Awning tie downs straps

I built a set out of PVC from the Wildcat forum and have had the awning out when the wind was blowing over 35 mph and not had a problem. With the pvc poles there is no movement with the awning at all. When we were in Pinetop Az the awning would go out the day we got there and come back in the day before we left. 4.5 months.

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I like support poles AND tie downs:

http://learntorv.com/power-awning-support-poles/

But there's controversy no matter what you do. I've personally had my awning out (supported + tied down) in up to 35mph winds. I didn't like having it out up over 25mph but I missed my window of opportunity for bringing it in safely.

If the wind is strong enough to worry about tie-downs, I would roll it up and not worry about it. When we leave the trailer for any length of time, we roll it up. If the weather forecast is questionable, we roll it up.
We have a manual awning but it still only takes about 2 minutes to get the awning rolled and out of danger. When in doubt, roll it up and don't worry, be happy.

We've got a BUS with 2 Paramount two stage electric awnings and I'll give you our experience. Each is very large and has a wind sensor on it that can be set to retract the awning in varying amounts of wind. Since we fish in Valdez, Alaska we see a lot of rain. Depending on the forecast we may want to leave the awnings out so we throw a rope over each end and tie it down to a 5 gal bucket filled with rocks and water. If we go that way, we have to be careful to deactivate the auto-retract function as these awnings will lift 2 5gal pails of rocks and water right off the ground if they get a retract call. Been there, done that, no damage as I got to the switch fast. If you have a manual awning with a spring on one end to aid in shedding water, Tying the awnings will work in light to moderate wind, but if you catch a good blow, you lost the awning. Sort of a coin flip, especially if you're going to be away from the rig when a storm blows up.

You mean tie down when out, or travelling?