Power Awning?

I have been using mine for over 10 years. Would not want to go back to a manual awning.

There are power awnings available now that do not have the wind sensor feature and of course sells for less as well.

1st travel trailer then class C motorhome had manual awnings. Yes, in high wind conditions its nice to be able to tie the awning down if done correctly. Our new class A motorhome has a Dometic power awning. We haven't yet used it enough to form an opinion, although it certainly is quick and easy to extend or retract. Ours has a wind sensor built in the end of the awning tube. The control box in the cargo bay allows setting to different wind speeds. I wonder if those who mentioned their power awning was too senstive to wind have the ability to change settings.

Thanks everyone for the comments, they were very helpful.

We have a power awning and don't think I'd ever go back to a manual one. When we had a manual one I rarely used it because it was a pain to retract it whenever we left camp. I use the power one all the time and don't leave it open when I'm away or at night.

Mike

We have a power awning and on our next camper hope to be able to get a manual awning. At first we thought the power awning was neat, but it's really more of a pain - much more sensitive to wind in camp, IMO.

I have an older A&E Weather pro power awning, I understand they have made some improvements to the wind sensor system but I can not recommend the one I have.. Like the poster who said "I'd go manual in a second" I fully agree with him.

I find that a power awning is for fair weather use only. What good is it if you have to roll it up everytime there is a hint of a breeze. I would never buy another one.

We have the power awning and if it got damaged badly we would go back to a manual in a heartbeat. The power awnings are easier to put up and take down, but they have to be since they are so vulnerable. Ours moves around quite a bit in a mild breeze that you wouldn't even notice with a manual awning. We hardly put ours out because of that.

With the power awning, it only takes a few seconds to deploy and retract. That being the case, everytime we leave the camper for more than 30 minutes, we simply retract the awning. No chance of it being ripped off the camper by wind. There is practically no effort to do this, even if you have to do it multiple times a day. Even with tying down the manual awning, there is still a chance of it being damaged by wind if strong enough.

There is no way I'd go back to a manual awning.

Chris Bryant wrote:
I greatly prefer the Carefree Eclipse for power models simply because you can easily adjust the pitch. Carefree fabric is actually heavier than Dometic (though I like the Dometic manual hardware better).

Chris, how about the Travel'R from Carefree? They have an adjustable pitch model, and the option of auto-retract (a vibration sensor in the head, that can be set to auto-retract)