Community Forums

Retired and Happy · 06-28-2014, 04:42 PM

Yesterday my main electric awning caught enough water that I had to push the fabric up to dump it. Apparently either the spring loaded dump feature didn't work or the MH was on enough of a slope that it wasn't effective. I am now considering adding Awnbrella bows to prevent this from recurring.

The problem lies in the galley slide with topper that sits just about where I need to mount the anchors. There appears to be a small space (3-4 inches) for the Awnbrella mounts between the topper and awning mounting locations, but the mounts would be on the rounded edge of the roof. Does anyone see a problem with installing the mounts there? I'm not sure what the substructure is, but part of the main awning seems to be mounted on this rounded edge.

Second Problem or concern. Where to space the bows and how many do I need? I have a 19 foot awning, and have considered spacing two bows 6 feet apart and centered on the centerline of the awning, with 6.5 feet to each edge of the awning. If I use three bows, they could be spaced 4.5 feet apart with 5 feet to each edge of the awning.

paz · 06-29-2014, 08:39 AM

What we do to prevent water from accumulating in our electric awning is to not unroll it all the way. When you unroll it all the way, the roller tube creates a dam all along the outer edge so the only way for water to get off is at the end.

If you unroll the awning so the roller tube is about 1/2 turn shy of being completely unrolled, the fabric will be even with the top of the tube so water will roll right down the awning and off the outer edge instead of having to rely on the spring dip the rear arm to allow water to run off the back.

If you can get this method to work for you, you can save the expense of the awning bows and the hassle of finding a place to store them.

Retired and Happy · 06-29-2014, 09:30 AM

Thanks Paz. We'll try that. Rain expected again today...and every day for the next week or so.

Retired and Happy · 06-29-2014, 10:45 PM

That did not work. The fabric is stretched behind the roller, and when I move the roller in a partial turn, the awning is flat...except for the dip in the stretched fabric. There is no slant toward the roller. Not sure Awnbrellas will work, as they might raise the awning above the roof level.

mohamer · 06-30-2014, 01:14 AM

I have a manual awning, when it rains I tilt the awning quit a bit to one end.
Don't know if you can do that with your awning.??

paz · 06-30-2014, 05:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retired and Happy

That did not work. The fabric is stretched behind the roller, and when I move the roller in a partial turn, the awning is flat...except for the dip in the stretched fabric. There is no slant toward the roller. Not sure Awnbrellas will work, as they might raise the awning above the roof level.

Unfortunately, not quite unrolling all the way only works if there is enough slope so the water runs off. Since yours is almost flat and it sounds like the fabric is already stretched, you are probably always going to have a problem.

Unfortunately, you can't tilt a power awning like you can a manual one. Even though partially unrolling works on our setup, incomplete water runoff is always a potential problem. Therefore, we always roll ours up at the first sign of rain as well as any time we leave the campground even if there is no rain in the forecast. Wind is a big problem for power awnings, too. Even though ours has a wind sensor (some don't), it was never reliable from day 1.

JohnBoyToo · 06-30-2014, 06:09 AM

On some power awnings you can tilt them - at least on our last two rv's you could

what mfg and model of awning do you have ?

our current one is a carefree 9100 (IIRC)
and has push buttons on the lower awning arms that allow up to 6 inches or so of adjustment...
so we unrolled a bit, pushed up on the lower arm to relieve tension, pushed in the buttons on each side, and slid until one side of ours is 3" lower than the other - which is the max you can do and still roll and unroll it without resetting...

Retired and Happy · 06-30-2014, 09:43 AM

Mine is an A&E. I'll have to read up and see if there is a drop option for one end. All I know of so far is the spring l;oaded slide at the rear that allows the corner to drop a little after water catches and adds weight. It doesn't seem to do much good if the fabric is stretched in the middle where water pools before the rear can drop. I'll check on the reset drop on one arm.