RV Awning Disaster | A Story of Overcoming It

If you spend a lot of time at RV parks you notice that there are a lot of torn and broken awnings. When you first start out you think How did their awning get like that? You convince yourself that those people must have done something wrong. Then one day, it happens to you! To make you guys aware of this, here is our RV Awning disaster story…

Our RV Awning Habits

Whenever we get to a new RV site, the second thing we do is extend the awning (the first thing is to hook up electricity).

The awning is our porch.

It defines our outdoor space and seating area.

We usually put our outdoor rug and chairs under it.

It makes our RV feel like home.

We are constantly monitoring the weather – will it be hot, cold, any storms, and how are the winds?

Whenever we see the day will be extra breezy, the awning goes in, I mean we don’t want to damage our awning, right?

How Did Our RV Awning Break?

We have an automatic awning… or one that has a button that you push to extend and retract.

Very simple and we love it.

So, what happened? Why did it break?

Was it electrical?

Did the material just wear out?

Our awning completely tore where it attached to the RV.

The mechanical aspects of it worked perfectly fine.

Simply, it broke due to a surprise gust of wind.

We didn’t bring in the awning overnight and we didn’t expect the day to be so breezy. The nightly forecast was calm with very low winds.

When I saw the weather report for the day (which I check every morning before even getting out of bed), I immediately went to retract the awning.

It was already too late.

What Happened After the Awning Tore?

We were able to safely dismantle the entire thing – mechanical arms and awning material.

We called the insurance company and were transferred to the Awning Department.

Okay, maybe that is not the exact name, but there is an entire division set aside for awning claims.

Anyway, we sent them photos and received recommendations on where we could go to have it inspected.

Once inspected, we were able to move forward with the claim and then had the RV awning repaired. It was a fairly pain-free process.

What Have We Done to Keep Our Awning Safe?

We retract the awning every night and every time we leave the RV.

It’s been nearly 3 years since this originally happened, and we are still keeping to this schedule.

We also bring it in anytime there is any questionable weather or it even looks like the weather may turn.

So far so good and our awning has not been damaged.

Additional Unexpected Awning Issues

Something that took us by surprise was our new awning. From the start, it didn’t extend or retract very quickly. Over the years, it has gotten slower and slower. There have been moments when the motor has stopped working.  I have to had to get up on the picnic table and pushed it in!! Not the best when the weather turns quickly and the awning has to go in right away. At some point, we plan on having a mobile RV repairman take a look. Maybe we can simply get a new motor.

Otherwise, the awning has been fine.

Final Thoughts

We were upset about our RV awning tearing. The RV works fine without it and it isn’t needed, but it was one of our favorite things about RVing. Having that special space. It was a place that provided an extra room for entertaining purposes like playing (especially with LEGOs), watching movies, etc. We are also relieved that no one was under the awning when it collapsed. That would have been a real disaster.