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Tronadora · 07-08-2018, 10:39 PM

Well, it happened to us too. Our wonderful Fiamma Eagle awning had started acting funny... hesitant to seat itself... motor skipping a gear here and there at full extension or retraction. Today, at 65mph on a two lane road in Eastern Oregon.... minor wind gusts... no big deal. Then, BAM! our awning had deployed by itself, with no alarm, and became a big sail and effectively destroyed itself. It felt like a 100mph sideways gust but I think it was a small gust that started a sequence of events that sent it flying up and then crashing down against the side of the coach.

Anyway, it's ruined. Could not get full retraction to happen. Had no ladder... no shoulder to drive onto... standing on the passenger seat I finally got a bungee around the front portion so I could drive @ 55 for about 25 miles. Motor/gear combo is no doubt shredded before I pulled the fuse. Finally got to a tiny town (Riley Oregon, where there is one service station/store and that is IT !). Backed up alongside a parked lowboy trailer and stood up on that to make the necessary "repairs", consisting of applying a 4" wide Eternabond tape strip at front and back. Backed that up with a couple of strap style bungees. Snipped the blue wire that was causing the infernal interior beeping, and off we went.

If your awning starts acting up, remember that problems never fix themselves. Get it checked out before a long trip.
Now then... I have read other people's woes and mistrust issues with these Fiamma awnings. For those of you who replaced with something else, did you replace with:
Carefree or ZipDee ?
Manual or electric ?
Same style with no braces, or with the additional angled support braces?
Or does yours have the scissor style support brackets at the ends?
Would you do the same again ?

We're currently enroute from Oregon to New England and would like to locate a stocking dealer that can respond on short notice somewhere along the way (ID, WY, SD and/or NB, IA, IL, OHio etc.). Suggestions are welcomed. Thanks !

Alex AVI · 07-08-2018, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tronadora

We're currently enroute from Oregon to New England and would like to locate a stocking dealer that can respond on short notice somewhere along the way (ID, WY, SD and/or NB, IA, IL, OHio etc.). Suggestions are welcomed. Thanks !

TRONADORA - Very sorry to hear this ruin your trip.. Glad no one got hurt. My rv mechanic /friend has a takeoff from a brand new Chinook that was removed due to minor paint scratches during transport. If you were not so far north of Utah, I would ask him which brand/style/size/color it is and volunteer to drive it up to you. But I am way down in Las Vegas, NV. If you still want me to ask, be glad to call him tomo.

BurntAsphalt · 07-09-2018, 05:59 AM

Pretty obvious that the cheap plastic gears in the awning motor aren't designed to withstand the wind forces at highway speeds. There have been multiple reports of "unintentional deployment " of the Fiamma awnings through the years. After it happened to SthrnGary's new AI last year, I wrapped ours with Velcro strapping on each end. It is a pain to mess with to remove when we use awning but the piece of mind is worth it.

Titus · 07-09-2018, 06:06 AM

Are these problems unique to the legless awnings with wind-sensing auto-tract, or are those with legs that attach to the aid of the van susceptible too? If the latter I may use a couple of Velcro strips to safeguard it. I think I have used the awning once in 4 1/2 years and 50,000 miles, so having to remove the Velcro straps is not that big of a deal.

RoadJager · 07-09-2018, 07:55 AM

If you have a Fiama awning you must have the following: Telesteps ladder or equivalent, large 24''wire ties and/or a full spool of duct tape and a large sharp industrial box knife. I documented our awnings failure else where in this forum a few years ago. Once we resecured our awning and returned home, it has been repaired with replacement gears. The replacement gears are exactly the same ones that failed. Since the repair we have never used the awning again. "Once bitten, twice shy." My suggested tools included an industrial box knife because the possibility is very high that you will have to cut the awning away, especially if it deploys at highway speed. There will be no way to manually crank it back to a stowed and locked position. We were 'fortunate' that we were in our campsite when ours failed. I might note that it failed while we were attempting to secure it just before a tornado producing storm front was approaching us while camping in NW Arkansas. At the time, we had none of the mentioned tools. Fiama awnings, by design and material choice will fail, be prepared. Stand clear while retracting the awning, when the gears fail, the awning will fall down very quickly. My wife was hit when ours failed.
Duck and Cover.

