Aloha! This is for my friends who have an RV awning or just like fixing stuff.
In February of 2023 I asked for advice on how to fix my RV awning because the cord was slowly coming out on one end everytime I opened and closed it. Here's a link to that video if you don't know or don’t recall what I'm talking about. In the video you can see the cord sticking out more than 6 inches.
With the help of 2 friends and a video from Hillbilly RV YouTube channel, my RV awning got FIXED!!! Hallelujah! Praise God! And it was easier than I thought. Here's a link to the Hillbilly RV video so you can see firsthand what I referred to (the first 6 minutes of that video is what I followed for the most part).
Sorry I didn't video the actual fixing of my RV awning because I was so focused on fixing it with my friends, Al and Pam, while we had the energy to do it in the hot afternoon sun. I thought it was going to take a couple of hours but it actually was not as difficult as I thought so it took much less time.
The plan was to slide the metal tube off of the fabric just enough to either push the cord back in or cut it off then stick that piece back in on the other side. In order to slide the tube off, we learned from Hillbilly RV's video that first the arms of the awning had to be strapped down to give some slack in the fabric, which was done with ratchet straps attached to the jacks below the RV. Then Al got on the ladder to unscrew the 3 screws in the cup that held the metal tube on one side while I held the tube. He nudged the arm a little to get it to unattach from the tube. I put those screws in my pocket so we could use them again later to reattach the tube. We noticed another screw that held the fabric onto the tube on that side so he unscrewed that too.
Next, Al did the same on the other end while Pam held that end of the tube. With the tube free to slide, Al slid the tube just a few inches until the part of the fabric where the cord came out was at the end of the tube and he was able to push the cord back in a lot except for the last inch or so. I was thinking "What is about the same width as the cord that could push it in the track?" when God blessed me with the idea to use a chopstick. I usually keep a pair of chopsticks in my kitchen drawer just in case I run out of clean utensils or use them as a tool. The chopstick worked!!! And on the other end Pam made sure the fabric with the cord was back in the track of the tube. Then we slid the tube back so the fabric was back in place and put the tube back into the cups of the arms.
I was so happy at this point that we didn't have to cut the cord, but then I thought, "How to prevent this from happening again?" that's when God blessed Pam or Al, I don't recall which but I know it wasn't me, with the idea to drill a hole next to the old hole where the fabric tore. The analyst in me thought, "If it tore before, how to prevent it from tearing again?" and that's when another divine idea came to mind: gorilla tape the fabric where the tear and new hole will be. I had some clear gorilla tape just in case my roof leaked. I cut a piece of tape a little bigger than the tear and the new hole and applied it, then Al screwed back in the 3 screws on each cup of each arm then drilled the new hole and screwed the screw in the new hole. Last, Al unstrapped the arms carefully while Pam and I held the arm down to ensure the arm didn't go flying up when the straps were removed.
So, here's what we ended up using to fix it (I'm just sharing what worked in my experience but keep in mind that if you do what I did you may not get the same results even if your situation is exactly the same. God has a funny sense of humor that way.):
1) 2 ratchet straps to hold down the 2 awning arms
2) ladder to unscrew the tube from the awning arms
3) drill with bit for philips screws on both ends of the tube, and a bit to drill a hole into the tube
4) chop stick to push the cord into the fabric
5) clear gorilla tape to reinforce the torn fabric
Here's the order of what we did. Please feel free to comment if you found another way that worked for you.:
1) hold down the arm while strapping it to something sturdy (repeat on 2nd arm)
2) unscrew screws on the cup holding the metal tube and the screw holding the fabric to the tube on one side
3) nudge tube out of cup of arm
4) someone holds this side of the tube while another person repeats steps 2 and 3 on the 2nd arm
5) while 2 people hold the tube, another person slides the tube until the end of the fabric where the cord is out is at the end of the track of the tube
6) push the cord back in while the person on the other end guides the fabric with the cord coming back into the track of the tube
7) slide the tube back in place where the torn fabric meets the screw hole
8) nudge the tube back into the cup of the arm (repeat on 2nd arm)
9) screw back in the 3 screws into the cup of the arm and the screw into the fabric that is not torn (repeat on 2nd arm)
10) for the side where the fabric is torn, drill a new hole next to the old hole through the fabric and metal
11) tape the fabric, covering the torn fabric and the new hole
12) screw back in the screw into the new hole
13) Praise God! You're all done!
Let me know if you found this helpful or not by commenting on it with why you found it helpful or not.
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And if you did not find it helpful then please suggest how to make it helpful to you.
I really enjoy helping people like you with what I share in posts, videos or in person so please let me know what I can share next that could help you or someone you know.
Mahalo for supporting my work which I’m doing to glorify God not myself by helping my brothers and sisters on earth while I still can.
I look forward to sharing more with you soon!
Much aloha and God bless!