Awning Retracting

[Wayne and Karen]

Hi everyone,

We know the awning retracts if winds are greater than seven miles per hour but can this be adjusted? (E.g. to ten miles per hour).

Thanks, sometimes the awning retracts and it just does not seem all that windy and we lost precious shade!

[Dennis and Melissa]

24 minutes ago, Wayne and Karen said:

Hi everyone,

We know the awning retracts if winds are greater than seven miles per hour but can this be adjusted? (E.g. to ten miles per hour).

Thanks, sometimes the awning retracts and it just does not seem all that windy and we lost precious shade!

If I had been able to buy the Oliver without any awnings (or, more properly, "sun shades"), I would have. ☹️

[rich.dev]

Not sure if this will work with your awning.

[Patriot]

2 hours ago, Dennis and Melissa said:

If I had been able to buy the Oliver without any awnings (or, more properly, "sun shades"), I would have. ☹️

I do like our manual awning. Zero issues.

[rich.dev]

25 minutes ago, Patriot said:

I do like our manual awning. Zero issues.

Lucky you, sure wish we had a manual awning! Oliver should make that an option. 

[Galway Girl]

Awning brand?

Edited Friday at 02:54 PM by Galway Girl

[Patriot]

43 minutes ago, Galway Girl said:

Which year trailer and awning model  do you have?  Please put your year , model of awning I’m reply so we can help. 

Its under his info - Hull #1432 - 2023 YM 

Edited Thursday at 11:38 PM by Patriot

[Dennis and Melissa]

16 hours ago, rich.dev said:

Not sure if this will work with your awning.

MDIV is in storage now, but I will definitely give this a try.  There is very little downside for me since I never use it as is.

THANK YOU

P.S. This forum continues to be one of the highlights of Ollie ownership.

[jd1923]

19 hours ago, Dennis and Melissa said:

If I had been able to buy the Oliver without any awnings (or, more properly, "sun shades"), I would have. ☹️

Us too, we never use our manual awning. Tried it once to know how to extend it, and since it was such a pain to do so, I haven't wanted to open it again.

If we had the powered model, I would have used it on this rainy morning for a little protection at the doorway when we took our dog out for morning business.

Also if we had the powered model, in a heartbeat I would rewire it to bypass the auto-retract feature. I dislike features that idiot-proof  for idiots! People should realize when it's windy and know to retract a power awning when leaving the campsite. 🤣

Last time this subject came up, I offered all who complained of their powered models to trade for our dependable manual awning in like new condition. We got no takers.

[Mike and Carol]

We have the manual Fiamma awning and have used it quite a bit.  We’ve done a lot of hot weather camping and it provides shade when sitting and cooking outside.  It has also provided shelter during light rains so we can sit outside and enjoy the weather.  We have a sunshade that easily hooks onto the awning providing even more shade and enables the awning to be used even in pretty windy weather..  I’m not a fan of automatic awnings, but it seems that is where RV’s are trending.

 

At Lake Guntersville.

 

At US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs.

 

Lake Guntersville.

[jd1923]

8 minutes ago, Mike and Carol said:

We’ve done a lot of hot weather camping and it provides shade when sitting and cooking outside.

That's the real difference. We hope to travel so not to use the awning, nor the air conditioner for that matter! It's 52F cloudy with light rain here in Brainerd MN today. Yes, the awning could have helped for the rain, if I put it up when we got here yesterday. But, we were hearing thunder and you can't trust to leave it out overnight in these conditions. Get stuck in a burst of wind and downpour trying to manually retract it. I imagine that wouldn't be fun, so ours just doesn't get used.

[Mike and Carol]

1 hour ago, jd1923 said:

But, we were hearing thunder and you can't trust to leave it out overnight in these conditions.

The few times I’ve left the awning out overnight I regretted it because I had to get up and crank it back in.  So, I’m with you 100% there.  Mike

[Wayne and Karen]

Thanks so much for the replies. No sooner had I written my post when a gust of strong wind ripped a neighbor’s awning into shreds! So our perspective changed on seeing that happen. We may try the reprogramming. 

