Community Forums

bdpreece · 07-20-2013, 09:48 AM

We have had our coach for a little over 2 years now and although aware of the issue of the awning drive cap rounding out I had never checked to see if our coach was affected or not

. While driving down the Oregon coast highway Thursday our Carefree Eclipse awing extended completely open. Luckily I was going slow there were no trees along the edge of the road and I was able to pull off immediately. The tricky part was trying to manually roll it up in the wind while the coach was tilted at a large angle since the road apron and ground sloped big time. We were extremely fortunate that two RV'rs were passing by in a car and stopped to help. I did not get their names but someone upstairs was watching out for us and knows who they are. They provided help, straps, and moral support and would not accept any money. "Pay It Forward" was all they said.

If you have a Carefree Eclipse awning manufactured around 08 take the time to remove the plastic end cap and check to see if your motor shaft only has one flat side. When the end cap rounds out there is nothing to keep the awning in and it will just extend as mine did. Carefree is being very good about this and has agreed to send me all the repair parts under warranty as soon as we get back home.

luckyd · 07-20-2013, 11:08 AM

awninglock.com-index.shtml

These are great locks. Work on A/E, and Carefree.

kketterling · 07-20-2013, 11:11 AM

You were lucky. When you get the repair parts recommend you pin it to avoid it rounding out again. If this were to happen again and you couldn't get repairs parts quick I believe you can use the end cap from the other end as they are identical.

bdpreece · 07-20-2013, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luckyd

awninglock.com-index.shtml

These are great locks. Work on A/E, and Carefree.

I will be calling them when they return from vacation but from the web site it looks like they only have Carefree manual locks and the Eclipse is a power awning.

bdpreece · 07-20-2013, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kketterling

You were lucky. When you get the repair parts recommend you pin it to avoid it rounding out again. If this were to happen again and you couldn't get repairs parts quick I believe you can use the end cap from the other end as they are identical.

Never thought to look at the other end cap. When we got to our campground I lined up the flat on the end cap with the flat on the shaft and drove a shim in to hold it in place.

sdennislee · 07-20-2013, 10:31 PM

Same thing happened to me in high winds driving through SD. COst the insurance company $4,000.00 to replace the awning and arms.

DennisZ · 07-21-2013, 08:31 AM

Brian
Same thing happened to me about a year ago, I got the awning repaired under warranty. The new assembly has 2 flats that will keep that from happening again. Another fix is to drill the cap and shaft and put a roll pin thru it. 1 week after I had the main awning repaired, the over the door awning failed in the same manner, that required another warranty repair. Drifter had the same issue with his, but he came up with a fix using a motor pulley, it's kind of expensive if you need to order the whole motor assembly from Carefree.

Good Luck
Dennis

bdpreece · 07-30-2013, 10:05 AM

Received the new parts from Carefree Saturday and installed on Monday. Installation was very easy except for needing two eight ft ladders. All is good.