaded voltage.

    The service manual may help.
  • Thanks for all the help and advice through my various posts about awnings. I finished the job this morning, and everything worked out great. The awning is working as it should now, and there is brand new fabric to boot. Turns out the barrel connectors were all corroded, so I cleaned those off and used some dielectric grease on that connection, and wrapped the entire thing in electrical tape to try and help shielded water in the future. The tension spring was also not set correctly, so I corrected the tension as well. Happy to say that now it works great! Thanks again all.

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