Awning Poll and discussion

[Cruzinfools]

I clean my awnings with a 1/4 cup of bleach and 1/4 cup of dawn dish soap in a 3 gal. bucket of water. I spray it on with the awning out then roll up for 15-20 minutes unroll and rinse if still dirty do it again. Not much scrubbing for me. Just my 2 cents.

[Jrmay25]

Love the ease of use on our power awning, however, with our old manual awning, I never worried about it vs the wind. Can't say the same with these power awnings. Just a little wind and the next thing you know, it's slamming back against the side of the camper. I've got a wind sensor kit that I've yet to install and may also look for ways to anchor and strap mine.

[TeamFoxy]

I prefer manual for just about everything because there is less to go wrong. But it seems to me like being able to tip the awning to shed heavy rain and drop the level, yet leave the awning up in higher winds is the real plus. It doesn't take long to set up and is not hard to do alone, so why would one need power?

I feel the same way about stabilizers. Most of the time I have mine cranked down by hand before my neighbors have their electric ones down.

[Crabman]

Well we have 5 "I have no opinion one way or the other, leave me alone!" votes now!

[marshvegasmike]

I'll have to agreed with clutch. Our StarCraft popup came with a manual awning and a screen room that attached. A big plus especially with a popup and 4 kids that loved to sit in the popup and play cards. The screen room gave Daddy a place to escape to. We now own a 2011 Jayco Select x23j with an electric awning. We will miss the screenroom. Was out camping this past week and saw a Class A that had screen material that attached to the awning front and sides. It attached to the ground as well with stakes but did not enclose completely. Must be more for privacy than keeping the bugs out.

[Brownie]

Old trailer had a manual, and I liked that I could pull the posts off the trailer and anchor them to the ground. Made my patio feel like a little room. Could also add screens, but never did. My new Eagle has a power awning, but I don't have any experience with it yet. I'm afraid I might bang my head on the arms. I'm real good at doing things like that.

[Redhorse 823]

After 2 trips with the power...Thinking I like it better than the manual
Lets see how I feel if I need to replace it

[Bird Dawg]

Currently have a power awning on our 5er. I wish it had a wind and rain sensor like the one we had on the Motorhome.

Fred

[Clayton4971]

I like the power because it's easy in easy out . And you better take in when you are not keeping an eye on the wind . If I were staying for a month or so you can't beat the manual for tying down in strong winds for me power !!!

[Witt74]

I have the Carefree power awning on our 2008 Eagle 30.5 RLS. It is adjustable to allow for water runoff or to block the sun. Being a power awning, the DW can bring it in if I'm out of pocket for some reason. Like it so far. When the weather get iffy, we just bring it in. Had a manual awing on the old 5er, an overnight rain dropped enough water on it that it was a struggle to get out of the door. Wound up with a collapsed roller tube, had to dismantle the thing in the CG

[rkresge]

Soon to pick up our new Jay Feather 23RLSW, which appears to have a Colorado Carefree electric awning. Can't say I'm wild about it - looks like I won't be able to use the tie-downs and de-flappers from our current manual awning. And we like to leave furniture out under the awning - the automatic retraction sounds like it's gonna leave me with some wet furniture when a storm comes along. Guess we'll learn to live with it.

[mike837go]

The manual one (1983-ish) was a complicated affair that required standing on tiptoes while balanced on the bumper or step as part of the deploy or stow process.


Give me press-and-hold this button for 30-40 seconds any day!


Re-charging the battery beats keeping track of the pins and locking everything in place.