I know. I get preturbed too when the thing won't stay out while we're at the rig. But if I turn off the sensor I then tend to be distracted from whatever else I'm doing by my memory of that old awning incident, ca. 1989.
It was a 100+ degree day, with a very light breeze. The kids and grandkids had just left camp for home. I put out the awning, grabbed a beer, and flopped on the sofa looking out the window enjoying the lake view. Within one minute a strong gust came up the slope off the lake (Owyhee), and I stared in bewilderment as the awning arms dis-riveted from the coach side and the whole thing parachuted over the roof. We were lucky the arms didn't slam into the streetside wall (behind my sorry self) as many others have experienced, doing considerable damage.
I spent several hours in that infernal heat topside, as the afternoon grew warmer, trying to remove the dozens of screws holding the awning to the top rail, and securing the awning and arms to the roof in a bundle safe for travel.
As an aside, and with apologies for being a tad off-topic, that was topped a year ago on Canada 1 in the Rockies when the main awning motor shaft let go the roller tube at 60 mph, and the thing rolled right out (CareLess Eclipse). Good thing we were in the righthand lane! This time the material slipped right out of the Alumagard cover (at the top rail), the scissor arms slamming out at their terminus with subwoofer sound enough to make us both jump out of our seats, the wife in a literal panic as it was all on her side. It took a half mile to find a safe place to pull over, and that ended up with the mechanism hanging over a steep downslope, material flopping in the wind making it that much harder to get under control. The story gets long, but suffice it to say that even with a new BCS-replaced motor and tube end up there, I'm nervous on the road
. I'd feel better if I could find a fail-safe way to secure that roller tube that didn't involve getting on the roof with ropes again!
The motor and shaft were just fine; it was the tube end where a worn aluminum port engages the steel shaft. But CareLess won't sell just the tube end - of course you have to buy the entire drive mechanism. Beware - if your Eclipse awning arms start making funny sounds when extended or retracted, stop using it until a knowledgeable tech can examine why, and checks the solidity of the driveshaft/tube cap engagement! Any binding of the arms can cause the shaft to force itself in the aluminum cap until the port wears from "square" to circular, leaving little to keep the tube from freewheeling and rolling open on its own with the slightest road bump.
Joel