[Ronbrink]

On 6/12/2025 at 5:39 PM, rich.dev said:

Lucky you, sure wish we had a manual awning! Oliver should make that an option. 

The manual awning was standard on our 2020 OLEll; the Dometic power awning was the option, which I have no regrets getting. 

[rich.dev]

24 minutes ago, Ronbrink said:

The manual awning was standard on our 2020 OLEll; the Dometic power awning was the option, which I have no regrets getting.

Sadly the manual awning was not an option on our 2023, we have the Girard power awning. Wonder why they scrapped the manual option, Im thinking maybe because they switched from Dometic to Girard? 

[Ronbrink]

23 minutes ago, rich.dev said:

Sadly the manual awning was not an option on our 2023, we have the Girard power awning. Wonder why they scrapped the manual option, Im thinking maybe because they switched from Dometic to Girard? 

Not sure, but did notice in years past they started offering bundled packages (decor, electronics, solar/batteries, etc.) and thus, eliminated many of the individual options while increasing the overall costs. 

[Steph and Dud B]

We've seen lots of awnings trashed by wind, usually when left out while the owners were away somewhere. We never leave our awnings out when we're not present and alert, even overnight. That said, we love our dual electric awnings. When camping in hot weather, I try to park the trailer in a North-South orientation so we have maximum shade on the trailer body. In the morning I deploy the East side awning, then the West side in the afternoon. Works really well.

Edited Saturday at 02:42 PM by Steph and Dud B
Typo

[topgun2]

34 minutes ago, Ronbrink said:

Not sure, but did notice in years past they started offering bundled packages (decor, electronics, solar/batteries, etc.) and thus, eliminated many of the individual options while increasing the overall costs. 

Basically - it is "we" who got what we asked for.  

The "packaging" of various options was primarily done for two reasons - we (the owners) were yelling (loudly) that we wanted better quality control and the packaging helped limit the number of different variations thereby simplifying the production process and, therefore, increasing quality.  At the same time, Oliver developed a multi-tiered quality control approach where each "station" on the production line was required to note that they had completed the "tasks" of that station and these things had been inspected for quality control.  Then, at a later date, when a quality issue was found, it could be traced back to the station where the issue occurred where either further training was taken or different processes were instituted.  The second reason was that the vast majority of Ollies were being produced with these same options anyway. 

Bill

[SeaDawg]

On 6/13/2025 at 12:21 PM, jd1923 said:

It's 52F cloudy with light rain here in Brainerd MN today.

One of my brothers lives in Brainerd.

Brainerd weather doesn't always look at the calendar. Lol. It SHOULD be in the 70s, but 40s or 50s can happen in June. 

At least it cuts down on mosquitoes. 

[jd1923]

So we woke up the other morning in central North Dakota, it was cloudy at 52F. We drove to our next stop, it got sunny along the way and later very hot, 85F and humid. Our camp was on lush grass by lake which made it feel worse.

So I thought, why not try the awning? It truly made a difference. With the breeze off the lake it felt 20 degrees cooler in the shade of the awning. It worked well. I could tighten it and then you could hear it vibrate in the wind and a turn looser was perfect.

The setup was less cumbersome than I had remembered it. I took it down as it got dark and good thing since we had light hail, heavy rain and winds that literally shook the Oliver!

I couldn't figure out the rafter. The awning had a proper receptacle for it on the extended side. Up along the Oliver roof it did not seem to have the same mount, even though the rafter has identical fittings on each side. I got it somewhat connected and even being tall I could not reach the tightening screw without a ladder or at least standing on metal milk crate we have. I just left it there untightened as it did not seem to matter. Is the rafter truly necessary? Any help or advice on how to mount it correctly and get it tightened? 

[Mike and Carol]

We rarely use the rafter.  As I remember it has a hook like thing on the trailer side and I can’t remember how it attaches to the awning.  I think it is to provide stability, although we’ve not noticed much difference.  I think it also helps in rainy situations if you forget to get enough angle for drainage.  Just don’t try to crank the awning in with the rafter still deployed!  Mike

[mossemi]

This is the rafter fixing point for the trailer side.  And I usually tighten the rafter knob before raising the awning to a height I can't reach.

Mossey