brulaz wrote:
So if you can't retract the topper separately from the slide, what do you do when it gets really windy?
We often retract the patio awning at night cause of the noise it makes in the wind, and 'cause we're afraid the wind will pick up and rip it.
EDIT: thanks JJB for that info. Looks like that one also opens and retracts with the slide, but then you can extend it to shade the window. Nice design.
First off I'm not really convinced that slide out awning "flapping" is really that much of an issue and is one of those as I called it a rare occurrance. Remember unlike a normal awing generally 9' wide by 16 to 24' long the side awning is only 2 1/2 to a max of 4' wide and much shorter. First thing to do is to make sure you have the proper tension on your slide awning. Then on that very rare occurrance where this might actually become an issue you can mitigate it or eliminate it completely by either ...
1. Throwing a rope or better yet some web straps over the awning and basically tying the awning down in several places across the width of it.
2. Or you could do what is done for the main awning and buy a couple of the awning "deflapplers" that clamp to the edges of the awning and then instead of tensioning those to the awning arms tie them down to either the slide side or to a stake in the ground.
For either 1 or 2 above adding some sort of spring or bungee in the tie down so there is some "give/take or spring" in that would be a good idea and help damping the awing movement better.
With either of these you need to make sure that you don't needlessly chaff the sides or top of your slide with the ropes or tie downs. We camped for two plus weeks a year or so ago one block off the Atlantic Ocean at Kitty Hawk RV park in the outer banks and were 1 space in from the road that ran parallel to the beach and even when windy found the amount of "flapping" to be minimal and did not require any additional actions like in 1 or 2 above.
If I camped a lot where this was an issue I think I would get a couple of the regular heavy duty deflapper awning clamps and some rope, a couple of the screw in dog chain anchors, some rope and a couple of sections of the foam pipe insulation and rig that up using the foam ie insulation to prevent the rope from chaffing the slide. Even that could be prevented by putting a pole long enough under the rope on each side to raise it up so the rope doesn't contact the slide at all on the way to the ground anchor, but of course then you have to secure the pole. In any event I'm sure I could figure it out on the fly or at least with an iteration or two to come up with a system that I was happy with.
As mentioned a lot of folks that bring up this issue are just parroting what they have heard and blowing the actual issue way out of proportion. Sort of like the other observation in that folks that say they are not worth it are the ones too cheap to actually get them and have ZERO real experience with them or don't have them on their current trailer for reasons other that those they are saying are the issues.
Larry
