dumping water off awning

[Cajunbulldog]

When we picked up our new TT it was drizzling. the wife had a whole suburban load to unload in it. So we put out the awning so we wouldn't get her truck and everything wet. We went inside and not 15 minutes later we hear the awning crash. yep the arms were bent and twisted all to hell. in the first 3 hour we owned it the thing collapsed. Now just hours before at the dealership the dealer made sure that he pointed out the fact that the awning "auto dumps" water off of it…… Hence I wasn't too worried about leaving it up in the Drizzle……. Has anyone else had this issue….. and was I a Dumb@ss for leaving it open in the drizzle….. But!! the dealer had all new parts over nighted and will have it up and running tomorrow, so Good on them for that.

Again first trailer, don't have a clue what I'm doing when it comes to RVs.

[rgolding]

Just to give you something to think about. We have a long awning on our Arctic Fox 30U. Its electric and if flat will dump water when too much gets in it.

We have always read, never tie it down. Went to Florida and found awnings tied down all over the place.

So made up two wooden paint extension poles with forked hooks on one end, the forked hooks are the ones that holds stuff screwed in to a wall and covered with vinyl, these are yellow. Poles are yellow, also.

The back end of the awning is by the back main door and needs to be high, so door opens without scraping underside of awning. Extended the pole out and pulled tight with a nylon line pegged to the ground. The front end, I lowered it all the way down and adjusted that pole to the length and also stacked it down. Stayed that way through a number of wind blows and lots of rain. Even added a sun screen that ran in the extrusion track and pegged it down to give us more shade.

If staying in one spot, we will even roll up the sunshade in the awning, don't usually travel that way, unless a short slow distance.

Yes, I have run with scissors, fired a BB gun many times without shooting my eye out and I come from a generation that even sucked on the end of a hose to get gasoline out of a tank. Some people need to provide experience for surgeons to be able to learn to set broken bones and you don't learn how to stitch up a wound out of a book...

[trsky]

camperforlife wrote:
I always leave one side of the awning a little lower than the other so pooling is never an issue.

Same here

[GaryWT]

Like some have said, weird that drizzle caused this, must have been a defect and it is good the dealer is taking care of it.

I love my awning, love that it is electric, glad the auto dump works but I do lower one side at times. Sometimes I lower one side just to keep the water flowing to one side or the other. We have chairs and the picnic table set up plus we leave the door open so if we need to close the awning, we have stuff that needs to be put away which can be a pain.

Good luck and enjoy.

[LarryJM]

spike99 wrote:

Larry wrote:
...I have to put a center support under mine to keep the tube absolutely straight. ..... Larry

Just my point.... Awnings cannot take wind and rain weight. Thus, a centre post (vertical and/or horizontal) to make them better. Awnings are a very fragile design.

Again all I can say is I haven't found my awning fragile at all and the issue I mentioned only happens with the max length awnings and is a well know limitation. My last trailer had a 16' awning and there there was not issue and I only use the center support as I said to make the tube "ABSOLUTELY STRAIGHT" since I'm sort of a detail freek anyway. IMO it's now so much about how fragile the awning is, but making sure it's properly tensioned so there is minimum to no flapping. For that I have a couple of the awning deflappers (seldom use them) and use tube tensioning straps in addition to making sure the support arms don't have any slack in them. Rain weight should never be an issue if you put enough tilt on one end of the awning and here I'm not talking about a couple of inches, but like 1 1/2 FEET down on one side. With the kind of tilt there is absolutely NO WAY any water is going to collect on an awning.

Larry

[camperforlife]

TxTwoSome wrote:

camperforlife wrote:
I always leave one side of the awning a little lower than the other so pooing is never an issue.

Why do you put your stinky slinky on the awning?

Now that's funny! I never noticed the typo, so much for late night posting.:B

[ashnic]

pappcam wrote:
My power awning has the auto-dump feature and it works great although I usually tilt one side lower in the rain so I can direct the runoff a little better.

X2

[pappcam]

My power awning has the auto-dump feature and it works great although I usually tilt one side lower in the rain so I can direct the runoff a little better.

[amandasgramma]

I disagree with others (as usual) Awnings CAN take wind.....if the wind isn't coming from a direction that causes it to blow away. 🙂 🙂

As for your awning, OPer.....3 hours since you were told it would not be bothered by rain, and it was only drizzling.......it collapses. I'd have hooked that baby up and taken it back to the dealer right then. yes, something was wrong......something mechanical. I can't see that YOU did anything wrong.... An electric awning...you just push a button. NOT your mistake!!!!!

As for the one that says they'd never have an awning. 🙂 Our friends lost their awning last summer. Thought they'd come to AZ....Yuma. The park put them in a space where the patio/front door is on the south side. Yeah, you can bet they'll have an awning come next winter. 🙂

[spike99]

Larry wrote:
...I have to put a center support under mine to keep the tube absolutely straight. ..... Larry

Just my point.... Awnings cannot take wind and rain weight. Thus, a centre post (vertical and/or horizontal) to make them better. Awnings are a very fragile design.

[Mark_and_Linda]

Don't feel bad, many have been through this. I had my awning out, had it lowered but not tilted. I had to make a run, partly cloudy skies when I left. When I came back into the campground I noticed there had been a flood of water that had came down....200 yards away I noticed my awning. It had about 50 gallons of water puddled up on top with my rod bent in the middle. I dumped the water, front support rod was broken also. I was worried about the cost...then I thought...hey, I have insurance. It was replaced with no cost to me...moral...tilt to one end and if I am going to be gone..roll up the awning. If you have a manual awning be sure to keep a check on the pull in middle...mine broke coming down.

[the_happiestcam]

I've always left one side lower - but during a severe downpour a few years back, it collected a ton of water, which caused the crossbar to bend. That is now actually a good design - I don't roll it out the last few inches, so the crossbar is bowed down - it never collects water anymore.

[Steeljag]

Sorry to hear about your damaged awning.

Going on five years with our auto awning without issue. The auto dump feature works great so I don't worry about heavy rains. Living here in central fl, I've spent numerous afternoons sitting under that awning sipping a cold one during a typical / tropical afternoon down pour.

With the auto awning you still have the option to lower and lock down a side if you choose to.

I cannot imagine having a unit without an awning!

[TxTwoSome]

camperforlife wrote:
I always leave one side of the awning a little lower than the other so pooing is never an issue.

Why do you put your stinky slinky on the awning?

[Mr__Camper]

camperforlife wrote:
I always leave one side of the awning a little lower than the other so pooing is never an issue.

Exactly