Have you ever grabbed your awning rod and reached up to pull the awning strap and the loop was nowhere to be seen? If you haven’t yet you probably will. You could get a ladder and reach up and feel for it… it’s there somewhere… or you can skip climbing the ladder and do it this way.

Make sure the awning ratchet lever is pulled down and the travel lock is released, use the awning wand to hook onto the axle between the roller tube and the support arm. Pull down & out like you would pull the strap. You may have to alternately pull both ends of the awning until the strap reappears. When you can hook the strap, roll out the awning as usual. If you can’t reach the axle you can just pull out on the awning support arms.

A too-long awning strap is another problem. Trust me you don’t want to listen to the strap loop tapping on the side of the rig all night when the weather is windy. I have a good idea how Edgar Allen Poe really felt about that raven! The strap can also, over time, wear the finish of the wall from constant rubbing.

If you have a long awning strap, the next time you roll the awing in let the strap roll up at a slight angle. Doing so will wrap more strap with each roll of the awning. You may have to experiment with different angles to get it to roll up just right, but it works.

Surprisingly many RVers don’t use their RV awing because they don’t know how to use it. Follow the Basic RV Awning Operation Instructions, provided by RVBasics.com to learn how easily you can pull out and roll up your awning.