Just bought our second RV. The first we had for 7 years with a manual awning... it suffered a 8 inch tear from a windy day, not stormy...
The new RV (Forest River Salem Cruise Lite) has an electric awning. OMG, I would never go back to manual. After years of owning a manual, the ease of pressing a button to make the electric come out (even has a remote control for times when Im too lazy to press the button) is awesome. BTW... We only paid 16k for our new 32' camper with electric everything... cant believe that these awnings go for 1k. wow!