Forum Discussion

Kelvininin's avatar
Kelvininin
Explorer
Jun 03, 2016

Awning and Rollertube replacement questions

Last year when we where camping I made the rookie mistake of not putting the awning away or with a significant enough lean, A heavy rain storm came through that night as we woke up with the awning holding a few hundred pounds of water.

This cased the awning itself to stretch irreparably, and put a nice curve into the roller tube. No damage was done to the arms. I rolled the thing up and never opened it again until this spring.

I need a new awning and roller tube.

My current awning is a 19' sunchaser. Seems the sunchaser and the 8500 have compatible mounting hardware. Is this statement correct?

My plan is to buy the awning and roller tube online and hang it myself. Looks like sunchaser is no longer available, so I plan to go with the 8500.

The current awning has no weather shield and it looks like the metal weather shield is a $170 cost adder, is the metal shield worth it? My budget is pretty tight so the less amount of money I spend on this the more I have to take the family camping.

Thoughts?
  • SoundGuy's avatar
    SoundGuy
    Explorer
    Jun 03, 2016
    Dometic still offers the Sunchaser as the Sunchaser II but it's a much lighter weight version than the venerable 8500 and I personally wouldn't recommend it when the 8500 and parts for it are still available. I'd suggest you note the information (model #, production #, serial #) from the labels affixed to the fabric, roller tube, and hardware and take that information to an authorized Dometic dealer who can email Dometic tech service and ask for their recommendation for the proper current replacement parts.
  • Kelvininin's avatar
    Kelvininin
    Explorer
    Jun 03, 2016
    SoundGuy wrote:
    Dometic still offers the Sunchaser as the Sunchaser II but it's a much lighter weight version than the venerable 8500 and I personally wouldn't recommend it when the 8500 and parts for it are still available. I'd suggest you note the information (model #, production #, serial #) from the labels affixed to the fabric, roller tube, and hardware and take that information to an authorized Dometic dealer who can email Dometic tech service and ask for their recommendation for the proper current replacement parts.


    I thought about doing that but both labels are no longer legible. We have a camping world 10 min from my house. I'll grab a kid and head up there tomorrow to poke around. Since I plan on doing the install myself I intend to order online to save the money.
  • SoundGuy's avatar
    SoundGuy
    Explorer
    Jun 03, 2016
    SoundGuy wrote:
    I'd suggest you note the information (model #, production #, serial #) from the labels affixed to the fabric, roller tube, and hardware and take that information to an authorized Dometic dealer who can email Dometic tech service and ask for their recommendation for the proper current replacement parts.


    Kelvininin wrote:
    I thought about doing that but both labels are no longer legible. We have a camping world 10 min from my house. I'll grab a kid and head up there tomorrow to poke around. Since I plan on doing the install myself I intend to order online to save the money.


    If you don't want to go through an authorized Dometic dealer you can call Dometic yourself. The label issue isn't unusual with older awnings but if you provide the year of your camper and type of Dometic awning the CSR should be able to determine just which awning model you have on your trailer and recommend the correct replacement parts you'd need to correctly make the repair.
  • Redterpos3's avatar
    Redterpos3
    Explorer
    Jun 03, 2016
    I did the same as you in 2014, so my roller tube is bent, it does still deploy, but I have considered replacing, but also am considering just taking it off and using a stand alone popup shade or several to replace, the added benefit is I can place them anywhere I want! Plus a reduction in weight and cost!
  • RavensFan24's avatar
    RavensFan24
    Explorer
    Jun 03, 2016
    I did the same thing on my old trailer, but I just made an insurance claim under a "weather event" and paid the $250 deductible, which was cheaper than buying the material and roller tube and have it installed. Dyer's RV has good prices on the parts you need though. They can also help you pick out the right equipment.
  • Kelvininin's avatar
    Kelvininin
    Explorer
    Jul 18, 2016
    Well its done. I bought an 19' 8500 awning and roller tube for $530 delivered to my door. Took about a month to get the awning once it was ordered. I took the old one off myself and had a neighbor help with the install of the new one.

    I was a little concerned that hardware from the old sunchaser wouldn't be forward compatible with the new 8500 but everything fit up nicely.

    The new tube came with the roller springs already pre tension-ed. We ended up unrolling the awning to install it, if we had another ladder and a third set of hands we would have been able to install it without unrolling the awning. Got it hung, bolted, pull the cotter pins and boom, brand new awning smell. In total it took less than an hour and two beers to install.

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