[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.