Electric awning

[yddad45]

I have always had a manual awning and I know to drop a corner before leaving to let water run off, best to strap corners for wind, always use flappers, easy to lower to put lights on, but this electric awning I have now is a differeent beast all together. Can someone give me some pointers, the does and don'ts. Do I have to worry about wind, rain, how do I get to it to put my lights on it??????

[wiscampsin]

We don't do awning light so I can't help you there, but there are 2 kinds of electric awnings, one extends straight out, no pitch, the other does have a pitch. Ours has a good pitch and we have never had a problem with rain pooling. The one without a pitch should be adjustable to allow water to run off at one corner or the other. As far as wind goes if it gets up to about 20 mph we pull it in, don't want to take a chance. IMHO as far as convenience goes you can't beat the electric, but as far as stability goes the manual wins hands down.

[clutch]

The awning is adjustable for lean. It has an automatic dump shock absorber it it gathers to much rain water. I have the front one notch lower so I know where the water will drain. I don't trust it in the wind as it has no place for a flapper. I never leave it out when we are away because if the wind comes up a neighbor can't put it up without a key to the trailer. When we are staying for more than a few days we have a sun screen that slides into the roller. Over all it is easy for Sallie to operate but I would much prefer a manual awning. A friend tied one down and left it up in the wind. He had to replace several arms and the motor on his. We have it because we had NO choice.

[Denise]

We have the "flat pitch" electric awning. We do not like it. If there is even a slight breeze, the non-motor side lifts up (we once saw another campers flat pitch awning blow up over the roof of their tt). If you have the adjustable pitch, you will have better luck. We don't do lights (because we have to retract it in a moment's notice if a breeze comes up). We do use a patio shade that hangs from the end of the awning and it rolls up with the awning when we retract it

[clutch]

Healthi, do you leave the sun screen on all the time? Ours just looks too fat when it is rolled up so we take it out to travel. The arms don't seem to get real close to the trailer and I just don't trust it on the hiway.

[yddad45]

After closer inspection and playing with my awning I found my awning is a adjustable pitch. You can move the arm from one hole to the next and when you adjust the awning all the way up to the last hole the awning is low enough to get to the roller to install lights, patio shade, etc.

[Jrmay25]

Our new 365BHS has the electric awning and I don't like it. Last weekend I was getting ready to roll it in do to an approaching storm when a head on gust of wind probably 30mph literally doubled the front support arm around and slammed the awning head into the side of our camper. I'm not even sure how to describe exactly what happened but fortunately, it didn't bend, break or scratch anything. I as able to pull it back into place and roll it up. Now I'm gunshy to think about leaving it anytime we will be gone and there is even a threat of bad weather. With our old manual awning, I never tied it down and personally weathered several severe storms without any problem.

[norty1]

You were lucky with the old one. I have seen many ruined by wind.
I have the new electric w/o any auto closing features and think it is the best of the new . I have seen them secured with tie downs but it is not recommended.

We have just had to make changes in our camping experience.
1. We bring it in when we leave. This means storing chairs somewhere out of the weather.
2. At night, I leave it extended just enough to keep dew off the steps.

3. I am wary of tieing it down because it does not appear to be strong enough to prevent wind gusts from blowing it upward. Mine has the dump feature but has never held enough rain to activate it yet.

[fxlreteng]

I have the 2011 Skylark and the first trip I took was to alabama last year. The awning did ok till the winds got above 20 or so but held up well in the rain. Just got back from Indy. and had alot of bad weather at the begining of the trip.and the auto dump on the electric awning worked well. Ido keep one sid lower so I know where the water is going to dump.

[yddad45]

I have used mine since this post and in a Florida summer shower it did well. The water ran off no problem and a wind of about 15 to 20mph did no damage and I watched it closely. I have decided though I'm getting the wind sensor installed, I just don't want to take a chance of getting caught in high winds and I'm not home. According to how you have it set it's suppost to automatically retract when a wind causes your awning to start shaking. I figure it may save me one day.

[rog4kneer]

My electric awning has an automatic release for water. When the weight on the awning gets to a certain level the awning automatically drops to release the water.
When I did the walk-thru with my dealer, he indicated that it should be retracted when not in use because it is more fragile in construction than regular awning.

[norty1]

We have had success moving it most of the way in when going away, just out enough to keep the steps dry. So far so good.