awning pitch arm fails to hold an unpitched position

[rmaly76]

Took my new 2021 21bhe out for a shake down. It comes with the Solera Power Awning that you pull down on the awning arm to adjust pitch but mine pitches with just the weight of the awning on a single side. I can straighten the arm back out but will not hold in place. I did not see any tension adjustments. Do I have a bad piston? Anything else I should look into?

 

[starion007]

Hello, I believe I read that the jointed arms nut is a friction fit and you can tighten that to adjust it. I would do that a 1/4 turn at a time and see if that helps. I'm thinking I read that in my camper packet.

Mark

 

[rmaly76]

Thanks Mark, I thought it would be a friction fit too. There is a nut attatched to a bolt with an allen wrench fitting. I did my best to tighten that but it did not budge. I didn't want to make it worse before confirming that would be the adjustment I needed. The manual I received was a generic just listing all Lipert Component but was able to confirm your advice via digging through LCIs website.

 

[FjClay]

My 22MLE does the same thing. The dealer told me it's the strut and ordered one for me, well its been 3 weeks and no word from them. I'm going to check it out myself this afternoon and i'll let you know if i can adjust the tension.

 

[geotex1]

Thanks Mark, I thought it would be a friction fit too. There is a nut attatched to a bolt with an allen wrench fitting. I did my best to tighten that but it did not budge. I didn't want to make it worse before confirming that would be the adjustment I needed. The manual I received was a generic just listing all Lipert Component but was able to confirm your advice via digging through LCIs website.

We had Soleras on our last two campers, and that nut is supposed to be adjustable. I suspect the two parts of the arm have been compressed (i.e., the "U" of the two pieces has been crimped such the legs are too close). Your choice is to pull apart and spread the legs of the Us a bit, or simple give LCI a call. In my experience with them over our Soleras, they were fantastic! Whether or not they have any parts on-hand in these times is another matter.

 

[rmaly76]

My 22MLE does the same thing. The dealer told me it's the strut and ordered one for me, well its been 3 weeks and no word from them. I'm going to check it out myself this afternoon and i'll let you know if i can adjust the tension.

Just got my 21BHE back from storage and was able to correct my problem with a 3/4 of a turn from allen wrench and bolt. This was much better than the fear of a bad strut I had as well. I hope you were able to check it out and get yours fixed up as well.

 

[FjClay]

I tightened the Allen head on mine also and it seems to be fine. It’s not quite as tight as the other side but seems to work ok. On a side note it’s been over a month and no word from my dealer if they have received a replacement strut. That doesn’t surprise me as Mike Thompson RV service department notoriously is terrible.