Hey Guys, OK, here's one I can't find on the forums yet. We have ordered and installed a new spring on our 16' ZipDee awning and all was working well for the first couple of weeks. Two days ago, we reopened the awning and the spring unwound itself inside it's tube and popped the first spring stop rivet inside the tube. Spoke with ZipDee and they are sending new rivets.
In the meantime, used an Olympic rivet and another brand to try to see if we could temporarily fix the awning. After struggling to drill out the old rivets, we replaced and rewound the spring. At wind #16 (supposed to wind 23 times for this length), the spring dislodged the new rivet! Reinstalled another longer rivet and rewound the spring. This time, we wound the spring 12 times and the spring held until we began to test roll the awning closed. Then we heard the spring quickly unwind and pop the second new rivet!
What in the world kind of design is this? I can't imagine how a little rivet can resist the tension of a newly wound spring. Has anyone else had this issue? My hubby is wondering if inserting a bolt might be a better fix, though I don't understand why ZipDee wouldn't have done already if it would work. Any ideas? Thanks to all for any advice. Sandy