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.
Hi Steve, this morning i woke in my motorhome to a thunderstorm with heavy rain showers. when i got to the kitchen i steped in a puddle of standing water coming from around the fantasticly dripping vent. I dont think it is the cover itself, but rather from around the vent. Can you do an article on fixing that sort of thing, what to look for, products to use etc.? thanks David
Gee, had I only read this when it first came in! When I put the awning up before moving to the new campground, it got away from me, rolled itself up and slammed up against the RV with resounding WHAM! Okay, I though, it’s up. When we went to put it down today, I found out it also wrapped the strap up. I was able to stand on the doorstep and push the awning out enough to see the strap. Whew.
I bought a 2009 vtech 16 foot toy hauler put the lever to open awning in open position and unlocked black knobs but still won’t let me pull open. Squeezed the black rubber pieces but center arm won’t release. Not sure what to do haven’t been able to use it
Larry – There are two possible reasons why the awning won’t open. 1) The lock lever on the end of the awning may have been open when you locked it. 2) You forgot to release the awning arm travel locks. There is one on each awning arm. I’m not sure what you mean by ‘center arm. If you have three arms, one on each end and another in the middle, the middle arm is a rafter. After extending the awning, the rafter swings up and connects to the roller tube. It’s meant to keep the awning from sagging in the middle. It doesn’t have anything to do with your problem.
See this YouTube video on how to open an RV awning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X0BV08J3Qk