Manual Retraction of Electric Awning

[Packerman]

Hello! I have a 2017 Classic with the Zip Dee electric awning. In the event that the awning 12v motor fails, does anyone know how to manually retract it?

[wulfraat]

See page 13 of the attached user manual.

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by Packerman

Hello! I have a 2017 Classic with the Zip Dee electric awning. In the event that the awning 12v motor fails, does anyone know how to manually retract it?

Your Airstream's owner's manual may explain this. If not, your paperwork packet should have a mfg. pamphlet for the awning, which should cover it.

The Awning sub-forum may have some threads of interest when you have the time to check it out:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f442/

The Zip Dee manual just posted may also be available here:

http://www.awningsbyzipdee.com/relax...tructions.html

Good luck!

Peter

[BigSxyWhtGuy]

Great videos on YouTube in case you have to see this too. Hope in never happens to any of us!

[rperrym]

I did not see one on operating the power awning in a manual mode.

I have gone over the instructions on doing this in case it ever happens, but a youtube demo would be good.

Rick

[BigSxyWhtGuy]

Originally Posted by rperrym

I did not see one on operating the power awning in a manual mode.



I have gone over the instructions on doing this in case it ever happens, but a youtube demo would be good.



Rick

https://youtu.be/Cl8-5idoiHI

[Packerman]

I spoke with Zip Dee and there is an emergency retraction kit supplied with the trailer (that I did not receive). It allows for quick manual retraction with the use of a drill. I am going to obtain this kit and understand how to use it in case of an emergency. Thanks!

[AndyT]

I have classic 2017. I actually did it with AS on phone. There is a supplied cable that comes with the 2017 classic. It connects to your battery and awning motor. I only needed a ladder with them on the phone.

[capt_ron777]

Only tried this once for a few moments, but couldn't easily find what they were describing in the booklet and it seems confusing. Anyone have some simple advise on how to do this. I may just call zip dee when i take AS out of storage. Hate to be stuck with it open at the wrong time and be trying to figure this out. Thanks.

[glcmranger]

There is a YouTube video on it.

[Wazbro]

Originally Posted by BigSxyWhtGuy

https://youtu.be/Cl8-5idoiHI

That video only shows how to bypass the controls.

While that is a great thing to try before resorting to trying to manually retract the awning, it's not the same thing.

What do you do when the motor is the problem, not the controls?

[rperrym]

In the instruction manual there is a provision to roll the awning up when the motors are not functional using a battery powered drill.

Rick

[capt_ron777]

My manual doesn't mention anything about using a drill, though I guess that may be implied. It is just a very awkward description about how it explains with poor diagrams how to go about it. Anybody have simple description?

[BigSxyWhtGuy]

Originally Posted by capt_ron777

My manual doesn't mention anything about using a drill, though I guess that may be implied. It is just a very awkward description about how it explains with poor diagrams how to go about it. Anybody have simple description?

Have you tried taking it to the dealer for them to show you really quick? I’m sure the techs of JC can help break it down quickly and simply in person or over the phone.

Unfortunately I am an optimist that believes I won’t have to deal with this on my 18 for a least a year or two. [emoji6]

[rperrym]

To Capt. Ron:
you are correct, it doesn't mention using a drill but I would use one for the emergency hex drive for the arms, and the 7mm hex drive to roll up the awning. This should be described on pages 14 and 15 of the Zipdee paper instructions.

[spotted_dog]

We have 2019 AS Classic 33 and ran into the awning not retracting issue today on on Zip Dee. Our issue wasn't a battery one. I did try the 12v batter hookup to see if that would work but it did not. The awning wasn't moving at all. The issue started when I went to retract in the awning but instead the awning tilted out (even though I clearly pressed the retract button).

The manual wasn't much help. First is refers to everything with the assumption you are using the Relax control panel which the 2019 AS Classic does not have. The AS Classic has a custom AS control panel for managing the multiple aspects of the coach including the awning.

I did try to infer though from the very small troubleshooting section of that manual to figure out how to retract the awning manually The diagram and the instructions didn't really make any sense (at least not until I finally had a tech show me how to do it at a cost of $475 for a weekend/Mothers Day service call). See pict below.

The solution to getting it to retract at lease turned out to be very simple four our model so I wanted to document here of others since everything else i was finding didn't show this solution.

On the one awning control arm that has the power to it, at the end of the awning there is a hex hole where you can insert a hex bar (hex bar provided when we bought the trailer - see picture) that you can then rotate with either a power drill or a socket wrench to roll up the awning. This was not intuitive at all, especially since the symbol indicator for the hole was mostly covered up with wiring, hiding the symbol from sight.

Once you find this hole, insert the hex bar through it and then rotate the bar using either the drill (slowly) or a socket wrench, the awning rolls up quickly.

We will have to wait until we can get to an Airstream dealer to figure out what is actually going on but at least we have the awning up now so we can make the road trip.