Converting Travel'R Fixed Pitch Awning to Direct Response

[ifallsguy]

Has anyone converted their Travel'R Awning to the direct response operation? That allows the awning to self retract in windy situations.

I've contacted the OEM and parts are available, but involves installation of parts into the roller and adding wiring.

I'm interested if anyone has upgraded themselves and how much work (problems) it involves.

[Robbbyr]

I did it to my Seneca which originally had a Travel'R. I got my kit from Amazon for about $90.00. The most difficult part for me, but it wasn't too troublesome, was getting the new wires out to the awning area. On my Seneca the control switch area opened in the rear to the wall chase where the original awning wires went up to the top of the awning rail affixed to the side of the coach. I had to carefully enlarge the hole using my Dremel at the top outside without damaging the original wires or the awning light power wires that also emerged there. Once enlarged, I then was able to feed bare copper wire down through the chase and pull the new wire up and out.

Then the rest was pretty easy - routing the wire through the arms, installing the sensor module in the awning head, and installing the new switches. It worked fine until.........

We experienced a microburst at a campground in IL last summer. Several nearby units were damaged too. The first gust took out the front arm before the electronics could even respond and put itself away. Now I have an Eclipse awning which is more "robust" (and $$) than the Travel'R. I optioned the Eclipse with the Direct Response electronics also, that gets you three levels of wind sensitivity instead of just the one that the Travel'R has preset. I installed everything myself, luckily the awning fabric, roller tube, and cover were all reusable. I just had to swap arms and rewire everything (again!)

I was satisfied with the Travel'R kit and would still have it today had we not experienced that storm. But I really like the Eclipse too. We learned our lesson though, even with the electronics bring it in when there is a hint of trouble. The first gust might get you!

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by Robbbyr

We experienced a microburst at a campground in IL last summer. Several nearby units were damaged too. The first gust took out the front arm before the electronics could even respond and put itself away. Now I have an Eclipse awning which is more "robust" (and $$) than the Travel'R. I optioned the Eclipse with the Direct Response electronics also, that gets you three levels of wind sensitivity instead of just the one that the Travel'R has preset. I installed everything myself, luckily the awning fabric, roller tube, and cover were all reusable. I just had to swap arms and rewire everything (again!)

So far... we have dodged the bullet... and after looking at the picture you posted, we still need to do a better job. We try to stay "Aware" of our surroundings, but there was one of those "dust devils" that came thru and tore up a lot of stuff... and only 20 ft away - we were untouched. We screwed up and left the awning out while we were 60 ft away - and would never have been able to get it retracted in time, nor do I think that the electronic sensors would have detected enough wind ahead of the twister to save it. - we just were LUCKY.