Awning pulling away from trailer

[JimmieRas]

I just went out to the trailer today to do a roof repair but found that my awning has started to pull away from the trailer. Trailer has not been moved from our home storage in over 12 months. It is a 2018 Steller toy hauler. Last week this situation was not visible. I'm looking for advice on possible causes, proper repair, etc. Last time I had awning in operation was roughly 3 weeks ago when I did some routine checks to cycle the slides & awning & run the generator.

 

[donn]

Looks like the mfg missed studs. Take the rail apart. Find studs to secure it to. Apply fresh butyl putty tape. Screw it in place, reinstal everything. That should do it.

 

[Rene T]

Have you tried to tighten all the screws?

 

[JimmieRas]

Have you tried to tighten all the screws?

Rene T, the screws seen in the pictures will not tighten. They have stripped themselves as they pulled out.

 

[JimmieRas]

Looks like the mfg missed studs. Take the rail apart. Find studs to secure it to. Apply that I fresh butyl putty tape. Screw it in place, reinstal everything. That should do it.

Donn, can I safely remove the remaing screws or is there to much spring tension in the awning that could cause it to completey / suddenly release? I am not sure if I need to totally remove the awning to do the repair you suggest. I am hopping that your suggestion is the correct one!

 

[Kirk]

Are you the original owner? If so you might be able to get advice from the selling dealer's service department. And you do need to fasten the awning from turning if you remove all of the screws as it does have some tension on it when fully retracted.

 

[donn]

Donn, can I safely remove the remaing screws or is there to much spring tension in the awning that could cause it to completey / suddenly release? I am not sure if I need to totally remove the awning to do the repair you suggest. I am hopping that your suggestion is the correct one!

Personally I would remove the awning completely. Then the mounting rail. Fill the holes with silicone or something permanent. Clean everything up removing all the old junk. Locate studs, drill and mount the rail using all new SS hardware, reinstall the awning.

 

[ziplock]

Or just remove it and don't put it back on. No great loss.

Seems like most of the time the wind is up anytime anyone wants to put out the awning and it gets ripped off anyway.

 

[JimmieRas]

Are you the original owner? If so you might be able to get advice from the selling dealer's service department. And you do need to fasten the awning from turning if you remove all of the screws as it does have some tension on it when fully retracted.

Are you the original owner? If so you might be able to get advice from the selling dealer's service department. And you do need to fasten the awning from turning if you remove all of the screws as it does have some tension on it when fully retracted.

Warrenty ran out, even the 5 year extended one. Called Manufacture, they takes no responsibility after that. Dealer said they can make repairs but that is a 60 mile drive for me Found two local RV repair places that are reasonable & both say they have seen similar before & give various possible reasons. Most likely the cheap construction methods used by today's manufactures. Seems that now days they don't normally install any wood or aluminum headers in the right places & the screws are just driven into the siding material. Better ones install with screw anchors but kine doesn't show any signs of su h anchors.

 

[msw3113]

For a similar problem the manufacturer of our trailer recommends "exploding" rivets like these from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Tri-Grip-Tri...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==
I replaced the screws on our trailer with these and they're holding well so far.
Forum member Frank B encountered a situation almost identical to yours, see this thread:

Awning anchor rail above slide keeps pulling out

Above the main slide on our travel trailer we have a pull-out slide awning. It attaches to a long metal strip that is screwed to the side of the trailer. This metal strip continues to pull away from the side of the trailer. Longer screws did not help. I can put larger screws in, but I am looking...

www.rvforum.net

 

[JimmieRas]

For a similar problem the manufacturer of our trailer recommends "exploding" rivets like these from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Tri-Grip-Tri...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==
I replaced the screws on our trailer with these and they're holding well so far.
Forum member Frank B encountered a situation almost identical to yours, see this thread:

Awning anchor rail above slide keeps pulling out

Above the main slide on our travel trailer we have a pull-out slide awning. It attaches to a long metal strip that is screwed to the side of the trailer. This metal strip continues to pull away from the side of the trailer. Longer screws did not help. I can put larger screws in, but I am looking...

www.rvforum.net

 

[JimmieRas]

Thank you fit your reply. I have found that this is not that unusual of a problem these days, especially on toy haulers apparently. I am having mine repaired because or how high up it is & to do it properly will require more than one person. My repair person is planing on using a similar product to that which you recommended here. Again thank you & to all the others who have replied.