2018 LEII manual awning

[Liana]

Our Carefree manual awning has stopped retracting all the way. The forward end goes in leaving about a 1/8th in gap, the rear about 1/4 inch.  Is there something we can adjust on it to help it go back to closing flush?

[hobo]

Might want to check to see if there is some debris in the channel at the top of the frame where the fabric meets it.  There is a little trough there.  Maybe somethings is wedged in there.

 

[Landrover]

My awning does the same always has. I crank it to the end back off a half turn and then back in it goes right in.  I tried the little bit of adjust available with no success. 

[BackofBeyond]

Ditto. Just gave up. 

[dewdev]

I am having the same problem. The right side (front of trailer) goes in all the way and the left side sticks out about 3". I have this situation when the side rail clamp bolts are tight as well as when the bolts are loose. Spent many hours making adjustment and trying to solve this problem including multiple discussions with the Carefree factory. They have not solve the problem as well.

I have to get a ladder and push the left side closed and then tie it closed with a string, prior to traveling with the Ollie. This problem is a real bummer. I really do not want to replace the awning and certaintly do not want a electric awning.

Does anyone know if the 2018 Ollie is pre-wired to provide power to an electric awning? 

If anyone has solved this problem, I would appreciate to know what  you have done. Help please ???

Thanks

Richard

[SeaDawg]

I'd probably lay in a supply of good long zipties, rather than string, til you figure it out .

We've never had a carefree, but most awnings have adjustments. Sound like you've already worked on making sure its all rolling at the same rate on both ends..

If that hasn't worked for you, I'm guessing two possibilities.  1), the fabric has stretched unevenly from ponding water in rain event(s.)  2) the rail at the top has sprung a bit from the weight of rain ponding on the awning. We could see a gap at the middle, under the bow, in our old awning.

But, our awning was 10 or 11 years old.

Both the above happened on our original awning. We used it in light rain, though not recommended.  Even though we were careful to create spill with a change of plane, it can happen. 

 

 

[dewdev]

Seadawg: - What did you do with yours? Did you replace the fabric or the entire awning?

Thanks

Richard

 

[SeaDawg]

We replaced the entire awning, because the upper case and roller had bent. Even then, ours rolled better than yours, maybe a quarter to half inch extra on the forward side. We used big zipties when we traveled.

 Our vinyl fabric was delaminating, and we thought about just the fabric (would have been significantly cheaper), but with the bow, we figured after (I think) 10 or eleven years, it didn't owe us anything,  anyway. And, we knew we'd caused the issue, and owned it . We use our awning almost every day that we camp. And, that's a lot of days...

If you have a good, honest rv dealer near you, you might want to ask them to take a look at yours. I know you've tried a bunch of adjustments,  but sometimes it's just a matter of a poor spring,  a broken gear, or an adjustment to the mount. At any rate, a $75 or $100 inspection fee could save you a lot. Or, at least let you know whether you need to replace fabric, a part, or the entire gizmo.

Good luck. Awnings aren't cheap.

 

 

 

[Mainiac]

Richard.. After we talked, got curious. When your awning is all the way out, have you measured the fabric? Was thinking it might be longer (stretched) on the left, as it rolls in the upper tube and is pulled to the right?

[dewdev]

Bob:

Thanks for the suggestion to measure the fabric. The left side (that  was not closing all the way) was almost 3" longer than the right side of the awning. I did not do anything with that issue. We did notice last week, while camping, that the awning fabric does not roll up straight but tracks over to the right when cranking it in.

With the awning cranked out all the way, I could see where the fabric attaches to the roller.  I pulled the awning fabric over so it was equal on both left and right sides.

I could not believe it but the entire leading rail of the awning now closes on both ends. The problem apparently was all because the awning fabric was pulled to one side too much. If the fabric tracks straight up when closing that seemed to be the secret.

Maybe that will work for others that have similiar issues with their (not so) Carefree Awning. 

[Liana]

I'll look at ours next time the wind dies down to see if I've  been missing this.  I don't think it's our issue but it's worth looking at 

[Mainiac]

Great. This seems to have eliminated a lot of grief. Good job!

[Overland]

I'm curious how difficult it was to pull the fabric straight.  Were there any fasteners holding it in place, or do you just grab a corner and pull?

 

[dewdev]

Overland:

The fabric apparently slides into the roller and I did not believe there is any fasteners.  This is how one replaces the awning material.

I got up on a ladder and grab the corner of the fabric close to the roller and pulled (kind of hard). Be careful not to pull and slide it too much. If you do, you can go to the front side of the Ollie and pull some of it back.

Watch the fabric when you roll the awning back in to confirm that the edge is  tracking straight onto the previous roll and not sliding of to the side. 

Good luck.

[Overland]

Thanks.  Both of my awnings are slightly wonky, but maybe only ¼" or so.  It would be great to be able to make them perfect, but also maybe not worth the trouble.  

[SeaDawg]

I'm guessing your awning slides into the roller on a bolt rope sewn into the fabric. Uneven tension or stretching with wind or rain, or uneven rolling could shorten one side. (Sort of like candy striping on a jib sail roller furling, but not quite.) 

Glad you figured it out! Happy camping, in the shade. 

[GarryandKristi]

On 6/21/2021 at 10:36 AM, Liana said:

I'll look at ours next time the wind dies down to see if I've  been missing this.  I don't think it's our issue but it's worth looking at 

Another thing to look at assuming that you have about equal lengths of awning extended is adjusting the pitch of the awning. I just did that with ours and it helped with retracting the awning flush on both ends.  I made sure the trailer was level front to back, then checked level on the extended lead rail. I raised the low end by turning the 5 mm Allen screw on the attachment hardware at the top of the arm clockwise until nearly level then finished with lowering the other end a bit by turning that one counter-clockwise (didn’t want to put too much tension on the low arm). That pretty much fixed it. Will check extended length on both ends now that others have mentioned that. See Page 8 of the attached. 
 

We have had an arm slide over on the lead rail so make sure those Allen bolts are tight at the lead rail. We’ve also had to replace the manual retractor gear as  it would not retract all the way without slipping (like a bad ratchet drive). These things are not carefree over time. 
 

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