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Old 02-20-2016, 06:36 PM   #1
silverbullet18
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Tilt on Electric Awnings

We just purchased a new 2016 Bullet a couple weeks ago and I have a question about the awning. The Palomino we traded in had a nice big awning on it with the knobs on the bottom so you could tilt it when it rains. One thing I wasnt crazy about on our new bullet was the awning didnt seem to be made as well as our Palomino and we didnt really have a chance to see if the awning was able to put one side down but I did notice it didnt have the knobs. Do all electric awnings have this tilt capability?
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Old 02-20-2016, 06:58 PM   #2
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Many do.
On ours, you pull down at the "elbow" of the lower support arm.

http://www.lci1.com/assets/content/i...n-1-101113.jpg


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Old 02-20-2016, 07:30 PM   #3
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Our Premier is supposed to dump the water every so often, based on the weight. I've seen it do it a few times, but prefer to pull the elbow down a bit on one side and lock it with a knob. That way I know where the water will come from.


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Old 02-21-2016, 04:32 AM   #4
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X 2 what ImTravis said. Put it up when leaving camper
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Old 02-21-2016, 06:00 AM   #5
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if your awning arms have a truss like configuration look along the side, you will see a little silver button and several holes. press in the button and pull down till it clicks into another hole. adjust as desired, but never go more than three holes different from one side to the other.
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Old 02-22-2016, 09:55 AM   #6
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Mine is auto dumping. It also has knobs on both sides you can either lock one side so it will dump on the other side. You can also tilt it if you chose to. I have always used the auto dump feature. Mine is a Dometic.
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Old 02-22-2016, 01:22 PM   #7
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You Tube search electric awnings for demonstrations.
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Old 02-22-2016, 02:58 PM   #8
GaryWT
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My Premier Bullet is auto dump as well as having the knobs to tilt it. I use the knobs if it is raining hard or I want to direct the water to one side.
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Old 02-24-2016, 01:37 AM   #9
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After having water dumped "automatically" on you at the end you're standing near, you'll always pre-tilt if you're going to leave it up in the rain. Ask me how I know.

Most of the places we go, rain means thunderstorms, which means high wind gusts, so we're pulling it in anyway. We watched in amazement as another unit's awning was almost ripped off one day by a quick short storm while the campers were away. (Probably hiding in a building somewhere... Ha...)

A few of the braver of us considered running over to pull it in for them if they happened to leave their door unlocked, but then the real downpour started and with no assurance that we could even open the door, we all just stood there and hoped for the best for them. Amazingly it survived. And our dilemma of whether or not to go poking around someone else's unit was solved.
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Old 02-25-2016, 06:19 PM   #10
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Anybody ever use the adjustable awning tie downs?
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Old 02-25-2016, 06:45 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GaryWT View Post
My Premier Bullet is auto dump as well as having the knobs to tilt it. I use the knobs if it is raining hard or I want to direct the water to one side.
How do I determine if my awning is auto dumping?
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Originally Posted by denverpilot View Post
After having water dumped "automatically" on you at the end you're standing near, you'll always pre-tilt if you're going to leave it up in the rain. Ask me how I know.

Most of the places we go, rain means thunderstorms, which means high wind gusts, so we're pulling it in anyway. We watched in amazement as another unit's awning was almost ripped off one day by a quick short storm while the campers were away. (Probably hiding in a building somewhere... Ha...)

A few of the braver of us considered running over to pull it in for them if they happened to leave their door unlocked, but then the real downpour started and with no assurance that we could even open the door, we all just stood there and hoped for the best for them. Amazingly it survived. And our dilemma of whether or not to go poking around someone else's unit was solved.

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Old 02-25-2016, 06:52 PM   #12
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Originally Posted by silverbullet18 View Post
Anybody ever use the adjustable awning tie downs?
I have them as leftovers from my previous TT's manual awning but have not tried them on the electric one. It might help cut down some billowing but would make it harder to retract quickly.

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Old 02-25-2016, 07:00 PM   #13
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How do I determine if my awning is auto dumping?

A photo would be better but I don't have one handy. Of course the owners manual should also say, but...

The arms holding it up will typically extend on their own because they have springs inside. If you push on them at their elbow, they'll allow the awning to move downward if the little wheel/screw isn't tightened up so they can't move.

What happens in heavy rain is the water will eventually move to one side or the other of the canvas and start to weigh it down into a "U" shape. One end will inevitably get heavier, and the spring on the arm will give way, allowing that end of the awning to be lower. Water will come pouring off of the top of the canvas, and the weight of the water will be gone, so the arm will spring back up.

This cycle will repeat forever in heavy rain and no wind. Heavy wind will mess with it, possibly blowing up from the underside of the canvas making it an upward "U" shape which will dump all the water away from the trailer, or blowing the water itself to the other end and making that side "collapse" and dump.

Folks are mentioning that if you screw down only one arm, and there's no wind or little wind, and your unit is reasonably level, that will force the other side to collapse it's arm first, and dump water over there instead of the arm you "screwed tight".

(Most of these arms you can't fully tighten them 100% anyway. The awning manufacturers don't want you to make a mistake and screw down both and have water pile up in the canvas so heavy in the "downward U" shape that it rips the canvas off of the reel or the side of the unit, so most of the screw stops will never completely tighten hard. They'll "give" if you push hard enough on the arm.

In general... Very general... If the arm has an elbow and goes up with spring pressure, that's "auto emptying". If it latches solid such that it can't move at all, it's not.

And most folks shouldn't leave them up in wind, no matter how sturdy they look. That'll just tear canvas and make the trip a sad one, eventually.

A buddy lost one with a tornado that came by too close for comfort last year. He went the $ route and called a local mobile RV repair place to come fix it on-site and he never broke camp. I wasn't there the day he lost the awning, but the repairs were underway the day after I arrived.

Some mobile RV repair techs really do nice work. Tech showed up with a new awning, properly prepped the unit, laid the new awning across a couple of foldable ladders he had, had one of us help him lift the thing up into place after redoing brackets and sealing and what not, and it was a done deal. But it wasn't super cheap... I think my buddy had some sort of insurance that was covering some/all of the storm damage repair.
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Old 02-25-2016, 07:03 PM   #14
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Quote:
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I have them as leftovers from my previous TT's manual awning but have not tried them on the electric one. It might help cut down some billowing but would make it harder to retract quickly.

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A different friend uses them on his electric and attaches the tie downs with screw carabiners. A quick walk to each corner to unscrew and detach them and his wife hits the roll up button. I've seen him do it in some
unexpected wind too, and it works. He can hang on to that corner well enough to keep it still enough to slide the carabiner off and drop it on the ground with the tie down rope then hurry to the other one and do that one. Wifey again, hits the button. (Honestly he could dash inside and do the button almost as fast as wifey and he's headed that way anyway. They just teamwork it.)
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Old 03-02-2016, 07:58 AM   #15
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I use tie downs for mine. 5 mph wind and it looks like it is going to fly way even when I lock it down.
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