Catastrophic Awning Failure

Karl

Member

January 28, 2016 at 2:48 pm

Rudy I don’t think the new stretcher arms will fit on a XL coach

The arms are your existing arms. They are remove from the axle at the top and turned 180 degrees. The top piece with eye for the axle is replaced with a mount that is screwed to the coach. The bottom hook goes right where it has always been.

If your arms are curve, then the arm is not rotated but the hook is removed and rotated. So if arms fit now, they will fit with the kit.

Makes working the awning easy and faster.

June

Member

January 28, 2016 at 4:52 pm

I think you made a wise decision not to trust the wind sensor. They will probably repeat probably do what they are designed to do but by then it may be too late! All it will take is one major gust and your awning is kaput, while the sensor is still responding by trying to roll-up the awning. The sensor or better said, the motor can simply not respond fast enough to avoid causing major and very costly damage to your awnings.

I was one of the guys who left awnings out even when I went away for a couple of hours I got scolded about this a couple of times by Rick May at Parliament, who warned me to not do this if I would not plan on spending major bucks at their facility.

The one time I was present to watch a wind gust in action, it happened so fast, that I could simply not react fast enough grabbing the remote control. The gust was so sudden and strong that the sensor did not even register it! I watched the awning arms swinging wildly up and down and sideways while the motor rolled the awnings in.

I was very very lucky that time and escaped with no damages.

Now, even if I just go away for a few minutes, I roll-up the awnings. It is a minor effort which saves a huge bundle of money.

Cheers,

Ronald

Archived

Member

January 28, 2016 at 5:01 pm

prompts me to wonder about those clip-on lines many people use to secure their awnings to the ground to avoid from happening what I just wrote about. Aside from the fact, that some of our awnings do not really have a spot where you could attach a clip, I wonder if these things are worth buying or whether it is just false security.

I would also like to add that “shit happens” and whether or not you are present during one of these gust events does not matter much because your response time will just not be fast enough. I decided to roll-up awnings when there is a slight chance of gusty winds and or whenever I am going away.

Ronald

Walter

Member

January 28, 2016 at 5:14 pm

We had an awning ripped from the coach while we were sitting inside on a sunny previously windy day.

The wind came in the form of a sudden burst, no warning and it did a lot of damage to ours and a couple of other coaches. It first ripped the arms from the lower attachment points, and the diagonal support on the forward end was jammed up between the roof and the air horns. I couldn’t get out of the coach before the whole thing was over. When I got outside four guys walking by were hanging on the awning trying to keep it from beating the coach to death.

We got it rolled up, arms removed and lashed to the roof with wire coat hangars and anything else I could find to secure it until we got to ZipDee from Colorado Springs.

My point is it can happen before anyone can react so depending on an auto retraction system can result in damage to the coach because the roll up time is far greater than the few seconds it took for our awning to be ripped from the coach. The cantilevered armless awnings which we have now are rarely deployed unless we are sitting right there and the winds are non existent. I am afraid if we encountered similar winds to our incdent structural damage would result.

Greg

Member

January 28, 2016 at 6:13 pm

The purpose and result of the Strecher Arm Kit is to make depolying and stowing the awning easy and fast. I can put my awning up while Carolyn is getting herself ready to go. Just does not take long and easy for this light weight short legged fella.

If I am not home, the patio awning is stowed.

Archived

Member

January 28, 2016 at 8:09 pm

Rudy I had a XL coach with a manual awning with the stretcher arms that hooked up on top it was not the hard to do but took some practice, when I called Zip Dee and asked about the new stretcher arms they said it would not fit a XL coach. Rudy I am talking about the arms that have a hook on them with spring and they hook to a plate on the roof. I hope we talking about the same thing

Archived

Member

January 28, 2016 at 8:42 pm

Peter,

Zip Dee did my streacher arm reversal just before they quit servicing awnings. Originally, the hook rested on the awning arm when stowed and the other end had an eye fitting that was on the axle of the awning. When depolyed, the eye end came down with the awning and the hook end was removed from its stowed position and hooked into a slot on a plate that was rivited to the end of the aluminum leave closest to the side of the coach. Then the awning is pulled down streaching the arm and latching it to hold the awning tight.

With the kit installed, the streacher arm eye end is screwed to the coach and does not come down with the awning. With the awning down, the streacher arm hook is removed from stowed position and hooked to the awning axle. Pulling the awning down streaches the arm latching it to keep the awning tight. The plate is removed from the aluminum leave up top.

BUT, the release knob for the streacher arm is down within easy reach for me. NOT up high requiring a stool for me to release the arm to stow. Tall men do not have my height challanged opportunities.

I have straight arms so I can not be certain of your curved arms but seems to me, that taking the eye fitting off and installing a screw on fitting plus removing the hook and installing it 180 degrees around would give you what I have. If they want to sell you new straight arms, I agree it will not fit.

Wish you could stop by and let me show you my awning. All the best.

Kim

Member

January 28, 2016 at 9:04 pm

Rudy we are talking about same thing , I wanted the new stretcher arms and they said it would not fit, I agree it’s much nicer to hook when the awning is rolled down to the tube instead of trying to hook the hook in the eye on the roof , they Zip Dee said that the new one would not fit on a XL coach