Awning paranoia - hypervigilance

Gimpyknee

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2019
Messages
134
Location
Virginia Beach, VA
We're on our maiden voyage, our shakedown cruise.

Thus far, every time we leave the campsite, even for a walk around the park, certainly if going off-site, and at bedtime, I'm retracting the awning. Does that level of vigilance wear off, or is it good and healthy to maintain?

I don't have paper lanterns, tacos, flamingos, or palm tree string lights up (yet), so it's not impacting my wife's decorating ideas.
 
The only time I worry about the awning is if its windy. Otherwise it stays out.
 
We pull our awning in whenever we are not at the trailer. It is a little paranoid to pull it in while you are walking in the campground, but if we are leaving for any reason, the awning comes in. We also close the awning at night so I don't have to get up in the middle of the night if the weather changes.

I don't want to replace an awning when pressing a button would have prevented that problem.

Same reasoning, we also shut off water at the spigot when we leave the campground.
 
Same reasoning, we also shut off water at the spigot when we leave the campground.

You just sold me on a new awareness.
While sitting here at the dinette, browsing forums, facebook, and HomeDepot, our site neighbor came over and said "you've got water leaking everywhere over here...."

Bad news: a plastic hose connection (female) had split around the threads.
Good news: it was on the outlet side of the in-line water filter.
Better news: since I made a 3' pigtail from the freshwater intake (with the brass 90), this split was outside the passthrough. A lot of grass and gravel is well-watered, but the inside of the passthrough and the service panel is DRY.
Best news: it happened on the heels of reading [MENTION=19783]JColeman[/MENTION]'s post. Had this happened 1) inside the rig and 2) while we were gone for a couple hours, I cannot begin to Imagine the horror we would find on return.

Leaving camp:
Retract awning
Shut off water at hydrant

And lesson learned - use brass replacement hose fittings, not plastic.

-Scott
 
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It's good to worry about stuff a bit. After all, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cures. So the awning... We have been places when the 3pm wind is fierce. Awning ripping fierce. We have been lots of other places when the afternoon wind is mild, awning fluffing. The trick is in knowing when/where the difference is. Cody, WY bring the awning in, ditto Moab, UT. We are in Marquette, MI today, 50/50, could have left them out, afternoon wind was not that bad, but brought them in because we don't really know the local wind patterns. And that is the real key to the problem, what are the local wind patterns. How severe?

In the end, when in doubt bring the awnings in. They are a huge help in keeping the RV comfortable for the furry babies while we are away. But there comes that trade off point comfort vs awning destruction. There are no right answers, only decisions based on available data.
 
We pull our awning in whenever we are not at the trailer. It is a little paranoid to pull it in while you are walking in the campground, but if we are leaving for any reason, the awning comes in. We also close the awning at night so I don't have to get up in the middle of the night if the weather changes.

I don't want to replace an awning when pressing a button would have prevented that problem.

Same reasoning, we also shut off water at the spigot when we leave the campground.

Ditto on the awning and water choices. We do the same. Especially out west: you cannot trust the wind; it can gust in a millisecond. We had it happen (fortunate not to have lost an awning) and have watched others loose their awning even when at the camper.
 
Leaving camp:
Retract awning
Shut off water at hydrant

And lesson learned - use brass replacement hose fittings, not plastic.

-Scott

When leaving camp & at night we always retract the awnings. We also only turn on the water to fill our tanks and run off the pump. The pump usually gives better & more consistent water pressure than the hydrant & we just turn it off when leaving.
 
One more vote for bringing in the awning when away and at bed time.

I also turn off the water; I come off the campground's spigot with this: https://www.amazon.com/2wayz-Metal-Garden-Splitter-Upgraded/dp/B019MS0HK8/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2SA9Q8IT90FUN&keywords=y+water+hose+splitter+heavy+duty&qid=1567013903&s=gateway&sprefix=y+water+%2Caps%2C125&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExREVHSkFUV1RBU1ZRJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNjQ5OTUyMTdGVk5UR1hIM1BNSCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNDYwNzM0M0E5NkoxQlRLMllaMCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

Just a simple flip of the lever versus turning the round wheel style valves at many campgrounds (not to mention it gives access to water while outdoors without disconnecting).
 
