awning wind guard

[GlennWest]

Well, it was disabled, I enabled it and it retracted. Very mild wind. Will not stay out with it enabled. What gives? Also how much wind will an awning withstand without damage? I see a lot of other coaches with their awning tied down. Is this a good practice? I know this is probably basic questions but we're new to this.

[Motor31]

From my experience the wind sensor on the dometic electric awnings is only good for a short time. I disabled mine when it started to retract the awning when it got to 90 degrees outside, wind or no wind. I now just use it when I am "home" to monitor it. I retract it in windy conditions as well as the manual one on the slide out.

I never tie down the awnings. You could put a 1 ton boat anchor on the awning but it won't stop the awning from being pulled from the trailer, especially with the small screws that were used by double tree in the trailers. I watched a tied down awning break the partially tear off of an RV last winter during a windy period in Louisiana. The owner ended up cutting the awning off of the trailer. The main roller assembly was broken as well. The anchors still held the arms to the ground but the rest of the unit failed. He was lucky the awning didn't cause more damage to his rig as it flailed around in the wind.

Having seen the "performance" of slide toppers in wind, I'll quite gladly pass on those as well. They are very noisy and shake the heck out of the unit in high winds. I have also had parts of the faded and peeling toppers of neighbors units blow into our space and over our rig. No thanks.

[Gemstone]

"especially with the small screws that were used by double tree"...

...boy, ain't that the truth. Including those used on the slide topper assembly.

The wind ripped our awning off, due to a defective control unit, then come to find out that the factory had not set the wind speed option correctly, so it probably wouldn't have retracted anyway. Like Motor, I never leave ours out and unattended.

Regards
Gemstone

[GlennWest]

Thanks guys. God bless. I'll just retract it when I leave or the wind gets up.

[RonS]

We also just use the manual operation of the awning, just dont trust it. Will roll up if a car drives past, got the codes to set the awning and have tried each setting but still rolls up at a slight breeze. I just leave it off all the time, and roll it up if we leave.

[Carny Bill]

Mine is just the opposite, it will not close even in a small gail.

So I also use it manually.

[Diesel-Gypsy]

Oginally my power-awning had a mind of it's own as well.
It was a frustrating mix of all the above mentioned ills.

A little over 15 moths ago at the Perry, Ga. GoodSam Rally they had (amongst many others) factory reps there just looking to fix various problems.
They (Dometic) fixed me up with a new roof-top wind-sensor, and a new control box.
I have to tell you it works as it should.
No longer has a mind of it's own, it does exactly what it is pre-set to do.
So, there is hope.
I would contact them for any possible up-grades they may have quietly introduced into the circuitry, and ask them for some help.

When the awning does what it is designed to it is a nice option.

Rick