Most of the new units you are gonna encounter nowadays are going to come with power awnings. This makes life a lot easier to deal with. With the power awning we find on trailers they roll out fairly flat. So what they’ve integrated on the awning arms is a little pin system. This system here allows us to adjust the stance of the awning when it’s fully extended to create a side slope, to allow runoff away from the site you’re living under the awning or in heavy rains you could run both sides down to have good runoff. A flat awning will collect water start the puddle that will stretch your own material and effectively ruin your awning. Simply push the button and it’ll look after itself.
On our trailers, these awnings do not have a stop function so you will need to keep an eye on it. You can’t let it extend fully, otherwise, you can overwrap and start to bring the awning back in with the material wrapped up underneath. As well a lot of the units are equipped with LEDs on the awning, so come evening now you have extra light at the campsite when you’re outside enjoying the evening.
With a power awning, unfortunately, they can’t be secured like you can on the manual awnings. and the way, of course, we know our wins here in Alberta if you’re gonna be away from your trailer for an outdoor walk or bike ride or come evening and you’re going to bed, definitely bring that awning back in. it doesn’t take much seeing the way winds come up around here to have that thing on your roof in a matter of minutes.
General maintenance for your awning would be simply the ram here. I recommend a silicone spray, give it a spray wiping the ram and in the o-ring. Debris can cut the O-ring causing the shocks to leak as well as any moving parts. We’ve got wheels that roll up and down to the track here give it a shot of your silicone spray and any pivoting points on the awning mechanism itself will help keep it from seizing up from rusting and give you several years life.
The other nice feature we have with our power awnings is once they are retracted tight to the body of the trainer, they are stowed locked ready for travel. We do not have to tie down the arms or lock off any other mechanisms, you’re good to go.
