Window Awning Failure

[Fred Brooks]

   Greetings Folks,
  I thought I would give you guys a heads up on an impending failure on your Zip Dee window awnings. On coaches older than 15 years, the thread that holds the "flex key" fabric between the awning rail and the aluminum "flex slat" has rotted away. On my coach the fabric has also rotted away to the point of separating and ripping away. In the event that had torn loose all the way down, the window awning may have come off in transit. It is hard to imagine what kind of damage that could cause on the interstate to another vehicle.
  It is not too hard to replace to the flex key fabric. Zip Dee includes 2 small flex slats to hold the awning together so you don't have to remove the window awning while replacing the flex key. Fred Brooks

[Mike Shumack]

While you're on the subject ....
If you have a Carefree awning, watch out for rusted "cover attaching screws". On the Carefree you use a hook to pull the awning down then attach the straps to hooks on the body to keep it in down position. When I pulled on the awning (hook tool goes into the slot in the aluminum cover) the entire cover pull off and swung down on one side. I have now replaced all the cover attaching screws with SS screws.
There are only two screws per side that hold the cover on. The black plastic piece only goes halfway around the shaft, so will pull off easy if screws are missing or lose.

[Fred Brooks]

   Mike, good to know seeing that you can't get any Omega parts anymore. Fred

[George Harwell]

Mike, the hole with the grommet is where the awning strap came through. That’s what you pulled to extend the awning. A poor design because the straps kept breaking. I use the awning as a topper and installed a Zipp Dee over the window. The awning cover screws from the factory were pretty good material but probably got replaced over the years. A couple of years back I got slammed with a 50+mph wind gust that caused the cover to come off at the front end. I didn’t know it until a truck kept flashing his lights. The cover was blocking the passing lane. Amazingly not a scratch on the coach. I put a permanent repair on the cover by drilling through the arm and installing stainless steel bolt and self locking nut. No more screws to worry about.

[David T. Richelderfer]

Our coach is a 2004 Beaver Marquis Sapphire with two combination Carefree of Colorado topper/pull-down shade awnings.  The metal rollup cover over the awning material has an oblong hole at its center for a pull-down strap to protrude from the awning roller.  The inside end of the pull-down strap slides into one of the grooves in the metal roller that the awning material rolls onto.  On the outside end of the pull-down strap, there should be a rubber grommet about 1" long x 1" in diameter.  This grommet has a hole through its center in which to insert the right-angle end of the cane to pull down the awning for a window shade.  The inside end of hold-down straps similarly slide into grooves in the metal roller but do not have the rubber grommet.  Those two hold-down straps have a sewn-in loop on their outside end to hook into the plastic keepers attached to the outside of the coach.

About a year ago, we had three new topper awnings installed on our coach - one was not a combination topper/pull-down awning.  Thus it did not come with three staps - one pull-down and two hold-down straps.  But the two combination awnings each came with three new straps... which I didn't use because the old straps were in great shape.  I can easily install them when the old straps wear out.