New Awning

[Carbonation]

Narrowing down choices.
Current awning is Solara by Lippert.
Not happy. Weak motors, slow retract, a small breeze and they flap. Any amount of water collects in the middle, and the manual tilt feature really doesn't tilt enough for runoff.
Looking at Carefree and ZipDee for replacements.
Does anyone have an opinion or experience with either? Good and bad postings for both on the web.....

 

[jackiemac]

Sounds like no!

Did you decide on one?

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I had a Carefree Eclipse and it wasn't a whole lot better. In order for them to roll up with a small motor, the spring tension has to be close to neutral. That makes it easy for a puff of wind to semi-retract it or let the awing flap upward. A more powerful motor could overcome a greater pressure, but they need small & light motors out in the roller head.

I've heard Gerard awnings are the best (and most expensive), but have no experience with them. They are often used on high end models, if that's any indication.

 

[Larry N.]

The awnings on my Beaver were Girard, and they seemed quite good. Of course they had auto wind sensors, with a couple of sensitivity settings. However they were (to clear the slides) too high to help much except when conditions were just right, but they withstood lots of strong winds (while retracted, I didn't leave them out), including when going down the road at 65 mph and crosswinds were strong, both quartering headwind and quartering tailwinds.