Awning Arm

[sbenson]

Recently gently grazed the awning arm on a chain link fence, but it kept on working fine until last trip. Now it seems to be pulling away from the trailer sidewall. Has anyone experienced this? Did you try to just install a little bit larger bolt? Ideas?

[Scrapper]

I know exactly what your experiencing. I caught my slideout awning on a stop sign and pulled it out at the bottom and middle. Luckily, I had the entertainment center in that corner of the slide. I removed the fireplace and drilled completely through the same holes with a 1/4" bit and inserted 1/4" x 2-1/4 carriage bolts, 1/4" body washers, nylock nuts, and painted the bolt heads white, then reinstalled the fireplace. The bolts are not visible from the inside and if you don't look close to the outside you would never know.

[5picker]

Welcome to the forum! I see it is your 1st post!

Often times oversized/enlarged holes can be filled with glue and a flush, wooden dowel rod. Then, re-drill a small pilot hole and reinsert the original fastener.

Just keep in mind the walls on these R/Vs are only about 1.25" thick and much of that is foam. The thickness of where the awning screws attach (unless they happened to hit a stud) is about 1/4" at best.

[sbenson]

Thank you for your reply! Yes, I saw the same suggestion on another forum & this might actually work for me too. I believe if I drilled all the way through, I'd come out in a storage cabinet...which would be perfect!