Awning tie downs?

[docbluedevil]

Hi all,

Been taking the Safari out camping a fair amount over the winter/spring and am realizing new things about RV'ing that I'd like to run by ya'll... [I actually have a few q's but will keep them separate to maintain thread unity.]

1) Do you use awning tie downs? Do you feel that the awning is safe to leave out overnight (assuming there are large gusts around)? Bought some lights to hang on the awnings but it seemed like too much of a pain to take them down for the night as I put the awning away?

Regards,
Abe

[53flyingcloud]

Originally Posted by docbluedevil

Hi all,

Been taking the Safari out camping a fair amount over the winter/spring and am realizing new things about RV'ing that I'd like to run by ya'll... [I actually have a few q's but will keep them separate to maintain thread unity.]

1) Do you use awning tie downs? Do you feel that the awning is safe to leave out overnight (assuming there are large gusts around)? Bought some lights to hang on the awnings but it seemed like too much of a pain to take them down for the night as I put the awning away?

Regards,
Abe

I can tell you from my own experiences that:
"The law of averages will finally catch up with you" if you leave them extended overnite..
During the daylight hours, I keep the ends of the main awning "tied down".
I've seen what can happens to unit where the owner was away for a day trip, lose their awning due to "sudden wind gust"..Happened all too fast and the result made for a bad camping experiences~
At the time this happened, I was standing on a table getting ready to lower my awning when, that same wind gust nearly ripped my awning out of my hands. Between the three of us, we were able to get it stowed before any damaged. It was too late to do anything for the other unit.
The same can be said for leaving chairs, etc out while away from the camping site as well..
You just have to be aware of weather conditions for each day..
ciao
53FC

[joel]

We were at Bull shoals state park last september in north Arkansas. We happened to listen to the radio and heard that ther might be some wind gusts at night so we rolled up the awnings and tried to tell some of the other campers . Sure enough at about 2am we had 60 mph gusts. I was out with my flashlight and tools helping to remove several awnings that were wrapped around trailors and cars. I guess the moral is to allways try to listen for the weather on the radio or to have a weather radio for safety.We lost an awning on our old trailor wwhen we left for 30 minutes two years ago.

[docbluedevil]

There will always be such incidences unfortunately and it would likely take a pretty decent wind to cause such damage; the awning is definitely going up in those circumstances.

But, I'm talking about those afternoons where the wind occasionally blows and sometimes the awning flaps a bit. I'm thinking that would be a time in which awning tie downs could be useful. As well as those little awning-flapper-minimizing-chip-clip-looking things I've seen in a CW catalog. I've read in such conditions there could be significant wear and tear on the awning fabric over time.

Abe

[wahoonc]

Abe,
We always use awning tie downs, if there is any chance of gusty winds. We stay at a large campground in Myrtle Beach, that has permanent campers set up ocean front, they leave the awnings up all the time. They have the "de-flappers" on them and use the big heavy tie down straps with the springs on them. When we used our popup, I would almost always leave the awning up, but it was staked and tied in all directions, never lost it even in bad storms and with 45 mph wind gusts.

Aaron

[smily]

If you leave your awnings out at night and or leave them out without tie downs, rest asured, you will return to this thread one day and reply with the following:

"Well, woke up last night to a thunderous crash. Does any one have a used awning arm or two for sale.........."

Or you can reply with:

"Woke last night at 3 am to the sound of a neighbor camper fighting his awning, had to help him straighten his awning arms and tube. Thank god mine was STOWED."

Tieing awnings down is a must especially if you are going to be away from your unit. Mind that wind not only can cause damage to your awning arms, even if it is tied down, it will cause stress at the awning rail. As Wahoo, siad the camp grounds in Myrtle Beach are ocean side, I have seen countless awning accidents there, even awnings that are tied down. It happens in a flash!

You can tie down your awnings at night and that will help with wind accidents but it does not take much of a midnight rain to weigh it down and bend the tube. Of course you can lower one end to prevent "pooling"

An ounce of prevention...........

Smily

[53flyingcloud]

broken awning This was just posted by another owner..
I don't know the particulars but..the end results were the same..
I'd say he got off lucky~!
ciao
53FC