Awning

[Max20]

I purchased a 2020 Montana 3791rd. I had the awning out while it was raining. The water pooled and then one side of awning collapsed(for lack of a better description), the water ran off and then awning popped back in place. Is this normal or is there an adjustment to give awning a better angle for water to run off?

[sourdough]

The answer is both. If you don't angle the awning it will collect water until it reaches a certain weight and then it will "auto dump" the water and return to the normal position. If you have the Dometic awning like ours all you have to do is compress one side then tighten the tension knob to hold it in position so the water will run off that specific corner. I don't like the auto dump because I usually jump out of my skin (especially at night).

[FlyingAroundRV]

^^^What Danny said, with an additional, remember to loosen the nut again before you retract the awning or you will damage the arms.

[JRTJH]

Another caution: You can tighten the tension adjusters in the "full up" position and completely disable the auto dump feature as well as preventing rain to run off the canvas. Doing that will completely eliminate the water dumping feature and will allow the water to pool on the canvas. You can, depending on the amount of rain, "fill the awning to capacity" and literally rip it off the side of the trailer or bend/buckle the awning side arm assemblies. In other words, if you do "go adjusting the awning to stop the auto dump feature, think about what you're doing or you could destroy your awning in a heavy rain.

[sourdough]

John brings up an excellent point. I always tilt my awning. Not only does the auto dump "bang" startle you but I've been outside to watch it "do its thing" and the awning gets too heavy and stretched IMO before it dumps to let that be a normal method of operation for me. Over time I'm afraid the stretching will become cumulative and eventually ruin the awning.

[travelin texans]

If you have the Carefree awning with the push pin hole settings on each arm you can angle the awning & still retract as long as there's no more than 3 holes difference between the arms. I set mine to dump to front of the 5er away from the door, but normally if heavy rain was forecasted I put awning away.

[Tom N OH]

When rolling the awning out, roll it all the way out, then retract a little bit, just until the valence hangs straight down. That way, the rain water will run off over the top of the roller tube, instead of pooling behind it.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by Tom N OH

When rolling the awning out, roll it all the way out, then retract a little bit, just until the valence hangs straight down. That way, the rain water will run off over the top of the roller tube, instead of pooling behind it.

This what I do, then lower one end, typically the end towards the rear of the camper. Our waning is electric and there's not alot of clearance above the front door. I added a roller ball on the front door but still don't like to "push my luck" with it.

First time we were camping in a heavy rain I witnessed a trailer "self dump" and I thought for sure it was going to rip off the side of the camper. It was so loud sever people came out to see if their trucks had been hit.

Got to admit that after 7 cervical spine and 6 shoulder and arm surgeries I like pushing a button to open the awning. However; if it's windy (like on the beach) I do miss the old manual awning. With the manual awning I would deploy 2 sets of awning de flapper, 3 awning tube hold downs staked to the ground (one on a center support I added) and it was good up to about a 40 m.p.h. gust.