[June]

June

Prevost has nothing to do with what shade awning the converters put on the roof. Girard is by far ahead of most with their structure.

I have never heard of Girards having issues with motor heating. You said the motors are new, who put them in and what brand of motor is it?

If someone put a somfy motor in yours they are heat sensitive. I would check that.

If someone at Marathon told you to ice or hose your awning motor, they should be fired for being stupid. Do you have his name?

The worst thing about older Girards is they want to up shoot in a 4mph wind.

Later

bv

This is an edit, I just read your post again and your saying this is due to outside temps?

I highly doubt that is the problem. I have 90 ft of Girards hanging off the back of my house and I live in a desert. They always open and close. You have something else going on there, sorry I’m no help.

[Archived]

It might be as simple (and frustrating) as a bad connection or too small of a wire that is causing the motor to overheat in hot temps.

[Greg]

Motors were purchased and installed by Marathon. As far as the recommendation of ice and hosing down the coach came from upper management at Marathon Oregon – no joke. They said that this has been a problem for a long time and it does not happen to every coach with these awnings. Even though the ambient temperature is 105 degrees, the temperature of the metal and fiberglass could be 130+. Donald thinks it may be a thermal safety switch within the awning motor.

This will never happen to a Liberty as they have rose petals to keep the motors cool 😉

June

[Peter]

Liberty uses the ZipDee awinings, and believe me, they have as many, or more issues than Girard. On my last coach, I had motor issues and dealing with ZipDee was a very large PITA. I finally got the issue fixed, but it cost me lots more than it should have.

[John]

Mark beat me to it. He is right in that each device has its shortcomings.

One thing not suggested is keeping heat from the area of the thermal protection devices which are usually a thermostat of some sort, or replacing the one in there with a higher temp limit.

If the area above the temp sensor is a dark color can it be painted white? I would not say that is what the problem is unless you can confirm the problem only arises on hot sunny days and never when overcast or rainy.

Another consideration is to replace the device. Girard is unlikely to manufacture their own thermostat. It is likely one they buy or is built into a motor they buy. See if there is a higher temp alternative.

[Archived]

Extend the awnings and double check where the arms attach to the outer awning bar. I had the same problem and i noted two things. On one awning, where the arm attaches to the awning bar, the bolts had loosened up to a point where the joint would slide and prevent the awning from retracting. I also noted that at each point where the bar attaches, there is a pin that creates the joint and it is kept in place by a “circlip”. Most of my clips had deteriorated and had fallen off and the pins were partially out. When they are partially out, the arm “cocks” sideways and also stops the awning from retracting. In addition and not one of your concerns, I also noted that when the awnings were extended over the slides, some of the arms were actually resting on the slide, so I had to readjust the angle of the arms.

[Dick]

Hi June,

I had the same issue with the Girard on our Foretravel. Sounds like the awnings are not exactly the same, but I’ll let you know what I learned. I talked with a technician at Girard and we did the following trouble shooting. I located the control box and over current box for the motor. Inside the control box were two relays, one for out and one for in. You can hold your finger on the relays to determine which is which when you press the button to make it go in or out. You will feel a “click/thunk” when that one is energized. Once you know which relay is for in, keep the cover off the box until it doesn’t work, then put your finger on the relay and press the buttom. If the relay works, the tech told me it is the over current device and to bypass it (said it was OK to do so). Mine turned out to be a loose connection for the relay.

I found the Girard technical staff to be very helpful.

Kurt

[Archived]

Thank you everyone! We appreciate all of your insights and
comments. The forum has been a wealth of information.

·
Bernie – we have contacted Girard and we are waiting for the engineering
specs for the motor. Marathon Florida
replaced the motors with ones that were provided by Girard. The diagnosis of the outside temps came from
the same place as the ice bucket challenge 😉
Yes, you were a help as you have proven that Girard awnings do work in
the heat!

·
Dick – we have checked the wiring and not found any loose or bad
connections and will know more about the wire size once we get the specs. It would be nice if it is something as simple
as that!

·
Mark – we are trying to minimize the cost to fix this issue by
learning from the experiences of others and appreciate your sharing your
experience with ZipDee awnings. We feel
your frustration!

