Carefree Awning - Problems

[jyjcbs]

Carefree Freedom is a total POS. 2019 and has been in shop 4 times due to awning. I would not buy an RV with this awning on it no matter what.

[chickie]

Have the same troubles. Has anyone put a different awning on their coach? Have been giving this some thought about going to a different style awning. One with more support and tie down capabilities

[twc88]

I have been watching this thread from the beginning. And I can say I had some issues with awning opening till I made some adjustments following carefree directions, ever since I have had no issues at all. But can tell previous owner had it worked on several times and it made banging noises opening and closing which it does not do anymore.

With this said i personally find these awning somewhat useless, They are way to flat and give little shade unless sun is high in the sky. Plus with the lack of pitch they pool water when raining , so must be retracted. I can't give it any more pitch or it hits the slide-out awning as it goes over the top of it. Renegade should have put dual stage awnings on these rigs to start with.


tom

[NEWATBCLASS]

I am a little late to this party, but the question I have is "Are Leisure Travel Vans listening" We purchased a new Unity 24MB in 2016 with the infamous "Carefree" Freedom Wall Mount Awning. Nothing could have been more inappropriately named and its high time LTV woke up to the fact that this is probably the worst component they outsource......This awning is so weakly engineered and frail in all regards that its failure is inevitable.......Constantly jamming, burning out motors, shorting out wiring, failing LED's, tearing canopy.....We have gone through a motor each year and replaced end caps, mounts, and rewired the entire unit to avoid wires getting crimped, and as a last resort we have now purchased the geared mechanical inner end cap and crank with a view to convert it to 100% manual operation when the next motor gives up........hopefully a long term solution, but if not its gone for good in favor of an alternate manufacturer that engineers a robust product. I would never by an RV with this product again unless it is entirely reconfigured, and that doesn't seem to be likely.

[Msmoto]

My LTV has the Carefree and it occasionally will not extend. But by hitting it with my fist it seems to be able to get free of the parked position and work fine. I put a touch of synthetic grease on the places it rests when closed in hopes it will not stick. We’ll see... headed to Florida in about a week.

About all I use it for is when in hot weather the morning sun is coming up on the curb side, seems to keep coach cooler.

Incidentally, I think almost all the awnings that are powered have their issues. But most of the awning factories will do their best at getting things fixed.

[twc88]

Msmoto
The problem you discrbe is an adjustment of the outer rail. It needs to rotate it a bit so the rail will not drop behind the pins on the end so far. Read and understand the adjustment procedures first.

These awning open by spring tension and if it drops behind those end pins to far they need a nudge to open.

Tom C

[rmazone]

We have a 2016 Allegro Bus with a Carefree awning on the patio side and it hasn't looked right since the first day we opened it. Been to Northtrail (our dealer), Lazy Days here in CO and of course Red Bay. No fixes. It sags on the ends (front and back) since the day we opened it a month after we made the purchase. Still sags and collects rain water. Sags so much that a gust of wind blew the back over itself in Feb this year. What a wonderful experience closing the awning after that. A Girard replacement if $4K.
I wonder if a class action threat would get us some awning that work?

[Doug Darby]

Since we bought our 2019 Verona CareFree of Colorado has invested a bunch of $ trying to get it to deploy and retract reliably. I had about 6 months where it did function but as others point out, at 90° from the side and 12’ in the air it offers almost no shade value. We have had enough and are having it replaced with a Girard Nova 2. Not cheap but less that buying a new coach.

[jyjcbs]

Took it to an authorized carefree service center because awning would
not stow. Have heard horror story's of these ripping off RV's at highway
speeds. When I picked it up, this is what they told me was normal.
Carefree was zero help, even after their so called authorized service
technicians had no idea how to fix issues with these awnings. Fortunately
for me, Fleetwood had them put on a new awning and so far so good.
Fleetwood customer service along with their Decatur service center, has
been nothing short of excellent. Carefree, pathetic.

[R1200gsa]

Went to operate the awning today, as you can imagine I could hear the motor operate too full extension with motor stopping as if it hit its open limit, pushed the retract button and responded as if hitting the closed limit switch. The problem was is that the Awning itself was not extending. After reading the posts maybe that’s been a good thing.
Should have qualified what I have. Purchased used 4/2019 Verona LE . Will the 6 degree fix the issue?

[Mgtv53]

Originally Posted by Msmoto

I am hoping the Carefree on my new LTV will be easily overridden manually, and if not, I may have to have someone engineer this so as to make certain I do not get caught up in having it deployed and not being able to retract it.

Also, I tend to agree, a manual awning as were installed on several Airstreams in my past were essentially trouble free, IMO.

*I have LTV UNITY and will not retract check your manual I retract it manually you need step latter