34V curb side awning

[Mark R. Obtinario]

Hello!

Last summer during our epic journey across 15 states and 7100 miles we saw and did a lot of fun things.

One of the places we visited was the Badlands in South Dakota. There is a reason why they call it the Badlands!

While traveling through the Badlands we were in the edge of a tornado. Weirdest weather I have ever experienced. I have never felt a hot wind like that before.

At one point the wind was going from right to left at a speed of at least 30 MPH. Thankfully our 34V trails along behind us like a tail on a dog.

When we stopped for a bathroom break at a picturesque location I noticed our awning fabric had somehow been pulled out. Once the wind relaxed enough the spring would roll the fabric back up--the rafter arms were still solidly locked down and were not moving, the wind was strong enough to pull the fabric out against the spring. Unfortunately while rolling back up it didn't roll back up straight on the roller. It eventually got wound around between the end of the roller and the rafter arm.

As I tried to deploy the awning with the hope of getting it to stow properly it just got worse. At that point my wife pointed out that the seams had been ripped and the fabric was in tatters. Our solution for getting the show on the road was to cut the fabric off and duct tape the metal cover down.

Fast forward to today, we were able to order a new awning fabric from Zip Dee and I had it installed today.

If you are ever in need of replacing the awning fabric on a 20+ long awning I would suggest you leave it up to some professionals. It took three guys who know what they are doing more than three hours to install the new fabric.

If I knew how to post pictures I would post pictures of what it looked like in SD last July and what it looked like this afternoon.

Now all I have to do is get up there with some sort of cleaner to get the duct tape mess cleaned off of the trailer skin and metal awning cover.

[Avionstream]

Thanks for the info. The awnings like yours are just too big to fix by yourself. Ours needs some work, but we generally don't deploy it. I'm glad you got it repaired, did you take it to a rv repair shop?

[Razorback]

Makes me want to check our awning after the windy drive we had yesterday.

[KYAvion]

You're right about those awnings. I salvaged the awning fabric from the three Zipdee awnings on our prior trailer, and removing them was no easy task. Whoever installed them really enjoyed using their crimping tool!