Wind vs Awning

[Silvernelle]

We have a Jayco Greyhawk now, but years ago had a 5th wheel, I think it was about 30 or so feet long, so not a light weight rig. We camped on the Colorado River, and it was a lovely day, light breeze blowing, if anything. Out of nowhere, well..upriver actually, a huge nasty wind came along. Our awning went up, and our rig went over. Totalled it actually. Come to think if it, most of the tents in the adjacent campground also went flying to a new location.
Well, about 15 or so years later, my DH thinks I am a bit crazy, but with the slightest breeze, our awning is not extended. It scares me!!
I admit, my fear is probably over the top. Plenty of folks enjoy the shade of the awnings without disaster happening. I think you just have to be aware of the wind potential, and probably best not to leave it unattended, at least by a river!

Happy trails!!

[Pops184]

My son has a Grand Design with a large, 20' plus awning. A few weeks ago during a Memorial Day outing with several other RVrs, severe thunderstorms blew in unexpectedly. Three of us were able to get our awnings reeled in with no damage, however my son wasn't so lucky. A wind gust bent the awning arms on one side, twisting them out of alignment within seconds. With everyone pushing we managed to get the awning rolled up, but the brackets on one side stuck out because they wouldn't close. We felt that he had the problem because his awning was so much larger than the 10' ones we all had. The awnings actually act like sails, so add a weather warning app to your cell phones and close your awnings immediately when receiving wind advisories, or parking in high wind areas.

[arobinson6]

Originally Posted by Mike_B

As a newbie, I trying to figure out how much wind is too much for an awning. I know not to leave down unattended. But hot Texas afternoons can get breezy. I see some movement in the arms and awning movement. Just don’t know how much each can handle.

If you are in west texas, be careful, if in central texas winds over 10 miles draw it in. Get the weather app for wind etc.

[jimmoore13]

Rain also threatens awnings.

All awnings are designed to pitch one way or the other so as to dump water so it doesn't pile up on the awning. A properly setup awning can handle all the rain you throw at it.

PUP awnings have the little push-buttons (or similar adjustments in the "vertical" (or diagonal) legs. This allows one to be longer than the other and dump water. Boondocking on uneven ground required me to add extra holes to the leg farther from the PUP door so I could get the desire pitch.
(PS, the best setup on a PUP awning is to position the legs vertically...and not attach them to the sidewall of the tub. Vertical positioning enables you to use paracord or light rope to large ground stakes and solidly secure the awning. Most legs also have D-rings for ground stakes. This makes for a very sturdy setup.)

Back to rain:
Manual hard-side awnings often have large levers on the main struts, and some combination of adjustments on the main and auxiliary struts allows the awning to be pitched to dump water.

Electric awnings normally have very simple to adjust pitch angle. Mine has a "knee-action" minor strut that you just pull down to get about 6 to 10 inches of "left-to-right" pitch on the awning.

If you pitch the awning as soon as you deploy it, you won't forget, and it will not collect rain.

However: In CO, we get hail often. And over Memorial Day weekend, we got about 2" of heavy, wet snow. No amount of pitch will deal with either of those!!

[travelingjw]

We purchased tie downs that we deploy as soon as we extend the awning. That being said, if it starts to get windy (over 15 mph) and we are not going to be outside, we retract the awning. A little work for no stress. I've watched awning affected by wind that I was sure one of the struts got bent. I am traveling to have fun so I work a little bit to assure that everything remains peaceful.

[wducat]

I have lost 2 over 27 years of RV'ing. The first was on an old style manual that was tied down well. The wind coming off Mobile Bay that evening did not care, ripped everything out of the ground and tossed all the hardware over the top of the rig. I should not have left it out over night.

The second time was on my Seneca with the automatic setup. We were in Tucson Mountain park on a calm Feb day. I was actually on top of the rig, no wind. All of the sudden it billow up and slams down destroying both arms. I never even felt the breeze but I watched it from above! We now tie the automatic one down at all times.