Weatherpro Awning intermittent operation

[Ol'Joe]

Hi All,

I've given up on getting my Weatherpro Awning to work in the automatic mode. Four box and sensor changes was enough but now a new problem has started. In almost any kind of rain, when I attemp to close the awning it will only retract between 1/4 and 3/4 of a revolution and then stop. 30 seconds to a minute later I can restart it but again I get less than 1 revolution of the tube and it stops again. This goes on until it's about 2 feet from closed and then it goes all the way. So.... what is wrong, electrical? motor? weight(water)? Anyone got an idea? Thanks

[Elkhartjim]

I'm glad you asked the question cause I've had the same problem plus now the rear arm doesn't go all the way closed.

[Traveler52]

Either needs some major lubrication or the motor is shot and over heading, Tripping and overload in the control unit or motor. When it cools for a few minutes it will run until it gets hot again.

[Elkhartjim]

Mine did the same thing once about 6 months ago and has never done it again. I have never lubed it and can't seem to find any documentation regarding lubes. If the motor over heated......?????

[Dmiles]

NOW you tell me! My WeatherPro is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow!

[Ol'Joe]

Hi All,

Went up last night and wd40'd the heck out of every single joint and moveable part I could locate. Then I flooded the tube ends too. If it's a lubrication problem I fixed it. I looked closely to see if it was something bent or broken, looked for anyplace water might intrude or for broken wires. Nothing. I'll try it next time it rains. If there's no improvement then I'll start chasing a new motor. Thanks Gang, and Dmiles, my awning is 5 years old with an old style box and sensor. There has been improvements since then. You should not have the same problems. Good roads to all.

[Ol'Joe]

Hey Elkhartjim,

I forgot, I've had that same problen too. But..... it's an easy fix. Over time my fabric migrates toward the front of the tube and puts a kind of twist on the tube forcing the rear arm to close a little to the front of the frame. What I do is get on a ladder (carefully) push up on the center of the tube and then just pull the fabric back down the track a little. With a little trial and effort you'll find the "sweet spot" for the fabric. I marked it with a permanant sharpie and a couple of time a year I reset it. Good roads to ya!

[David and Fran]

We have had issues, just as you have described, in the past with ours also. We have replaced the motor and control panel, but usually notice that it won't work if we don't have good voltage on our batteries...which was a float level of below 13.1 volts. Finally, someone at the repair shop thought about tightening the spring on the awning. They wound it 4 turns and like magic the durn thing goes in like a champ!!! The service guy said that the reason the motor was cutting out was because it was having to work to hard to get the awning to retract. Guess so because it works and we are now happy!!!

[Dmiles]

I got mine installed, no small job seeing as they didn't send any installation instructions. I called them and they said they would email me the intructions. A few minutes later the email came, with the instructions to install the "rain dump kit." Sheeesh...

I gave up on ever getting instructions from this outfit, and my wife and I went ahead and installed ourselves, figuring out what to do as we went. We went camping last weekend, everything worked fine. I didn't get the fancy pants auto retract kit, I figure I carry the best controller for that on my shoulders. So far, we are very pleased, and it didn't cost nearly as much as I expected.

Seems like they are opening themselves up to liability sending out equipment like this with no installation instructions, and not even sending the proper instructions when you call them. That's not just stupid, it's downright negligent.

[Ol'Joe]

Hi All,
I've been off enjoying the long holiday weekend so haven't been on the forum for several days. To David and Fran, I think I feel a big "Duh" coming on. I would never have thought of putting a couple more turns on the spring. Where's my ladder?..... DMiles, I agree with you, the automatic dosen't work on anyone's rig that I know. We've all gone back to a more simple(?) method that's a lot more dependable. Thanks to all and good roads to 'ya.

[Minisprint]

How do you put more turns on the spring without taking the fabric out of the track

[Ol'Joe]

Hey Minisprint,

I just finished adding 3 more turns to the torsion spring on my awning. I searched around on the web, found and downloaded a trouble shooting guide for the weatherpro awning at this place: http://www.janeandjohn.org/pages/docs/AwningManual.pdf
After looking it over I figured I could do this myself. BE CAREFUL!!!! Where the manual says to put a cotter pin the tube to keep the spring from unwinding, DO IT or the connector spins out of control when its disconnected from the roller tube (a single 7/16" bolt) and can cause serious damage to your hand. OUCH! that hurt. Anyway, I attached a pair of vice grips as illistrated in the manual to the connector and rewound the torsion spring to 12 turns, pinned the roller and reconnected it to the arm. 12 turns was all I could put on it considering; I was standing on a 12' ladder. I had the disconnected left side of the roller tube resting on my shoulder. I was holding the disconnected left side arm in the one hand and attaching the vice grips to and winding the connector with the other. It then occured to me that a few things would have made this a safer and better operation. 1. Get some help! 2. Put a strap around the mostly closed awning arm so it dosen't fully extend on the gas strut and take off. 3. Only attempt to do this repair with the awning extended to just past the metal covering. 4. Did I mention GET SOME HELP? 5. When anything is spring loaded follow instructions to the letter. (this morrning the swelling is down considerably). Its all back together and suprisingly works. Now we'll wait for the rain and see if it improves its operation. If not WE'LL (remember, get some help?) try to get a couple more turns on it. Good Roads to you.

[DavidC1225]

I was having exactly the same problem and found that the motor was overheating and cutting out. I replaced the motor and that fixed the problem. However, the retraction rate is slow, so I am going to put more turns on the spring. Thanks David and Fran.

[Dmiles]

Joe - I know what you are saying, I learned the hard way about the spring with my old awning. We were in Cincinnati and went to a Reds baseball game. I knew there was a probability of rain, and there was a rain delay for the start of the game. But there was no wind to speak of, and we didn't notice any high wind while we were at the Great American Ball Park.

When we returned to camp, we found the wind had pulled the care free awning arms apart, and blew the awning and roller up over the top of our motorhome. I climbed up and started removing the arms from the roller, not thinking about the spring tension. While I was taking the arm off of one side, the end of the roller started unwinding and slammed my hand to the roof of the MH as the wrench came out of my hand. No major injuries, my hand was a little numb and my ego was bruised a bit.

We camped every summer while I was growing up. I can never remember my dad routinely rolling up the awning every time we left camp, but you can bet your bottom dollar that from now on, when we will be away for any amout of time, we will be rolling that awning up!

By the way the story isin't really as bad as it sounds...we knew the awning was going to need to be replaced when we bought the RV used. It had already started to rip on the right hand side where it went into the track on the RV. The rip was slowly getting worse, and the years of mildew had taken its toll on the awning. I had already just earlier that day bought some heavy duty, weatherproof duct tape, but I really didn't want to have an awning with duct tape on it.

Don't tell the DW, but I was secretly glad it happened. No one was hurt, and there was no other damage to the RV.