Shamus · 07-09-2018, 09:38 AM

The same thing happened to us with a carefree awning. I have started to use the Velcro strap solution.

Skerr · 07-09-2018, 04:05 PM

Mine is old, but I have a Carefree awning on mine. It has a long handled crank to roll it as far as you want. There are supports that swing down and fasten into the side or can be used straight down. I have never put the posts on the ground. It is at least 10 years old.

RoadJager · 07-10-2018, 07:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shamus

The same thing happened to us with a carefree awning. I have started to use the Velcro strap solution.

Good safety precaution and I would suggest this and any other precaution you can do. BUT what a pain in the butt each time you use the awning. Get the ladder out, climb up the ladder at least twice, secure the awning and restow the ladder. All that is assuming you can safely climb a ladder without personal physical restraints. As much as we have paid for our rigs, I find it ridiculous that we have to contend with such a sub-standard unsafe product. In our case we don't even use it because we don't want to roll-the-dice and have another failure.There are enough reported/documented incidents of failure for Airstream to either demand that Fiamma fix the issue and demonstrate the fix works or tell Fiamma that they will find another supplier. Things like this traditionally don't get settled in a normal reasonable logical fashion. It usually takes a long costly lawsuit. Then ultimately the reasonable, logical fix is used. Why not just use the money they would use in a lawsuit to find a solution to the problem and fix it. Airstream would look like a hero.

Tronadora · 07-10-2018, 03:35 PM

All good comments.

Shamus, was your Carefree awning on the Interstate? I know they are common on the AS tow trailers. Was that standard issue for your model or a retrofit? Was your mishap caused by a malfunctioning motor, or is a manual version and it was not secure ?

If anyone has a Carefree awning on their Interstate, could you post a couple of pictures? I'd like to know how it looks and learn how it functions regarding secure latching.

Thanks !

jim.waters · 07-10-2018, 04:06 PM

My awning unfurled while parked in the storage lot. That's the only good news. The part Fiamma calls the winch failed. As everyone who has had problems now knows, the winch holds the awning closed.

I called the Fiamma office in Orlando. That was shortly after one of their employees went Postal. The person knowledgeable about our awnings was one of the unfortunate victims. The remaining folks were trying very hard to be helpful. After much back and forth I was able to get the part. Without doing lots of digging, my recollection is that the part was about $100. BTW our awning is model F65 Eagle. The part number is 98667-106 on page 61 of the Fiamma parts catalog. This was in October of last year.

Replacing the winch was pretty simple and only took about a half hour to install. The awning has worked properly since. Same as others, I am very reluctant to open the awning, but, to date, have not velcroed it shut.

The person I dealt with at Fiamma was Pattie. Their phone number is 407-672-0091.

Hopefully this may be of help.

Sebtown · 07-10-2018, 04:51 PM

My 07 AI came with a manual Carefree of Colorado awning. I had to replace the crank gears as they striped one day while I was cranking it out! I used to Velcro both ends as a safety precaution but now I just Velcro the leading end. Not at all difficult as I can reach it from the sliding door way. I am one of those people who didn't think they wanted or needed an awning but have come to learn that for us it is a necessity.

InterBlog · 07-11-2018, 05:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tronadora

....
If anyone has a Carefree awning on their Interstate, could you post a couple of pictures? I'd like to know how it looks and learn how it functions regarding secure latching.....

IMO, a legless awning makes about as much sense as a headless Class B engineer, which is apparently who decided to put those things on Interstates. Not only do the legs provide security against up-and-over gusts of wind, they allow for variable deployment. By that I mean, if it's a little bit breezy, one can manually extend the awning out only part way and lock it into place at that point.

Here's a pic of ours below (taken as I was making a bug screen for it), but note that T1N Interstates had them mounted on the SIDE of the van. That's not possible with NCV3s because of the way the slider door was re-engineered. I don't know how a Carefree would mount on one of those.

I wouldn't trade it for anything else. The K.I.S.S. principle definitely applies with this type of device.

