Community Forums

CampingInADK · 03-23-2019, 06:26 AM

They say the camping season is right around the corner. Don't know which corner but I'm sure it's one of them. Closing up camp last fall I went to retract the awning and again it failed to work. Just a click at the motor. I went through the typical troubleshooting steps. 12 volts at motor with DW operating the switch. motor clicks. I put a new motor on at the start of camping season last year. Everything worked great. This will be the 3rd motor. We have a seasonal site at a campground and the awning is left out most of the summer so there are but a few operations with it during the summer. So I think to myself, what is the difference, out or in ? why would it fail ? I know believe that the product is just garbage. This is our first camper with a powered awning. All others were manual awnings. Never had any issues with them. Has anyone else had issues with this type of awning ? Thanks

bruceisla · 03-23-2019, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CampingInADK

They say the camping season is right around the corner. Don't know which corner but I'm sure it's one of them. Closing up camp last fall I went to retract the awning and again it failed to work. Just a click at the motor. I went through the typical troubleshooting steps. 12 volts at motor with DW operating the switch. motor clicks. I put a new motor on at the start of camping season last year. Everything worked great. This will be the 3rd motor. We have a seasonal site at a campground and the awning is left out most of the summer so there are but a few operations with it during the summer. So I think to myself, what is the difference, out or in ? why would it fail ? I know believe that the product is just garbage. This is our first camper with a powered awning. All others were manual awnings. Never had any issues with them. Has anyone else had issues with this type of awning ? Thanks

Not specifically Dometic but I've had issues with water intrusion on older Carefree motors.

Bob_C · 03-23-2019, 06:50 AM

Had 1 motor go bad.....found a plastic brush holder broken off.....no problems since...and it gets used quite a bit...

keymastr · 03-23-2019, 08:20 PM

I am thinking with just one use per summer that perhaps your hinge points and roller tube may be stiff enough that it can't move them.

I love my electric awning and use it frequently but if I was going to leave it out all year I would get a manual one.

How do you keep it from getting damaged in the wind? Is it tilted to allow water to run off?

Bob_C · 03-23-2019, 09:20 PM

With my awning, I use self storing telescopic awning poles, self storing de-flapper poles, 2 Camco de-flappers per end, ratchet straps, and The Claw for ground anchors....it also stays out till when hits 30 mph or so...and the awning poles are height adjustable for rain run off....

CampingInADK · 03-24-2019, 04:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keymastr

I am thinking with just one use per summer that perhaps your hinge points and roller tube may be stiff enough that it can't move them.

I love my electric awning and use it frequently but if I was going to leave it out all year I would get a manual one.

How do you keep it from getting damaged in the wind? Is it tilted to allow water to run off?

I thought of that but before leaving one Sunday and it didn't work, I had to remove the screws in the motor end cap and roll it up to the camper. I then held it in place with a long zip tie. It manually rolled up easily.

CampingInADK · 03-24-2019, 05:00 AM

Update! I took the original (OEM) motor apart to see what caused that to fail. It has a brake and when you activate the awning motor the brake coil also energizes allowing the brake to release and awning does what you want it to do. The coil meters out at .2 ohms but it doesn't allow the motor to operate. I removed the brake coil and the motor runs fine. I can not find anywhere online that mentions parts for this motor assy. This looks like a 20-50 dollar coil and they sell this whole drive assy for $350. What's wrong here?