do you leave your awnings out?

[tomthyme]

Morning Folks! My wife and I enjoy getting out in our Cameo as often as we can. However, since we live in the DFW area I find myself a bit timid to leave my awnings out overnight. My main concern is that some unknown storm will come rolling through and rip these beautiful Carefree awnings right of the rig. However, I see many of my neighbors that leave their awnings out even in the rain - assuming there is no expectation for high winds.

What do you do? It would be nice to put them out, string some lights (which we have never done in 4 years) and not worry about it.

Thanks for the feedabck.
Tom

[Mootpoint]

If there's a wind or chance of one it's in.:p Rain?..It's out.:W

Where we go in the desert wind can be a problem so we have voluntary crews that go around, check and secure any where the owners are away.:E

Evening breezes generally mean all are in at night. You can almost set your watch by the sound of the ratcheting..:B

[FlatBroke]

MitchF150 wrote:
I've found if you pitch the awning too much, that's when it'll collect water if it rains hard enough. It creates more of a 'bowl' with the fabric when it's pitched too much.

I do everything that everyone has said so far.. Except tie it down.. I've never tied it down because if it's such that you need it tied down, it too much to have the awning out in the first place.

I've also left it out when leaving the site, but I'll lower the arms while still attached to the trailer so it's really low and with the flappers, seems to be able to take a lot of wind if it comes up suddenly..

Of course leaving it out anytime you are away is a risk.. It's up to you to determine your own risk/reward for doing so.. Sometimes I put it up, sometimes I leave it out, sometimes I lower the arms.. 🙂

Good luck!

Mitch

And there my friends is the Best kept awning secret. Can leave mine out like that in STRONG winds and it only takes seconds to do.

[FlatBroke]

jerem0621 wrote:
No I don't leave it out....anymore





Thanks!

Jeremiah

That happened to me once and I made the dumbest purchase ever. Replaced it with an electric. But I learned a valuable lesson and and tilt my now manual awning.

[MitchF150]

I've found if you pitch the awning too much, that's when it'll collect water if it rains hard enough. It creates more of a 'bowl' with the fabric when it's pitched too much.

I do everything that everyone has said so far.. Except tie it down.. I've never tied it down because if it's such that you need it tied down, it too much to have the awning out in the first place.

I've also left it out when leaving the site, but I'll lower the arms while still attached to the trailer so it's really low and with the flappers, seems to be able to take a lot of wind if it comes up suddenly..

Of course leaving it out anytime you are away is a risk.. It's up to you to determine your own risk/reward for doing so.. Sometimes I put it up, sometimes I leave it out, sometimes I lower the arms.. 🙂

Good luck!

Mitch

[jnharley]

We never leave ours unattended. Actually we rarely put the thing out. We are fulltimers and all the places we have been, we see very few awnings deployed. We just sit outside sans awning and if it rains, we are inside.

[korbe]

Most areas we camp in the wind seems to die down in the evening and throughout the night. So we leave it out. And if rain may become a factor, I will dip one corner down a bit before retiring for the night.

[pegdiver]

Left the awning out once in all our years of RVing - this summer it filled with water quickly. Not enough pitch, bent the tube and ripped the fabric.
Never again! note that it wasn't gusty or raining heavy until, all of a sudden, a squall hit! We were there.. looking out.. and it was too late.

[mileshuff]

Out whenever we are at the trailer and no high winds. In after bedtime or if we leave for the day. We made the mistake of leaving it out while gone and gusts flipped it back over the trailer causing significant damage to both.

Love sitting outside while it rains.

[mpfireman]

The man awning goes down when bad weather is forecast, but the slide awning we never worried about, UNTIL we were hit with a 60 plus MPH rain and wind last year. lost about 2 feet of that awning during the night. Still not sure if i will replace the slide with a new awning, the fiver is going on 17 years old. BUT Everything else still work fine.

[azdryheat]

It depends on my location and my experience with the local winds. At our local lake in AZ it is always windy and gusty so we rarely unroll them. At the beach in San Diego they stay out the entire time due to steady, non-gusting winds.

[Sprink-Fitter]

dbbls wrote:
I never leave the awning out when we leave or go to bed. I have got out of bed and went out in the rain too many times to put the awning up. Never again.

ChopperBill wrote:
What good is an awning if you can't leave it out in the rain?

That is what I was wondering also, we are at off road races in Wisconsin right now, if we put the awning up in the rain we couldn't be outside.

And we wash it with water so I know it can get wet.

[John___Angela]

Always in at night, during rain storms, when its windy or whenever we leave the site. It is a lot of trouble to put it away though, that button is real hard to push for 8 seconds. 11 years of full timing and still with the same awning.

[TXiceman]

In a light rain, I may leave the awning out, provided it is tied down. Normally I do not tie the awning down and it is really easy to roll them up. A few minutes to roll up an awning is a lot cheaper than repalcing and awning and repairing the trailer.

Ken

[FlatBroke]

What good is an awning if you can't leave it out in the rain?

[jerem0621]

No I don't leave it out....anymore





Thanks!

Jeremiah