2016 North Point Awning collapsed - Anyone else?

[Rock]

Wow that is a bummer. Something else to look forward to on my new Pinnacle. On my TT dry camping for two months I took 2x4's and notched the top so the awning where the tube is sat on top and tied the awning to the support and ran a tie down into ground so all stayed tight. Did same for the other side but shorter so rain would run off. Had some pretty windy mountain storms and no problems. Will do the same on pinnacle
Rock

[Kevin and Beth]

Tough to do with the new style awnings. Short arms and high up on the slide of the coach. We had the same awning on the old coach for 10 yrs. And never even rolled it in until we were ready to move. Just let the arms all the way in against the side and lowered the roller as low as possible. Went through some major storms with no damage. Now the new remote control ones won't stand up to a 1/2" rain.....

[BigJohnD]

I have self storing aluminum telescoping awning poles on our Dometic 9100. Can't buy them anywhere, so I guess that doesn't help anybody else. Guess I'll post a picture at some point when I'm back home. Either way, they'll work on the taller fifth wheels as I had them on our last full time rig, and any other dometic outfit. I've seen similar on the Carefree, or at least the same concept. Once the awning is deployed, poles swing down, telescope down to ground, set pin, and upper bracket has hole to attach ratchet straps down to ground. A retired engineer used to build the poles and brackets and does so only for forum members (another forum). He quit making the poles now but still makes the bracket kits. I've had ours out in 30+ knot winds and it does well. Doesn't matter what tilt you put on the awning, they still work fine. Others have fabricated their own set up using anything from EMT conduit, PVC or telescoping painters poles. It's the brackets that bolt to the awning that are a little harder to make. Hopefully when I post a picture it's stir some ideas. I'm sure some have done similar, like Rock has.

[BigJohnD]

Here's a few pictures showing the upper and lower bracket in the stowed position. You can see the tab / hole on the upper bracket to accomodate the ratchet strap. When deployed, they are at just the right angle for the tie downs. These are a set of smaller aluminum tubing ones I put on another camper (Not ours). These poles aren't near the size I have on mine and don't have a large foot pad like mine do. Either way, they function the same. Usually the 2 poles are 6' and around 5', one sliding inside the other, so you get around 10' or so I think at one of the higher settings.

[Rock]

BigJohnD
A shame someone does not still make that. Mine was crude but did about the same. Only would use mine if somewhere for more than a few nights since took time to install. I see where some carefree will auto shut if windy. When I get my pinnacle I will see how to rig up something. On my TT I got away with 8 1/2 ft 2x4 but will have to see how low the new one is. Thanks for posting the pics
Rock

[Rock]

Kevin and Beth
Which model carefree awning came on your Pinnacle, was it the eclipse?
Rock

[BigJohnD]

I'll post more of mine in a few weeks when I get home. Might give some ideas. I'm not for sure, but I'm sure somebody with the carefree has come up with something similar. Just a matter of making some brackets. The 12' painters poles that collapse to around 6' are one of the more popular options. They take them and make more adjustment holes, add foot pads and paint them to match the rig or awning. In your case you might could fab a saddle for the upper portion out of 4" PVC pipe cut in half and bolt / secure to the upper pole. I'll have to look at a carefree arm and dig around to see if somebody has made a bracket yet.

[klassic]

The awnings are Carefree. Ive been out in fairly good rain down falls with no problem. (knock wood)
Well over 1/2"

[Rock]

BigJohnD

Thanks

[BigJohnD]

For reference in the meantime, here's a link to the more popular painters poles being used and modified a little, along with a few pictures of them installed.
Wooster 6 ft.-12 ft. Sherlock Extension Pole-00R0560000 - The Home Depot


I realize the subject awning in this thread is carefree, but just throwing ideas out there that has prevented similar damage to even the dometics. The damage incurred is what sparked the retired engineer to start building these things, and he has sold 100's of them. Matter a fact he quit doing the poles as he just got overwhelmed with requests.

[Rock]

That is way nicer than my 2x4. U would think there would be a commercial product out there since the market is there. It is a pain to roll up ever time u lv especially when u have a bunch of stuff set up outside and need some rain protection
Rock

[namusmc65]

So far our carefree has worked flawlessly for over 2 years and we have left it out during the rains. I may look into some support poles.

[gowesley]

Our ist trip out with our Pinnacle 36FBTS was on labor day weekend, on sunday night we had heavy rain all night, before I reallized it our awning was full of water and it dumped itself a few times, I didnt care for that so I raised the arm adjustment by the door and tilted the awning one way, I left the awning up all night and it never buildt up with water, it all ran off one way, even on the maual awnings we owned we always left one side lower than the other so the water would run off it

[Rock]

I just could not trust auto dump like u. It would seem overtime fabric would stretch after filling with water and self dumping. What model is the awning is it the eclipse?
Rock

[Kevin and Beth]

According to carefree, this awning is the Longitude. According to the manual, you can adjust tilt only 3 holes difference from one arm to the other, which was done immediately when it was extended the first time. Any more than that, according to the manual, will cause damage when it is retracted. You could move the roller back and forth when it was extended, so I figured it was fine. I think the weight from pooling is too far forward to allow auto dump. Just a thought, I'm not an engineer, although Carefree engineers started emailing to figure out where they missed the mark on this one.

[Rock]

Kevin an Beth
Thanks for the info. I am happy to here carefree is looking into what caused this
Tks
Rock

[Rock]

Beth
I cannot find that model but they have a latitude, was that maybe it

[Kevin and Beth]

I couldn'the find it listed on Thier site either. Chalk it up to another great bit of info from carefree.

[ctbailey]

I'm a bit late to this thread, so I apologize... But wouldn't adding a support pole to grade sort of defeat the purpose of a powered furling awning? I mean if it looks like rain overnight just bring in the awning, right? Who keeps anything of extreme value under the awning that couldn't take some rain?

[BigJohnD]

Not really. I don't like rigging down everything under the awning, and don't like it all getting soaked, but that's just me. It's one of those things that a lot of made remarks on, until they installed one, used it, then retracted that statement. I'm not trying to sell anybody on it, just throwing ideas out there, and know what has worked on ours and 100's of others in less than desirable weather. I only use the awning supports probably 25% of the time. That's what's great about ours, it is self storing and stays on the awning. Nothing really to rig down. Once set up, it makes it more of a ridged structure. Rigging down? Pull the 2 straps loose and power the awning in. The poles fold back on their own. I mentioned earlier, but I'll post pictures of our specific set up once I'm home. They are a little different than the pictures I already posted.