Slide cover billows out in cross wind

[Southern Roamer]

I contacted Tough Top Awnings of Vancouver, WA and was advised that the A&E anti-billowing stop was not available for Carefree slide toppers. The tech I talked to said the best answer was to add a few more turns of the roller to tighten up the tension. He said he had done this successfully on Carefree units several times.
Presently I can turn the roller fairly easy with one hand after CW installed a new spring to replace the original broken one. The tech suggested tightening to the point that I can barely turn it by hand. I guess I will try that but I did that before on the original spring after some billowing episodes and have always felt that led to the broken spring. Maybe I went too far.
All very frustrating 😡


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[Bama Rambler]

I knew they wouldn't have the anti-billowing device made for the carefree awnings, but you could modify it to one, or have something similar fabricated that would work like those.

[Southern Roamer]

Originally Posted by Bama Rambler

I knew they wouldn't have the anti-billowing device made for the carefree awnings, but you could modify it to one, or have something similar fabricated that would work like those.

Thanks, I'll consider that. Maybe it's worth $15-20 to experiment with it


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[brandon 2]

All 3 of our slides have an anti billowing device on them and we have never
experienced any billowing out of the toppers. They appear to be standard equipment on the toppers. Seems to me that the topper you have is missing them. Take a look at replacing slide toppers on u tube and you can see how easy they are to remove and replace.




Brandon2
2014 2500TS
Sun Seeker.

[Welshes]

We have had both sides deploy while driving. I'm trying to get FR to back this safety problem...any others had this solved by FR?

[ernest917]

I don't see how this would be a FR issue.... Seems to me it would be Carefree, or who ever the manufacturer is that would need to be contacted....

This is a pretty common occurrence industry-wide....


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[ernest917]

5picker...

Are those on your awning or your slide topper... If on the topper, that would mean you'd need to go outside and unlock each one before opening the slides....


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[Bama Rambler]

I'm not 5Picker, but he doesn't have anything to unlock.

If you look at the drawings I posted you'll see that the lever is attached to the awning roller and it's adjusted so that when you move the slide out it just misses the catch bracket as it rolls over, but when the slide is all the way in it will catch the bracket when it tries to unroll (billow). It's pretty ingenious actually.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by Bama Rambler

I'm not 5Picker, but he doesn't have anything to unlock.

If you look at the drawings I posted you'll see that the lever is attached to the awning roller and it's adjusted so that when you move the slide out it just misses the catch bracket as it rolls over, but when the slide is all the way in it will catch the bracket when it tries to unroll (billow). It's pretty ingenious actually.

Yep... just as BamaRambler described. No need to unlock anything.

[Welshes]

My problem started with the delivery, slide awnings on both sides were torn from when the coach was delivered. We witnessed five such deployments while at highway speeds. This is a FR problem since this occurred while under warranty. FR admits this problem and needs to get it fixed.

[Welshes]

We have owned five other coaches with slide awnings and this has never happened...none with Carefree awnings.

[edgewant]

I purchased the SOKIII top covers from Shadepro. I was told by the salesman that they purchase Carefrees excess inventory and their prices are better than most Carefree dealers.

[Bunci]

Our dinette slide topper completely unraveled in the high cross winds the other day. We have a couple of tears in the rear and the stitching in the binding has been destroyed.

[Welshes]

Not right! FR and Carefree should step up and repair these awnings as it's certainly not the owner's fault.