Tronadora · 07-11-2018, 06:44 AM

Yes, the Fiamma 65 Eagle can also be deployed part way and we did so often. Now I want to deploy it off a high bridge.

The easiest replacement is <sigh> another Fiamma. Although I am tempted to go with the F65 non-Eagle, so no auto-retract. Maybe even go with the model without a motor. It pains me to consider this but the brackets are already there and can be re-used.

Would love to see how a Carefree looks on an Interstate or other Sprinter body when it is retracted. Close-up pictures anyone?

InterBlog · 07-11-2018, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tronadora

....Would love to see how a Carefree looks on an Interstate or other Sprinter body when it is retracted. Close-up pictures anyone?

Again, sorry ours is a T1N Sprinter, so this is a side mount, not a top mount, but here's a few pics FWIW. This Carefree is very well-made. That entire outer cover is extruded aluminum - very light and it seals nicely. It works well with our van because its color is silver. It's not very noticeable given how it blends in.

These pics were taken at our boondocking property. Our Interstate is a very spoiled Interstate - it has its own off-grid property built just for it (eye roll).

Interstate20 · 07-12-2018, 07:40 PM

Our 2007 (TIN) Interstate came with the Carefree awning and all went well until it would not wind back up a few weeks back. When we went to stow it, as soon as the crank was turned even a little bit the awning let loose and extended way more than it ever had before. Trying to wind it back in with the crank did not work as it seemed the gears were stripped. With help from others we were able to get it wound back in eventually by pushing forcefully on the crank and also pushing on the two spring loaded arms.
once all was wound back in a we strapped everything together with a zip tie at each end and that is the way it still is.
My guess is the gears are stripped but can see no way to get to them so if anyone has had to do this (I saw the entry from Sebtown and figured there must be a way)
The other choice is to not use the awning but we did find it helpful - our local RV repair guy is so busy this time of year might have to wait a while, so any suggestions would sure be appreciated - Thanks in advance.
Bob in Anacortes

InterBlog · 07-13-2018, 06:22 AM

Hi, Bob - long time no chat. Thanks for the heads up - our Carefree has never given any sign that something might let go on it, but it's good to know the failure mode, if a failure were to occur. Next obvious question is whether replacement parts could be bought for it.

Ruscal · 07-15-2018, 01:03 PM

We had a hand crank Fiamma on our Scamp TT. It really was a nice awning. It extended quite far from the side and required the braces to be attached to the side of the trailer, or placed vertically to the ground. It deployed easily and retracted fully into the can. I believe it was a F-40. I like it better than the ZipDee we have on our AS.
Russ

Tronadora · 07-18-2018, 06:40 AM

Ruscal and others with hand crank models,

What secures the awning in place once it's retracted? Is it a self latching mechanical catch?

Are the gears for winding it in the same fragile, breakable plastic we've grown to hate so far?

At this point, between gravity, road vibrations, 65mph, and side gusts I'm a bit leary of any and all solutions...

Thanks!

Titus · 07-18-2018, 07:34 AM

I too am leery based upon the failures that have been reported. We are embarking on a 9000-ish mile trip to AK this Saturday, and last night I installed Velcro straps around the awning front and rear. We have only used the awning a couple of times, so the above solution should not prove to be too inconvenient. Far less inconvenient than an inadvertent deployment at highway speeds!

I wanted to disable power to the awning, to prevent accidental extension with the straps in place. Per Airstream wiring diagram 953058S3 the awning (and step/awning buzzer) receives power from 20 A fuse 12 under the drivers seat and the step receives power from 10A fuse 10, But I found that puling fuse 10 or 12 did not remove power from the awning motor, So instead I pulled the wire from one of the terminals on the back of the awning switch. I pulled each wire until I found one that did not allow the awning to extend when pushing the extend side of the switch.

Tronadora · 07-18-2018, 09:03 AM

Thanks, Titus.

On our 2015 the power for both awning and power step come from Fuse #10 under drivers seat. If I get an electric model installed I'll investigate having those wires separated and run to two different fuses.

We are half way to New England from Oregon now. I'll be starting a post soon about my rear suspension woes. Tried to do upgrades at the last minute and trusted the wrong "professionals" !

Best of fortune on your trip to AK !!
Fuel often !