Replacing awning. Recommendations?

[HappyWanderer]

Absolutely hate my power awning, will never own another.

Can't adjust the angle, arms collapse and bend if any water collects in the fabric, can't tie it down (arms collapse and bend) so it needs to come in for the slightest breeze. It's an expensive sun shade that can't be used on days that we'd really like to.

 

[Arch Hoagland]

Absolutely hate my power awning, will never own another.

Can't adjust the angle, arms collapse and bend if any water collects in the fabric, can't tie it down (arms collapse and bend) so it needs to come in for the slightest breeze. It's an expensive sun shade that can't be used on days that we'd really like to.

Wow, you had quite a few problems. What brand was it?

Mine is very sturdy, especially the arms.

 

[ducnut]

I think you need to answer a few questions for yourself about how you use your awning and what are your expectations.

1.  Do you like to be able to provide maximum shade by lowering the awning if necessary?
2.  Do you like to be able to lower your awning enough so it drains water well and allow you to sit outside when it is raining?
3.  Do you mind the issue of the arms.....the probability that you will bang your head once in a while?
4.  Do you want to be able to deploy your awning even when it is breezy...like at the beach? 

I've had both and the manual awning will allow you to answer yes to all of the above questions (except #3). 

The electric Solara on mine will do all that. The arms have the ability to adjust the awning angle, tilt for runoff, are up and out of the way, etc. I'm quite happy with it.

 

[HappyWanderer]

Wow, you had quite a few problems. What brand was it?

Mine is very sturdy, especially the arms.

It's a Carefree. Funny, huh?

 

[Mile High]

My carefree pitch is changeable, but our older one was not.  As far as arms bending, do you mean physically bending?  mine scissor in slightly to dump water, but that is supposed to do that.

 

[HappyWanderer]

My carefree pitch is changeable, but our older one was not.  As far as arms bending, do you mean physically bending?  mine scissor in slightly to dump water, but that is supposed to do that.

Bending. They're supposed to collapse to shed water, then spring back into position. Mine collapsed and bent the arms to the point that the awning wouldn't retract. Same thing happens if you try to tie down - arms collapse and bend.

 

[Mile High]

Bending. They're supposed to collapse to shed water, then spring back into position. Mine collapsed and bent the arms to the point that the awning wouldn't retract. Same thing happens if you try to tie down - arms collapse and bend.

Something definitely wrong then - how old is it?  My carefree arms are far more stout than A&E Dometic's.

 

[danford50]

my two cent worth is I had my awning replace including the hardware I had it done by camping world it was replace with solera awning, however mine was replaced with insurance  my out of pocket expense was 500 dollars, the total cost including my 500 was about 1700 dollars

 

[Seon]

I current have a Dometic manual awning that the fabric will need replacing soon so thinking very seriously of upgrading to a Solera 12v arms.
Did an extensive youtube search on the best approach of changing both fabric and mounts and came up with two videos that I'll merge, removing the fabric using this video.

Then installing the Solera mounts using this video. Note that the Idler arm placement will be two inches longer than the manual arms so the roller will need to be trimmed 2" in order to place it at the existing location.

Now it's just finding the time to do the upgrade.