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We're on our maiden voyage, our shakedown cruise.

Thus far, every time we leave the campsite, even for a walk around the park, certainly if going off-site, and at bedtime, I'm retracting the awning. Does that level of vigilance wear off, or is it good and healthy to maintain?

I don't have paper lanterns, tacos, flamingos, or palm tree string lights up (yet), so it's not impacting my wife's decorating ideas.

When our kids were young we were camped at a lake and spent the afternoon at the beach. The wind started to pick up so I walked back to the camper to retract the awning. I was literally 20 feet away when the awning went up and over the top of the camper. I sure wish I had retracted it before going to the beach, not a cheap fix. Now the awning is retracted more than it is extended.

Regarding turning off the water when gone, a couple of years ago we returned to our campsite after being gone all day. There was water pouring out of the neighbors camper. He left before we did in the morning so no telling how long the water was running but judging by the amount of water on the ground it had to have been several hours at least. We turned off his water but his camper was locked up so there was nothing we could do to help with the inside. When he came back it was one of the only times I have seen a grown man cry. Starting that day, our water gets turned off every time we leave.

Mark
 
Being vigilant may not be enough. We had a storm blow up in the span of a few minutes. I was in the RV an noticed it immediately. But with 3 separate awnings on our 397TH AND 3 separate places to roll them in...well...2 awning made it in fine, but the third was about half way in when the wind grab it and put a 3 foot rip in the fabric.
 
ALWAYS retract the awnings! You never know when the wind will come up. It's easy to retract, not much fun replacing the awnings at $1500/ea..
 
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Our awning is always out, but we have it anchored with straps and ground stakes. That way you can decorate if you want to (we don't) but love having the shade.
 
We always bring it in when we leave and at night. I’ve had to get up too many times to reel it in when the wind came up. I couldn’t sleep with it banging. We get many pop up thunderstorms here in Florida. They can come any time and have violent wind. Last summer a couple with a brand new trailer left for the day with the awning out. When they came back it was twisted up so bad we had to remove it from the trailer so they could leave. We had a water connection burst one morning too. I heard the noise so I got it turned off before any damage. We turn the water off now.
 
When we got our new rig one of the must haves was an electric awning. Two years later I am not so sure. We are usually parked for long stretches at a time. I would open the manual awning, remove the supports from the wall of the 5th wheel and use them as legs for the awning. Both ends of the roller would be lashed securely to the ground and the awning itself would be fastened at four points to the side supports. I had a STRUCTURE that could withstand all but the most radical changes in the weather. It became an outside room. During the hot summer I would just leave the toaster oven outside under the protection of my awning. Now I have this flimsy sheet of cloth sitting above me flapping in the least breeze. In and out constantly. I long for my old manual awning. And now that I am having hydraulic leakage problems with my auto Lippert leveling system I kind of miss all my manual stabilizing methods and tricks. But then again, I mostly live in my RV and only travel once to twice a year.
 
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As a frequent fixer of the Kan(t)leak water panel and the 110 fittings located behind this engineering debacle, we always turn the water off when we are away from the RV.
After witnessing several destroyed awnings over the past 30 years of RV’ing and (in my opinion) the cheap components that comprise todays electric powered awnings, we leave ours rolled up tightly against the side of the RV.
 
I made the mistake of not remembering that our awning was out during a storm. One of the arms snapped. We found out through a great repair guy that the company that makes the awnings that GD uses in our 375 have been discontinued! No parts are available. The repairman was floored because we have a 2017 model.
The good news? There was someone else in the park that had the same problem but the opposite arm. He swapped the arms out and got us back on the road quickly.
We pull our awning in with the just the slightest hint of bad weather. I would guess we wouldn't be that lucky with repairs again. Better safe than sorry!
 

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