Awning Safety Straps

[Jim and Frances]

Having seen and talked with owners (non-Oliver) that have experienced awning unfurlings at 60MPH, I added some inexpensive safety straps to our awnings.  (As Justin Wilson use to say, "I wear a belt with my suspenders 'cuz I'm a safety engineer").

The actual straps work great.  The buckles will start to rust after a year or so but are inexpensive to replace.  UV will also likely reduce the strength of the straps so it's on our recurring maintenance replacement list.

The "lock out" indicators help me from opening the awning with the strap on, which assuredly I would do!

Parts used listed below.

 

 

 

Straps from Amazon

Red Velcro for "Lock Out" indicators

Small Circular White Velcro Dots w/ Adhesive

 

[John Dorrer]

Strange. We have a 2022 and haven't heard this. With the wall panel switch off, that shouldn't happen. You can also push the lock button on the remote. Just don't see how that could happen. Never seen a post on the Forum or Facebook.

 

So what awnings do your friends have? Are they power awnings or manual? Never heard of the Girard experiencing this. 

Edited Friday at 02:15 AM by John Dorrer

[Steph and Dud B]

I'm aware of swing out roller style awnings opening while traveling but I've never heard of this type of box awning doing that. The mechanisms are very different.

[Jim and Frances]

I have heard of no Oliver / Garret awnings unfurling.  My friends were in an Escape (Canadian) trailer.  I don't recall the brand of awning but they were electric.  I decided to do this after I noticed our curb-side awning was a slight bit ajar while on the road.  It was not fully embedded in the housing after some high winds while camping.  After I adjusted the motor, all was fixed.  Yes, I should have done a more careful walk-around prior to leaving after the high winds.  I also adjusted the wind/motion sensor to be more sensitive.

Was not trying to suggest any problems with our Garret awnings.  Just one less thing for me to worry about - hence my "suspenders and a belt" comment.  Or, one is none and two is one.  😀

[John Dorrer]

2 hours ago, Jim and Frances said:

I have heard of no Oliver / Garret awnings unfurling.  My friends were in an Escape (Canadian) trailer.  I don't recall the brand of awning but they were electric.  I decided to do this after I noticed our curb-side awning was a slight bit ajar while on the road.  It was not fully embedded in the housing after some high winds while camping.  After I adjusted the motor, all was fixed.  Yes, I should have done a more careful walk-around prior to leaving after the high winds.  I also adjusted the wind/motion sensor to be more sensitive.

Was not trying to suggest any problems with our Garret awnings.  Just one less thing for me to worry about - hence my "suspenders and a belt" comment.  Or, one is none and two is one.  😀

It is"t uncommon for the Girard to not close flush. This requires a slight adjustment. No way that will lead to it opening. 

[SteveCr]

I have hull 806, a 2021 LE2. A couple of years ago my Girard awing unfurled on its own while I was preparing the trailer to leave our campsite. I had to manually crank it closed and tie it off to keep it closed. I eventually took the trailer to the Girard Red Bay Al service center to have it repaired. They said the motor brake failed and replaced the motor...about $1k, if memory serves me right (warranty expired).  I now keep the awning strapped tight when traveling...similar to the picture in Mr Jim's post.  I was very lucky it failed while at the campsite and not 60 minutes later at 60mph. 

Here is what was happening when it failed.....the awing was fully deployed and working fine. Preparing the trailer to leave, I retracted the awning. It did not close all the way...about 2 inches short. I then deployed it fully again with no problem and retracted it. Again it stopped about 2 inches short. I then started to deploy it again when it suddenly "let go". It self deployed about 10 times faster than normal and "slammed to a stop" at full deployment. At that point the awning would not move in or out with the motor. I thumbed through the Girard instructions and learned how to manually crank it in. 

I would advise everyone with this type awning to apply a strap when not in use. I have a piece of tape on the inside switch to remind me to remove the strap before deployment. 

Be careful out there!

Steve

 

[jd1923]

3 hours ago, SteveCr said:

Be careful out there!

Was 2005, our family moving from VA to AZ. I purchased a race car trailer, since it was the largest cargo trailer I could find used locally. Had a 26' cargo box, a 31' trailer and when packed with all of our family belongings to move west, it weighed 14K LBS, towed behind a new 2003 Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins 5.9!

It had a 24' awning. We made it all the way to New Mexico. Boy-oh-boy is NM the sand storm and WIND state! Towing down I-40, looking at my sideview mirror while towing at 60 MPH, I could see the entire awning like a gullwing sail flapping in the wind and pulled over ASAP! All I could do, to get back on the road, was to rope tie it up on the rear end of the awning (the front had held).

Sold the trailer a few weeks later, after moving into our new/current home. Before that, I deleted the awning, made it look like it never had one! 😎

If something was to happen to our Oliver awning, I would delete it as well. We've used it 4 times in 150 overnights. I've already deleted a few unused rooftop items, and would do so again. Our Fiamma closes on the front end and is always 1" short on the rear end from closing. We also have a safety strap! (look closely top-left)

[Bill and Nancy]

We have a 2022 elite II and this is something all together different than the awning opening while driving. We found out totally by accident that if the awning switch is left on the key fob for our truck activates the awning when you lock or unlock the doors the. This isn't normally  a problem because the awning switch is not left on but it almost caused a divorce because we kept blaming each other for activating the awning when it was the key fob all along.

Its always and adventure

[John Dorrer]

20 hours ago, SteveCr said:

I have hull 806, a 2021 LE2. A couple of years ago my Girard awing unfurled on its own while I was preparing the trailer to leave our campsite. I had to manually crank it closed and tie it off to keep it closed. I eventually took the trailer to the Girard Red Bay Al service center to have it repaired. They said the motor brake failed and replaced the motor...about $1k, if memory serves me right (warranty expired).  I now keep the awning strapped tight when traveling...similar to the picture in Mr Jim's post.  I was very lucky it failed while at the campsite and not 60 minutes later at 60mph. 

Here is what was happening when it failed.....the awing was fully deployed and working fine. Preparing the trailer to leave, I retracted the awning. It did not close all the way...about 2 inches short. I then deployed it fully again with no problem and retracted it. Again it stopped about 2 inches short. I then started to deploy it again when it suddenly "let go". It self deployed about 10 times faster than normal and "slammed to a stop" at full deployment. At that point the awning would not move in or out with the motor. I thumbed through the Girard instructions and learned how to manually crank it in. 

I would advise everyone with this type awning to apply a strap when not in use. I have a piece of tape on the inside switch to remind me to remove the strap before deployment. 

Be careful out there!

Steve

 

Did you by chance have debris as acorns, broken branches that may have kicked the awning back out. Girard and Oliver say if you run it out and in you need to let it rest so you don't burn up the motor. You far exceeded that warning. There is something hear that just doesn't make sense. I maybe totally wrong, but I think the motor wasn't allowed to cool down and this was self-inflicted. This is solely my opinion.🙃