Carefree Awning / Need advice

[Jack & Trish]

Need suggestions as to how best to handle an awning issue with our Ollie that we picked up on December 19th. We ordered it in the middle of August and selected the grey stripe Fiamma awning. When we picked up, it had the charcoal Carefree awning on it, when I asked about it Phil explained about the tragedy at Fiamma and said they had to move to Carefree. Well all that kind of took my breath away and I said no more at the time. Now, if the awning were Charcoal as it is called and not Charcoal and Deep red stripe as it is, it would be fine, but my graphics are golden yellow and grey so the deep red isn’t what I want. Oliver wants to satisfy me and I much appreciate that and they want me to tell them how to fix it. The Carefree 10 year warranty fabric only comes in the 3 colors as listed on the Oliver site, none of which go with my graphics. The other ones available in vinyl are all 1 year warranted. The only way to get a solid or tweed grey is to go with acrylic. Well my knowledge on either vinyl or acrylic is so limited, I am at a complete loss, thus I need advice. Anything you could offer would be much appreciated.

 

 

[topgun2]

Assuming that you don't want to change your graphics, it appears that you really don't have much of a choice in the type of material for the awning.  I'm of no help regarding the pluses and minuses of vinyl or acrylic - sorry.

 

Bill

[Overland]

We have the carefree awnings in solid charcoal acrylic, and we love both the fabric and the color.  It feels like a really nice canvas, very tightly woven and seems like it will hold up for a long time.  Definitely an upgrade from vinyl.

 

You'll notice that their acrylic colors have duplicates, and that's because they source them from two different companies, Sunbrella and Recacril by Recasens, which I think is a Spanish company.  I researched both and ended up choosing the Recacril, though either would have been fine, as they're almost identical.  I ordered a swatch set of each from somewhere online (a few bucks per) so that we could compare the actual colors rather than rely on photos.  Our color is R-164 Charcoal Grey, and it's a true dark charcoal.  The Sunbrella charcoal is slightly lighter.  If you want a medium to light grey, then you'd probably like the Cadet Grey from either line - those are #'s R-138 and 4630.  It's a warm grey.  The cooler version of that would be Argenta from recacril, R-123.  Charcoal Tweed from either is also a nice fabric, basically alternating lines of black and tan.

 

Here's a picture of ours with the dark charcoal - not the best photo of the awning but you get the idea - just solid charcoal grey.

 

 

[Overland]

Here's a slightly better photo -

 

 

[Jack & Trish]

Thanks so much. Big help, did Oliver do the install and is all the mechanicals the same?

[Rumline]

Now, if the awning were Charcoal as it is called and not Charcoal and Deep red stripe as it is [...]. The Carefree 10 year warranty fabric only comes in the 3 colors as listed on the Oliver site

 

Thanks for bringing this up.  I hadn't noticed the red stripes in the photo before...maybe last I looked it still had the Fiamma options.  Anyway, does this photo look pretty close to how it is in real life, regarding the proportions of grey to the thin red stripes?

 

[Overland]

Thanks so much. Big help, did Oliver do the install and is all the mechanicals the same?

Yes, Oliver installed them for us.  No difference other than color - since it was a special order anyway, we asked for the silver casing.

[Jack & Trish]

No, Rumline. That is the problem, there are very wide stripes of red also. I tried to find a picture of the whole thing on the internet but all that are available is the one you sent. We haven’t opened it again and I haven’t wanted to as we are returning it, but if we can get some decent weather in the next few days, I will try and get you a picture. I believe Oliver is going to have some disappointed customers with this one. The color name charcoal grey, along with the picture is just not factually correct.

[Rumline]

Hmm that's strange.  Maybe a bad batch from Carefree?  Here's their web page that shows the fabrics that I believe are Oliver's standard choices:

 

http://www.carefreeofcolorado.com/rv-products/premium-vinyl-fabrics.html

 

Edit: let me just link the photo too.  Edit2: The forum appears to be shrinking the image.  On their actual webpage the resolution is higher and you can see the stripes easier.

 

 

You can see the thin red lines between each color band for each of the fabric choices.

 

If your awning differs significantly from that I'd say the problem is with Carefree's manufacturing.  Regardless, I hope Oliver is able to get you squared away to your satisfaction.

[KarenLukens]

Honestly, I think that Oliver should just go with the Dometic as they have with so many other items...

 

https://www.dometic.com/en-us/us/products/climate/awnings/awnings-roof-mounted

 

EDIT: with apologies to Reed and Karen - from Scubarx

 

Above link is DOA try this one:

 

https://www.dometic.com/en-us/us/products/climate/awnings

[TexasMarshall]

I have had problems with the carefree awning from day one! I consider them junk!