justjames

Thanks to a member of the forum, I was put in touch with some folks at the Red Bay, Alabama Girard plant. Once I explained my problem, they knew exactly what the problem was. Fortunately it was a 5 minute fix! The motor/spool assembly is held in the cassette by three phillps head screws on each end. They are visible once the end caps are removed. He said the roller assembly fits inside the cassette with very little clearance. Sometimes the screws are tightened enough to slightly torque the assembly causing it to rub inside the cassette. The solution is to loosen the screws by about one turn. I tried this and it worked immediately. His suggestion was to leave the screws in that position with no worries of them loosening further. He also confirmed that the spring arms do all the work when extending the awning. All the motor does is spool out the tarp. Thanks again to Geronimo John and dewdev for their responses. I now know more than I ever wanted to know about the operation of the Girard 750!

As it turns out, the cassette is all one piece and the top can not be removed. Motor, roller or tarp replacement all comes out the end. It would seem this is getting out of my realm of capabilities and desires :).

Ok boys and girls, here is what I've learned today. The spring arms have no visible damage to the knee joints or the joints where they attach to the trailer or leading edge. There is no evidence of the attachment points now or ever having been loose. When manually retracting the tarp, it moves in easily. I used a 1/2" ratchet to do the work. I assume there is a mechanical safety or something which prevents manually rolling it out. There is an immediate hard stop when attempting to do so. While manually cranking the tarp in, I noticed while the tarp was in the outward most 40-50% of its range the spring arm tension would slightly push the tarp out while I was free wheeling my ratchet. Once it was in the last 50% of the inward journey, it was noticeably tight. I deployed and retracted the tarp 5 times and it became noticeably tighter on each successive cycle. Something is binding in the center area of the roller. I do not see any way to remove the cover allowing visible or physical access to the roller area. There has to be a way, I just haven't determined what it is.

My awning uses three spring arms. I haven't specifically inspected the elbows but have been up close and personal with them as I attempted to blow out any debris which could have gotten inside the arm enclosures. I didn't notice anything unusual but will inspect more closely. As best as I can tell, the tarp opens symmetrically. Keep in mind, the first half of the opening is accomplished by me pulling the tarp out while the motor is unspooling it. Somewhere in the 50-60% range, it will operate on it's own and it continues until the knees lock out at full extension. It looks symmetrical at that point. At no point of this process does it look uneven. It stops opening at roughly the same place which is only an inch or two out. It clears the cassette enough for me to get my fingers in and grasp it to pull it out. There is no audible difference in the motor sound at that point. There is a manual crank which the owners manual says is for emergency retraction in case of motor failure. I don't know if it can be cranked out but will try it tomorrow as well as pushing in on the arms at various intervals to get a sense of different tension. At no interval is there any obvious difference in the tarp tension. It stays pretty even and taut. As to the next step, I will probably bow out and make an appointment with a Girard dealer if the above actions don't turn up the culprit. I really appreciate your time and thoughts on this. Either way I will report back and let you know what happens. James

OK, here are some answers to your questions GJ. They are in no particular order. We bought this trailer used in January. The awning worked properly when I was inspecting the trailer before the purchase. It worked properly once I got it home, primarily to demo it to my wife and friends. My trailer is stored inside and sat for a few days prior to my next attempt revealed the problem. I do not know how many times it had been used previously. I have not tested the current draw on the motor since I was told by the Girard rep that if it was retracting properly the motor should be fine. He is also the one who told me the motor was just unspooling the awning during deployment thus very little load on the motor. I do not detect that the mounting bolts on the arms are now loose. There are no scratch marks or other evidence that they have ever slid on the mounting track. There is some slight "barber poling" when the awning is retracted. If looking at the spool, the barber pole spiral is from right to left and is about 1.25" in length. Having said that, there is still over an inch of space on the other end of the roller so there doesn't appear to be any binding. Girard does have a couple videos online about changing the arms and they make it pretty clear that there is tremendous tension on the springs. They ship their new arms with multiple layers of shrink-wrap holding them together. Unfortunately, the manual doesn't cover my issue in the trouble shooting section. Thanks for your suggestions and I'd appreciate any other thoughts. James

All good questions and I will be able to answer tomorrow. Thanks Geronimo John.

We have a 2021 LE2 equipped with the Girard 750. It has developed a problem which I can't solve. It has quit deploying properly. The motor runs and it will move out of the cassette about 1-2 inches and although the motor continues, the awning stops. I can manually pull it out while my wife operates the controls. Once it is about 50-60% of the way out, it will then work properly on it's own. It retracts fine with no issue. After several conversations with Oliver and a couple with the Girard factory rep it is my understanding the springs inside the arms provide all the "push" to deploy the awning and all the motor is doing is unspooling the fabric. I have had both end caps off the awning and nothing is visible that would cause the problem. I thought perhaps something was causing the springs to bind inside the arms so have used an air nozzle to blast compressed air through the arm channels to clear any obstructions. Dust and a couple of dead insects were all that came out. At this point a I've struck out with Oliver, Girard and a couple of local RV service departments. None seem to have ever heard of this problem and can offer no further suggestions other than "bring it in". Help!

Thanks for all the input, I decided to go with the Proven.

Wow! Thanks for all the fast responses.

Greetings! We're the new owners of Hull 693 and are excited to hit the road. The last few years have allowed a fair amount of tenting and two years of truck camping. The Ollie is a huge upgrade! We're planning a couple of local shake down runs and then in late summer we plan to head into the northern Rockies and follow the temps south for several weeks. Next year the plan is Alaska. I have spent several hours on the forum trying to get a quick education but I realize there is much to learn. My first question is about coupler locks. What is the current recommendation for securing the coupler while out exploring? Thanks!