Upper Awning Support Bracket

[D&J]

Hi,

I turned the AC on the other day and I noticed that the water from it was dripping down around the window next to the door. Upon further investigation, I noticed that the rain trough was detached from the trailer near the front and sloping upwards, causing the water to pool and drip down through the seam between the awning and the trailer (it appears that the awning is also at least partially detached to allow that to happen).

The front upper bracket for the awning is pulled away from the trailer at the bottom of the bracket. The two screws that attach it to the trailer are at about a 20 degree angle downward instead of horizontal. It looks to me like the bracket itself is not bent, just at the wrong angle. I removed the two screws and hammered the rain trough back in until it was mostly flush with the trailer, but when I re-attached the awning bracket, it just pulled the rain trough back up. It appears that the rain trough and the front downspout will fit neatly inside the awning bracket if the bracket is at the right angle, but with it pulled up and out at the bottom, the rain trough is also pulled up and out.

Also, when the awning is in the up and locked position, the outer support arm is angled slightly away from the vertical support arm at the top.

It appears to me that the screws attaching the awning bracket to the trailer should be horizontal in the front as they are in the back but they are angled downward which causes the bracket to be angled downward and therefore separated by an inch or so more than it should be from the trailer at the bottom of the bracket. Since the screws go through the top of the bracket, there’s no way to correct that, as long as the screws are angled downward into the trailer. The screws themselves are not bent, however the front screw does not seem to want to “catch” when tightened. There’s no way to adjust the length of the main vertical support bar, so I don’t know how to bring the bottom of that bracket down to straighten everything out.

I have attached a few pictures of the damage. I’d really appreciate your advice as this is quite worrisome.

Thanks!

Danny

[Dave_Monica]

I'm guessing, but perhaps the awning arm is too long when it's in the latched postion. Can you position the upper bracket correctly if that awning arm is unlatched? If so, unlatch the arm, repostion and attach the bracket and shorten the awning arm length one hole.

Dave

[D&J]

Thanks Dave. Yeah, I thought of that too and compared the front awning arm to the back one and they're the same. The scary part is that evn if I shorten it, I'll have to pull the bracket down so that the screws enter the frame horizontally and that means I'm going to have to use the screws to bend the frame. The bracket itself is not bent from what I can see and the screws are not bent...so it's out of whack right inside the frame of the trailer. Cheers. Danny

[Dave_Monica]

Originally Posted by D&J

compared the front awning arm to the back one and they're the same.

The difference may be the position of the lower awning arm bracket.

Dave