2015 Rockwood 1940 Ltd Awning Issues

[Cweaver1]

Hoping someone can help.
Recently purchased a pop-up camper with an awning. Once we get it all set up, leveled, door in and awning out, the awning pulls the roof to the point its hard to open/shut the door, and pulls the side wall away from the cabinet by the door.
Thought the camper was not level but all outside levels, front, tongue and side all state the camper is level.
Any suggestions on what we can do to eliminate
this issue?
Thanks!

[pgandw]

As you suggested, you have to reduce the pull of the awning. When I had a Coleman pop-up, some steps I took:
- reduce tension on awning guy lines as much as possible. The guy lines simply stop the awning from folding back to the camper; they don't need to stretch the awning taut.
- angle the poles slightly outward instead of vertical. This helps quite a bit in reducing tension needed on guy lines.
- keep the outside edge of the awning just high enough to clear the door opening. Again, the lower the awning, the lower the tension on the pop-up.

And of course, don't use the awning. Once we moved to Colorado, it became apparent - both from our experience and watching others - leaving the campsite with a deployed awning was an invitation to the wind gods for destructive actions. One of the worst results, but fairly common in Colorado, is having the awning flipped over the roof, usually impaling a pole into the roof or driver side.

Because I've yet to see a good design for an awning on an A-frame (we went from a pop-up to an A-frame), we use a separate EZ-up with the A-frame so no wind damage is done to the camper. I've seen EZ-ups destroyed by wind almost as often as awnings, but they are a lot cheaper and easier to replace. So far, our EZ-up has held up, although I've had it and the carpet at the camper entrance moved 20 feet by a microburst.

Another good thing about an EZ-up vs an awning is that you don't have to interrupt setup to get the awning out before the roof goes up. Or stow it before the roof is all the way down during take-down.

just our experiences
Fred W
now 2019 Flagstaff T21TBHW A-frame
prev 2014 Rockwood A122 A-frame
prev 2000 Coleman Westlake pop-up
2008 Hyundai Entourage minivan
camping Colorado and adjacent states one weekend at a time

[Cweaver1]

here is a picture of the setup.
As you can see the poles attach to the box and another set attach to the roof.

[pgandw]

Disregard what I said. Poles I had went to ground.

Fred W

[GalsofEscape]

you can use the poles set to the ground. it will reduce the pull on the wall - (i never used the wall setup). You will still have to tie them down to prevent the wind from whipping the awning over the top (yep - i learned the hard way).

[cupsz71]

Originally Posted by Cweaver1

here is a picture of the setup.
As you can see the poles attach to the box and another set attach to the roof.

Same setup on the awning we use. I then use a awning tie down kit and adjust the tension as needed.

We use the ground anchors to double as our RV mat holder thru the loops.

I've found that running the awning poles into the side wall "slots" actually helps stabilizes the roof sway in a light to moderate breeze in combo with the tie-downs.

Works good!