Electric awning won't retract or extract

[Da Bud Man]

So just to give an update. My Dometic repair guy returned today with a new motor and reinstalled the awning. All is working well.

He is going to tear the motor apart to see what he can find as to why it locked up solid. As I said earlier, it has less than 10 extend/retracts.

He says warranty will cover everything except, he may have trouble getting the mobile service call covered. He says they really frown on those, but he is going to try and push it through since I couldn't even retract it manually. I asked him what they expected me to do since I was stuck at a campground and couldn't get the awning in either electrically or manually. He said they would expect you to remove it yourself so you can travel. SMH.......

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[Da Bud Man]

Looks like my repair guy will be coming back once again to do the same thing to the main awning. Now it is locked up as well. The good thing is it's locked up in the retracted position. SMH.....this is ridiculous on units that are not even a year old.

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[dhawken]

That seems super suspicious. Do you have a power issue at the campground that would be causing the motors to go haywire? Would be weird to not see other issues in the RV, but when the repair guy says he's never seen it, and you now have two occurrences....

We're at a seasonal with "questionable" power from time to time and now have a heavy duty surge guard with the low power protection etc. Might be worth looking at?

[Da Bud Man]

Never had any power issues before and nothing else seems affected. I am on my own pole and account with the electric company, not campground electric. This one was retracted last week when the other one failed to retract. We pulled out Thursday for a long weekend trip. When I arrived at camp Thursday night and tried to put the awning out, it was a no go.

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[skottmorris]

My Dometic 9100 awning would not retract on the last day of our last trip with a 4 hour ride ahead of us. The motor would click when we pressed the button, but no movement. We had no luck getting a mobile tech to look at it for us.

I removed the suggested screw, but no retract. I pulled the other screw out which disconnects the motor shaft from the end cap casting and that allowed me to roll it up most of the way, but not completely. To get the two screws back in, I had to roll it out about 16 inches. I could not travel like this and there was no good way to secure the awning arms since they are mounted flush against the camper. I tried a ratchet strap, but there was no place to hook it on the opposite side of the camper that would not damage the lower body panels of my trailer.

After a lot of Google searching, I decided to drive to the local hardware store and buy 10' of lamp cord to jump the motor. Stripped the wire and touched it directly to the battery and the other end to the motor connector at the end of the awning arm (picnic table came in handy for this). Boom! the awning rolled right up! if you swap the connections at the batter or connector, it will reverse the direction.

The Dometic 9100 installation guide identifies the installer should create an "in-line" fuse on the power connection. That is why there is no fuse in the panel. I have yet to find mine. Its not in the arm, so I'm assuming its behind the panel and potentially in the wall. I'll share an update and some pictures when I find the fuse.

I'm glad its not the motor. Amazon sells it for ~$400, but my local RV dealer who had it in stock quoted me $750 for the motor!

[skottmorris]

Here is a link to the Dometic 9100 user guide for reference
https://forestriverinc.com/brochures...gA&EManual.pdf

[Riich]

I know these electric awnings are sweet but I cringe every time I operate mine, thinking WTH would I do if it failed. I'd sooner have the old manual one like I had on my other RV's.

[muckinfuss]

I can't prove it, but I believe installers get a little giddy when they encounter any opportunity to bury a fuse somewhere totally inconspicuous and don't have to leave a note!
It's an odd compliment, but thanks for your experience....