Can I use an Automatic awning with tie downs?

[rv rick]

We spend the winter in Florida and have always tied the awning down with ground straps and a side shade mounted in the awning roller while we were parked long term.

We now have a motorcoach with an A&E automatic awning and while I really like the automatic aspect, I was wondering if you can still tie it down (after turning off the automatic wind sensor) and use the side shade the way I did with the old manual awning. Anyone done this?

Thanks

[rv rick]

We spend the winter in Florida and have always tied the awning down with ground straps and a side shade mounted in the awning roller while we were parked long term.

We now have a motorcoach with an A&E automatic awning and while I really like the automatic aspect, I was wondering if you can still tie it down (after turning off the automatic wind sensor) and use the side shade the way I did with the old manual awning. Anyone done this?

Thanks

[RV Wizard]

Rick, you should be able to do as you have done, iF the wind sensor auto roll up is disabled. You will still want to manually retract it in high winds and have it pitched well in the rain.

[paz]

Rick, we have a screen that we use with our automatic A&E awning on occasion. As you say, you MUST disable the automatic retract feature when you do this. If the awning tried to retract while tied down, it would probably burn out the motor or possibly strip the drive gear. Disabling the wind sensor leaves the awning vulnerable to unexpected winds. For that reason, we rarely use our screen, and then only when we are present.

[Duner]

A word of caution regarding tying down the A&E Weather Pro....
We camp a lot at the sand dunes in the windy desert. I tell folks that if the wind didn't blow here, there wouldn't be any dunes to play in.
Anyway, my coach is almost 4 yrs old now and from the beginning I disabled the wind sensor, & used tie downs. The triangulation works great and no need for the de-flappers like I used for years on the manual A&E.

BUT ... after about a year I noticed the fabric was pulling out of both ends where it attaches to the aluminum wrap-around cover. I had to insert a piece of black #10 wire (about 4" long) inside the fabric loop. That fix has done the trick to keep it in place. But I no longer put very much tension on the tie downs and now 3 more years have past I haven't had any more troubles. In the desert the wind is to unpredictable so if we all leave, the awning goes in. If we're in a breezy cg with trees & some wind protection, we keep it anchored down the all the time. Whether I use tie downs also depends on how hot it is. If it's really hot and windy, I use tie downs. With our dark colors, the shade in the afternoon is critical to help the a/c keep up.

Moral of the story, ....just don't anchor down to hard, use as little tension as neccessary.

Happy Trails,
Duner

[SCVJeff]

I would be very careful about tieing down a postless automatic awning. When you tie off a posted manual awning you're working on applying downward force on the 2 posts at the end of the awning, and they are taking on significant weight from the straps (referring to the posts anchored vertical in the ground).

On the automatic awnings, the entire static weight of the awning plus the additional downward force of the straps, and weather are introduced on a pair of boom hinges, the mounting of the awning to the motorhome, and whatever the awning is screwed into. Because there are no posts, this weight changes from shear weight to leveraged weight. Not good!

Bottom line: IMO it's a very dangerous thing to do.