Securing the awning when extended. ie: tying the awning down

[sptddog]

Too funny on the tires!

I will vouch for the crappy wind tolerance of electric awnings. Last year, we left ours out while playing wiffle ball in the field next to our site. Thankfully close. It was windy, but the not so windy that it was 'worthy of putting the awning up'. Or so I thought. Thankfully I was close - the wind came up under my front awning, and lifted it up and pulled the awning material up and over the roof. The awning arms were up in the closed position (but higher, since the arms were out). I thought that thing was a goner. I ran fast, hurdled fences and bicycles, and managed to get it in before the next big gust of wind. No fun. I haven't tried to tie it down yet, but I did buy the hardware to do so. On weekend trips I don't mind putting it in, but when we go for a week and are near the beach, every day is breezy enough to make it bounce. Our old 'traditional' one never moved unless it was truly, truly bad.

The other issue with the electrics is that I can't tilt it nearly to the extent I did the traditional one - a heavy tilt reassured me in rain, but allowed me to leave it out if the winds weren't major. I've lost one to rain once that was tilted (on a horse trailer), but only by two olds lower on one side....not nearly enough tilt for the barraging rains that came fast. I've also seen the 'power dump' feature not handle the fast downpours....neither is pretty.