Help with electric awning

[Phill]

Hello all. I have a 2010 Salem with an electric awning. The awning is great and worked the first few times we used it, but after a couple of camping trips it started coming in cockeyed. I took it back to the dealer while under warranty but they said it was fine and didn't help the situation.

I was curious if anyone has had the same issue and what you may have done to fix it? I'm pretty tourqued it doesn't work. Thanks.

[bakken]

Could you define "cockeyed"?

[Phill]

When I retract the awning, the arms don't line up correctly. If you are looking at the awning when it is "fully" retracted the outer arm is usually 1/4-3/8" to the right of where it should line up and snap into place. It's almost as if something is pulling on the roller as I roll it up to cause it to not seat properly and create that awkward gap. It does it on both arms (front & rear) although one is usually worse than the other. When it finally comes in (can retract it as many times as you want and it doesn't fix itself) but once it finally comes in I can bang the arms with the palm of my hand and usually get it to seat correctly.

Also when putting the awning up (retracting it) do you want the little plastic knobs on the arms (part of the rain dump feature I think??) tightened or loose?

Thanks.

[Herk7769]

IMO,

I make sure they are loose so they move as required during retraction.

If your awning is twisting on roll up, there are three things that can cause it:

1) The motor retention bolt could be loose allowing the housing to back out. This will cause one arm to have more play than the other and retract crooked.

2) There is something in the accessory slot. I tried to store the emergency strap in the awning and the first time I retracted it almost wrecked the awning it was so twisted.

3) The awning pop rivets were not installed. These pop rivets keep the awning from moving in the retention slot. Even a small movement will twist the awning material and skew the arms on retraction.

[bakken]

It could be that the awning has slid on the roller, which would pull it to one side when rolling up. Maybe check to see if your awning is loose on the roller, or if there are a couple of screws keeping it in place. If it is loose, then it may have moved.

As for the plastic knobs on the awning arms, I just leave them loose all the time. I only tighten them when I want to set it for a rain, pulling one end down, then tightening the knob to hold it in place.

[Phill]

Thanks Lou,

How do I know fix this? I read a different post but they used terms I'm not familiar with, cords, accessory slot, caps, rain dump and a few more I've forgotten, I'm very new to a trailer and as such still not clear on all the jargon.

What I read in the other post was to make sure the fabric is centered on both the roller and the trailer and possibly rivet the fabric to the roller, although there were a couple of guys arguing about weather or not to do that. Also another guy said to have someone hold the pressure off of the roller and try to roll it up.

I'm up to fixing it myself if I can, I'm an okay handyman but I just don't want to screw it up any more than it already is and have it cost me 3x as much. To be honest this trailer (2010 Salem 25BHSS) kind of scares me when it come to operation and maintenance.

[Phill]

Bakken, great! That's what I've been learning around is that the fabric may have moved. What is your opinion of riveting it to the roller? Also when the awning is rolled up (as far as it will go) the fabric does have a few "bumps" in it where it looks like it may not have rolled up flat, make sense?

[bakken]

You could rivet the awning to the roller, but you would have to be sure it was definitely in the right spot first. I am not even sure it will move, as ours has shown absolutely no indication of doing so.

As for the bumps in the rolled-up awning, ours does that too, and I think it is just from the cheap awning fabric stretching more in the middle than on the ends. And actually, that might have something to do with yours not rolling up straight.

One thing for sure, the awning material they use today is garbage compared to what they used 15 years ago. Our old fifth wheel had zero problems with the awning, and it was still good after 15 years of use. I seriously doubt the new one will last that long!