·
Jon – once we get the specs and understand how it is supposed to
work and what is causing the problem (other than the hot summer days) we will
know if there is a way to shield a temp sensor or replace a thermostat. We understand that each device has its
shortcomings, and that no converter is immune to awning problems. Maybe not enough rose petals?

·
Rick – we have checked all mechanical connections, and all are
tight. All the awnings were checked for
alignment and adjusted. We do not have
slides, so that is not a problem. We
replaced all the clips a year ago when we first got the coach because, like
yours, the clips were long gone. It was
amazing that everything still held together.

·
Kurt – the control boxes and relays were checked by Marathon,
but we will go back through and check these as we learn what makes the awnings
work. Once we have the specs, I plan to
talk directly to the Girard techs to see what insight they can give us.

We will keep you updated with our progress on this
challenge. It will be hard to replicate
the problem now that that we have cooler weather, but then the temperature
could have been just coincidental!

Thank you again,

June

[Bill]

2004 Marathon H3

My Girard awnings worked perfectly for several years even in Indio Sun. Just this fall in Florida on 85 degree

day put out all awnings. Only two came in. The other two moved about 16 inches then would stop. Pushing the remote and manual switches would result in no relay clicks or other sounds at all from the control boxes. Waited till

evening and they went in fine. This issue proceeded to get worse and worse. Now all awnings(4) do the same thing.

The last attempt to retract the DS FWD awning OAT 75 sunny, would move in 1″ at a time then stop. By recycling the remote through all other awnings then back to that one it would again move 1″. It took about 15 min. to get the awning all the way in. Been afraid to use them since. Girard says there isn’t a problem. Marathon has been trying to

deal with this issue as it is getting to be common but they aren’t getting any help from Girard. Everyone seems baffled. One suggestion was to bypass the internal motor overtemp control. Since the motors have not had much use and when running seem to be fine I would consider this but no one seems to know how to acomplish this task.

Any ideas?

KT

[Archived]

Update –

We are taking our coach in to Marathon – Florida the middle of next month for a rework of the awning system and also look into the possibility of a direct bypass. We did try putting out the driver’s side awning out a couple feet in January when it was cool (no such thing as cold in Florida) while inside the storage unit. Like KT, the awning went out fine, but would not come in. The control box for this awning is behind a cabinet – Donald could not get his hand into the area, but I could reach around and grab the box and the wires. By feel, I tried to see if something was loose. With a little jiggling, the awning came in by itself! I believe the control/makeup box is the culprit, but we are going over this with the electrical engineers once we are at Marathon.

We will keep you updated! This issue will be resolved. If Florida can’t fix it, we will be heading to Oregon.

June

[Archived]

Does anyone have any estimates on what a new Girard system may cost on a 45ft Prevost?

Thanks

Cal

[Archived]

I wonder how much these awnings have changed over the years. We had them on a Beaver Patriot that we purchased in 1998. I think that was the first year they were offered in the US. As I recall they did not extend as far then as they do now. We never had even a hint of a hiccup in four years of full time use. So, I would first start by determining whether the failure to retract is dependent on how far out it is deployed. Deploy it 25% and see if it retracts properly. Then 50%, then 75% and then 100%. If there is any difference in behavior then suspect adjustment of the arms. If the awning fails to retract at the lesser deployments also, then suspect electronics – motors, wires, connectors, or other components. As much experience as they have had over the 20 or more years these awnings have been used on motor homes and houses I have a hard time believing there is a serious flaw in a major component like the overheat protection on a motor unless the unit is out of adjustment and binding mechanically.

jerry

[Davy]

Just a suggestion: Read carefully the procedure to adjust the in stop and the out stop. This should be done in a quiet environment so that you can hear the motor stop making noise, not just stop moving.

I found the stop adjustment to be very sensitive. Two of my awnings would close but the motor would continue to try to close further, making a light hum. Eventually it would trip out on thermal overload. It would take a fairly long time to “cool off” and reset.

The same thing could happen in the out position. My awnings call for a measured space between arm pivots when fully extended – not touching or in a bind. It is easy to think they need to “lock in place”.