I recently gave these directions to someone else on the RV Net, and he wrote me back and thanked me, as he said he was done in an hour. This is how I helped my neighbor replace two awnings. You will need two helpers. Flip "open catch" and pull awning out about 2 or 3 inches. Unhook bottom end of legs and drop leg to ground using extension legs to take weight of awning. Unbolt top bolts to trailer and take out screw that keeps awning in place from sliding back and forth. Get one person on each end of awning and slide it out of track. Lay awning on ground and place a block of wood or a pail under each end near tube. DO NOT TRY TO TAKE AWNING ARMS OFF ENDS OF SHAFT.KEEPING IT ATTCHED KEEPS SPRINGS FROM UNWINDING. Unwrap fabric from tube. Drill out pop rivets at rear, non-catch end of tube. Slide end cap off tube 2 or 3 inches to allow clearance to slide fabric off.(DO NOT PULL ALL THE WAY OUT AS SPRING WILL UNWIND. SPRING IS ABOUT 18 INCHES LONG.) Slide new fabric on, and re wrap fabric. Slide end cap in place and pop rivet. Get one person at each end of awning support, and have third on ladder to guide awning into rail. Once awning is in place, bolt to trailer, center fabric between supports and install screw. Lift legs in to lower catches. Flip ratchet lock and awning will close. This way you do not have to deal with springs.
For Fisher guy:
If you released the catch to pull the awning off, the awning springs would UNWIND completely, and there would be no tension on the awning. Most awnings have 6 to 8 turns of tension on them when they are in the rolled up position. You would be putting more tension on the springs to try and pull the fabric off. You could never pull the fabric off.
Fabric is wrapped bout 7 or 8 times, and it is quite easy to unwrap and rewrap the new fabric.
Dr Quick
