Cranking mechanism broken on awning.

[TonyG]

I was cranking up the awning the other day when there was a cracking sound and the awning unrolled itself. Now can not crank it up. I believe this awning was made by Dometic. I have the original paperwork that came with the coach. There is a schematic parts diagram of the awning but the detail is poor. Does anyone have any experience with this problem or a possible solution.

Thanks. TonyG

[skater]

There's really not much to our awnings. They work very simply: the arms are spring loaded, always trying to straighten out, and as you've discovered the tension in the gearbox is what keeps the fabric taut.

I suspect in your case the problem is the gearbox (for lack of a better name) that translates your cranking to a rotational movement broke. The pictures here may be of some help, but if you have a different year than mine the awning is probably somewhat different. I think replacing it involves removing the mechanism from the camper, putting on the endcap with the gear box, then reinstalling the awning. It's a headache, but it sounds worse than it is (and that applies for mine, again, yours might be different).

Note - although Dometic is on the awning, many of them were actually made by Fiamma. I have contact info for both companies at home. I know the awning on mine was actually made by Dometic, so it was after 1991 that they switched to Fiamma, but I don't know exactly when they switched manufacturers.

[TonyG]

The responses to my post were not particularly helpful so eventually I removed the awing and dismantled it. The problem lay with the "Stop Device" This is the part that transitions from the round roller tube to the square shaft that fits into the gearbox. Partially plastic, and partially aluminum it contains a one way clutch. This had worn out. It was a Fiamma and the parts guy there was very helpful and the part cost around $40.00. By the time it got to Canada what with our taxes and UPS brokerage fees, exhange rate etc. it actually cost $100. It was a fairly simple fix. The hard part was remounting the awning onto the brackets.

[Keystone]

Tony, your message from Sept. 09 about your awning could have been written by me today. I have a handful of broken black plastic parts and the awing will not roll up. I'm happy to hear that you were able to fix yours. I looked at the Fiamma web site and it looks like I also need the right stop device.

My question to you: Do you think I can I replace this part while the awning is deployed and still attached to the van? I don't want to remove it if I don't have to.

[TonyG]

I am glad my post was helpful. I don't think you can replace the stop device with the awning in place. Also you need to get a metric calipher and measure the diameter of the stop device as there are several different sizes.

The awning is fairly easily removed by drilling out a few pop rivets and unbolting some screws. It weighs about 70 lbs so an assistant with muscles would be helpful. I was fortunate in replacing it in that I have a deck that I could park a few inches away from. That way I was looking down at the awning as I replaced it onto the brackets. That was the hardest part as I did not have any help.

Fiama is 407-672-0091. I talked to a Bob Snyder. He was really good. The part arrived in Canada about 5 days later.

[Keystone]

Thanks to Tony and the fine folks at Fiamma, we've managed to replace the broken part in our awning and it's now mostly working again. We learned from Fiamma that it is possible to replace the stop device without removing the awning from the van, but it's an awkward, 2+ person job. We actually had trouble with the non-winch end of the tube slipping from its proper location in the endcap, and unfortunately didn't notice that until we had rolled up the lopsided awning with great difficulty, and kind of frayed the edge of the vinyl. Now we've got the entire assembly back together with tube in its correct, level position. We lubricated all of the lube points with lithium grease spray, and the awning works pretty well, though it seems to need a helping hand to tug the awning assembly out before it will deploy with the hand crank. Anyhow, it's a 16-year old awning that still works, so we're happy.

The Fiamma site has a bunch of operational and repair videos that can be helpful to diagnose your problem and determine which parts to buy if your awning is not working. And, as Tony says, the technical support guys in Florida are helpful on the phone, too.