Awning Re-Attachment

[Shehanigans]

Leave it to me to be attacked by an awning. I left the trailer and it started raining. The awning was out straight and to its tightest point so it held a ton of water. I tried to then lower the awning unsuccessfully. I think it would have been a better idea to have two people so it could have released water evenly.

The awning came detached from the airstream where the fabric meets the trailer. The awning crashed down on me and the chair I was standing on (I know, that's what the step ladder is for). When my partner came home we detached the poles from the trailer so we could get the awning off of the ground and spare it from the dogs and children. Nothing really seemed bent. I didn't realize the force the arms would fly upward once detached and I was almost stabbed in a very uncomfortable place. What a mess. I was in tears. I did everything wrong in this situation it seems.

I just received a call from my company and its time to head out again. So we'll be headed from Texas to the New Jersey. Not only am I freaking out because I've never really set up camp before (we've been boondocked for 3 months) but I need to reattach the awning if I can. It looks as though the fabric just slides through the piece that's attached to the trailer. My thoughts were to take the fabric off of the Zip-Dee roll, attach to the trailer, then slide the roll back through and reassemble. I can't imagine reattaching to the trailer while holding the roll or how many people that would take.

I did a search on this in the forum and didn't see anything. I'll be happy to follow links. Any advice is appreciated. If I should attach pics let me know.

[barts]

I'm not sure how your fabric came detached from the trailer; there's a piece of plastic in a steam that's retained by the sleeve on the trailer. I would carefully inspect the sleeve to make sure it has not been spread out so as to lose some of its ability to retain the fabric, which is under some significant tension when fully extended.

We put the fabric on the trailer w/ two people, but it does take a couple of ladders. If you can get one more helper, you don't need to remove the fabric from the roll, which is nice.

The instructions from zipdee are well worth reading in detail:

Installations and Replacements

You may wish to look at our blog, where webspinner describes her sewing of a new awning to replace PO's previous replacement.

- Bart

[Shehanigans]

Originally Posted by barts

I'm not sure how your fabric came detached from the trailer; there's a piece of plastic in a steam that's retained by the sleeve on the trailer. I would carefully inspect the sleeve to make sure it has not been spread out so as to lose some of its ability to retain the fabric, which is under some significant tension when fully extended.

We put the fabric on the trailer w/ two people, but it does take a couple of ladders. If you can get one more helper, you don't need to remove the fabric from the roll, which is nice.

The instructions from zipdee are well worth reading in detail:

Installations and Replacements

You may wish to look at our blog, where webspinner describes her sewing of a new awning to replace PO's previous replacement.

- Bart

Thank you. That was very helpful. The fabric came detached from the metal.slat that is still attached to the trailer. Which means it needs to be crimped after sliding the fabric back in. Which was something I was wondering about. The instructions say to attach the fabric to the slat and then attach the roll.

With your link leading me in the right direction I was able to find a you tube video demonstrating how they are made. Which also helped visually. I just don't have the screws that go on the end of the cords and slat. But I think any phillips #6 will work.

I am going to attempt this without removing the roll though. It showed the metal slat detached from the trailer in the directions.

Off to inspect it further now that I know what I'm looking for.

[Shehanigans]

Originally Posted by barts

I'm not sure how your fabric came detached from the trailer; there's a piece of plastic in a steam that's retained by the sleeve on the trailer. I would carefully inspect the sleeve to make sure it has not been spread out so as to lose some of its ability to retain the fabric, which is under some significant tension when fully extended.

We put the fabric on the trailer w/ two people, but it does take a couple of ladders. If you can get one more helper, you don't need to remove the fabric from the roll, which is nice.

The instructions from zipdee are well worth reading in detail:

Installations and Replacements

You may wish to look at our blog, where webspinner describes her sewing of a new awning to replace PO's previous replacement.

- Bart

Oh and the plastic cord is all intact. I think the weight of the water just loosened what had previously been crimped.

[barts]

Yes.... it turned out the Tin Pickle's previous owner had crimped our awning tube so... vigorously... that we ended up cutting that part off and re-riveting on a new tube in 4' sections. This was much cheaper than trying to ship a 14' tube!

In this blog entry you can see us struggling with the fabric - there's a lot of it!

Tin Pickle Adventures: New Awning - sewing and metal repair

- Bart