Awning Wind Sensor Works

cfsoistman · 08-06-2010, 09:27 AM

Last night we had a real bad storm roll through Ocean City MD. High winds and rain. Unfortunately we had left and went into town for dinner. We started seeing lightning after about an hour or so. We finished up dinner and started heading back. The rain started not strong but steady. Some wind but nothing too severe. We were passed by a few emergency vehicles on our way back. First a cycle accident and then a pick up took out the fencing on the Rte 50 bridge coming out of OC. This is there for the protection of the fisherman that fish from the bridge. I don't know for sure what happened but there were two places where the truck hit the fence and was up against the concrete wall. I would guess he lost it on the steel grating of the drawbridge being wet and traveling too fast. We were stuck in traffic for quite some time trying to get back to the RV. When we finally got back to the RV I didn't see the awning extended. I feared the worse but the awning was closed. Everything was blown over, the winds were real bad at the campground per my neighbor. The staff of the campground drove around advising everyone of the coming storm so they could lower their awnings. My neighbor said they saw our awning going up and down for about 15 minutes and then disappeared. He told me he thought it may have collapsed. He's parked next to me on my driver's side. But what actually happened was the awning closed itself after the winds blew long enough to activate the wind sensor and closed it. Other than still being wet inside the awning had no sign of any damage. I opened it this morning and closed it also and everything looks good. It's nice to know that this feature actually works.

NWJeeper · 08-06-2010, 11:11 AM

Wow, good that it did work. We have been at the Oregon coast before during storms and watched as the awning bucked and jumped all over the place but it wouldn't put itself away. Then on one of our earlier trips this year we were sitting outside in a steady but not bad breeze and it put itself away. The wife and I just looked at each other and said "hmmm".

Hope you had a good trip despite the weather.

kvtaylor · 08-06-2010, 11:19 AM

They work! Ours came up when a hard wind blew thru the park in Florida. We lost one on our old 5th wheel when we had a hard wind one summer evening. It went straight up and then across our nieghbors RV. Thanks FR our Georgetown awning works......

starburst2 · 08-20-2010, 01:21 AM

When the dealer did the PDI walk through. or whatever it is called, he said the awning will automatically dump the rainwater off the awning if it pools. Can anyone attest to the accuracy of that claim.
Starburst2

cfsoistman · 08-20-2010, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by starburst2

When the dealer did the PDI walk through. or whatever it is called, he said the awning will automatically dump the rainwater off the awning if it pools. Can anyone attest to the accuracy of that claim.
Starburst2

It does dump once there's enough water pooling on top. It usually takes about a gallon to two. I've heard that depending how level or unlevel the rig is will determine which side dumps on the newer awnings. Mine only dumps from the side closest to the rear because it only has one arm that slides to dump the water.

starburst2 · 08-20-2010, 11:25 AM

Thanks for the feedback. That automatic water dumping feature seems like a great concept.
Starburst2

cfsoistman · 08-20-2010, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by starburst2

Thanks for the feedback. That automatic water dumping feature seems like a great concept.
Starburst2

Just be sure not to have anything under the end that dumps because it's quite a bit to have fall on you. I was real close to taking an outdoor shower from it.

It will leave a hole in the ground if it dumps a bunch of times. We had one about 4 inches deep at Myrtle Beach from a storm a couple years ago.

Rick Cunningham · 08-22-2010, 12:27 PM

On our very first three-day shakedown trip we put the awning out and after an hour of sprinkling looked out the window to see it bulging in the middle and ready to bend the struts and motor-tube. I used the top of a cooler balanced on the end of an extendable squeegee to herd the water off the edge. We must have bent the roller-motor tube a little bit as it now sounds like RRRrrrrrRRRrrrrrrRRRrrrr as it goes in and out.

Now as to the reason - our unit has a passenger-side living room slide under the awning, so they designed the awning to go nearly straight out. The auto dump feature is there (the rear lower strut arm has a spring loaded telescoping section) but with the awning nearly parallel to the ground, the forces of the water don't really put any compression force on that strut section.

So make sure you are watching the awning the first time it fills up with water - yours might just be like mine...

NWJeeper · 08-22-2010, 12:34 PM

Rick,

We too have this problem and what I have found is that it's best if the rig can be leveled in such a way as to have a slightly tail end low attitude, this allows the water to run rearward toward that spring loaded arm. It doesn't need much but in cases where I can do this the dump works fine. Another thing to watch out for is the fully extended attitude of the awning. This was pointed out to me by a fellow RVr in a park on our first trip. Our awning when extend all the way to it's stoping point will have the tassle flap hanging from the front of the awning roller, this means there is no wrap of the awning bar by the fabric at all, this can help to create a troff that complicates things right near the roller. The awning must be stopped so that the tassle flap is hanging straight down underneath the roller, you will then have about a 3/4 turn of wrap of the awning fabric on the bar.

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