Community Forums

fansill · 07-08-2011, 07:42 AM

Good Morning Friends,

While we absolutely love our new "Big Baby"..., hubby thinks that the Carefree electric awning does not give enough shade because it is located over a curbside slide. That was one of the issues that we discussed prior to purchasing this coach. We were worried that a curb-side slide would limit our outdoor space. We love our coach and love the interior room but miss the full patio space and shade of a lower manual awning. We also miss the option of mening able to tie a manual awnig down for more stability in winds and the option of tipping it down to allow rain run off.

Has anyone ever installed an aftermarket awning to the side of the slide? Is the slide wall strong enough? And are we going to run into any other possible problems by doing this?

Any and all opinions are welcome.

Thanks

Faith

mccsix · 07-08-2011, 09:38 AM

I know what you mean. Don't know about put another awning up, but isn't your existing awning adjustable? Mine has some pivot points on ea arm that will lower the awning a little. Ck your awning manual and look for some adj holes on the arms.

jcthorne · 07-08-2011, 12:17 PM

I have the same problem. Looked into the structure of the slide and decided not to do it. Just a sacrifice for the floorplan we love. We have actually thought about adding an awning on the street (driver) side of the coach......The rail is already there.

WheelingIt · 07-08-2011, 04:07 PM

It's the way ours works too. We've lowered the arms and that helps some. A cheap and easy modification is to add shade material to the front. Something that looks like this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003GE...353046-1562929

Seen tons of RVs with this and it significantly enlarges the shade area. Lots of places sell them or you can buy shade material and make your own.

Cat320 · 07-10-2011, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fansill

Good Morning Friends,

While we absolutely love our new "Big Baby"..., hubby thinks that the Carefree electric awning does not give enough shade because it is located over a curbside slide. That was one of the issues that we discussed prior to purchasing this coach. We were worried that a curb-side slide would limit our outdoor space. We love our coach and love the interior room but miss the full patio space and shade of a lower manual awning. We also miss the option of mening able to tie a manual awnig down for more stability in winds and the option of tipping it down to allow rain run off.

Has anyone ever installed an aftermarket awning to the side of the slide? Is the slide wall strong enough? And are we going to run into any other possible problems by doing this?

Any and all opinions are welcome.

Thanks

Faith

Our awning is in the same place and is about worthless...it's almost horizontal! I have seen other units with the awning on the slide, seems to me that's where they should put it.

alvinc · 07-11-2011, 11:10 AM

Another consideration of mounting an awning on the slide out: weight.

Can the slide out handle the additional weight of the awning? Not to mention the torque that will twist the slide out around as the wind blows the awning around. This may be the reason the manufacturers don't put awning on slides.

I can imagine a slide out design that is held in place by weight and would not take kindly to be lifted and twisted.

mccsix · 07-11-2011, 12:33 PM

Bingo Alvin I think you nailed it. As much trouble as slideouts can get into, adding the the awning and its wind/weight problems would drive the engineers up a wall.