Anyone tried this method for dealing with sagging slideout awnings..

[shughey00]

Sometimes we come up with what we think are great unique fixes to common problems and then....I realize...oh heck I cannot be the first..this is too obvious.

The issue...the sagging awning on large slideouts. My LR slideout is 14 feet and tightening the tension on the roller is pointless. Reason is the Awning roller is not beefy enough and actually has a slight bend in it towards the slide. Simply due to tension and the fact that awning roller is not strong enough to not bow in...so tension only adds more issues.

Tried many different "things" but most only work somewhat.

The current fix works great and came thanks to an annoying sparrow who insisted on building a nest on my slide roof. I bought a big fat pool noodle...the 4" ones..not the normal ones.

I cut it to fit between the slide exterior wall and the RV. This blocked her from coming back on either side. She built several nests even though I evicted all three with a 2000PSI blast with my pressure washer.

Then..EUREKA...these large pool noodles are pretty stiff. I ended up cutting 8 rafter so to speak and made em just a tad longer the distance between the slide and the RV. Man that worked slick....I stood up there with a garden hose and blasted water and for the first time ALL of it shed.

Well I patted myself firmly on the back and another seasonal camper even said...great..now come over and do mine!!

After a short time of soaking in my pride I thought...oh no way I am alone trying this. But boy it works slick and they weigh nothing.

So that is my story and I am sticking with it.....

[ependydad]

Good idea. But here's what I typically do for the water on my slide toppers:

[J42]

Shughey00, I like the sound of this. Can you post a pic?

[shughey00]

SO basically just cut the real large pool noodles slightly larger than the width between the RV and the slide and wedged them in as a rafter. The large ones are stiff enough to hold shape and not sag much.

As you see in the bottom pic basically no water and we had 14 hours of downpours last night...1.5" of rain. That would have collapsed my topper and I would have 5 gallons of water pooled up.

I used two leftover pieces for the end one but that never sags on the end..otherwise it is one piece across. I think I got two rafters out of one pool noodle.

I just used a broom handle to slide then down into place.