Power Awning and Tie Outs

[Tigger1966]

I was thinking about installing a power awning on the MH. I have a chance to get a real good deal but when we camp we allways stake the awning down and teave it open. DW likes to hang lights and other stuff on it. My question is has anybody tried to tie down a power awning? Without the poles going down to the ground I don't know if it would work.

 

[rapriebe]

That's one of the consessions we had to make when having a power awning - hanging lights from it. Ours has a wind sensor on it so it's nice to not have to worry about bad weather destroying our awning. Yes, we can turn the wind sensor off but it would really bite to have the awning get torn up because we did that. One nice feature of the power awning is that you can adjust how far out you put it with just a push of the button. When the awning is down all the way, it really makes the coach darker; being able to put it halfway out easily is really nice. I'm sure you could tie the awning down with a strap, it should work fine.

 

[bradisgoofy]

If we ever buy another coach, it will NOT have an automatic awning. You don't dare leave ours out when not there because if it rains it will buckle in the middle. And the wind sensor is not reliable either. Our fifth wheel had a manual awning and we could leave it up in just about any kind of weather, as long as we had the awning stabilizing straps in place. JMHO.

 

[disney4dan]

When we went for the new trailer I thought about the whole power awning thing and decided that manual awnings are not that difficult and I hate the idea of sensors that I have no control over. We like the lights sometimes as well, and would hate to see the awning go in with all that "stuff" tangled up.

What did it for me was listening to a relative tell a tale of his power awnings coming unwound from the side of the RV while driving over a windy mountain pass in the Rockies. I guess that his power awnings do not have a manual lock to keep the roller secured while traveling?

 

[tlh0726]

Before we bought our new coach , DH and I debated about having a power awning installed on the old one. Asked the question on the good sam site and the majority of people that went with a power one wished that they would have stuck with the manual.
Biggest complaint was the pooling of water at a certain spot. One person actually put a grommet in his awning material so that the water would drain. He posted a pic showing the water being caught in a bucket.
Another one said the dump feature on his was not dependable.
Alot of wind sensors failing to retract the awning.
Others said that not being able to change the steepness of the angle for sun made theirs useless on occasions.

Our new coach has a manual one too.

 

[Tigger1966]

Thanks for the input. I allways thought of power awnings as more of a novelty than anything else and as a RV tech I have seen my share of damaged awnings. It only because I have the opertunity to get a power awning for free that I would consider it.