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Ok guys....
Its all well and good to have everything strapped down so well that "NOTHING CAN DAMAGE IT".... BUT.. as we learned last year from direct experience in little old AZ. gusts (about 90 mile gusts), don't ever believe it can't happen to you.
Because Mel leaves every two weeks for work he had our awning strapped across the horizontal roller in front and tied down with springs on the end of the straps, had the feet anchored in deep, and we had "8" deflappers on the Awning. It was so well secured I even had my Christmas lights attached underneath.
Well, at about 2:00am one morning, my neighbor happen to hear something outside and thank god, she decided to investigate. It was me, outside on a 6 foot ladder, trying to no avail to get the deflappers reattached. The gusts were pulling the material right out of the clamps. To make a long story shorter, I ended up having to also call my Aunt & Uncle, and it took 5 of us to get the awning down, and it was not rolled up. Mel had it so securely attached to the ground that it was almost impossible to take apart. It was obviously going to "RIP" the fabric, but, not at the trailer side, like most would think, but at the roller. We ended up just bringing it straight down and securing in with rope to the axels, which of course meant it covered the door and I had to crawl into the basement to get back into the rig. Not to mention the broken glass all over from the string of lights we ended up stepping all over because we couldn't get them off.
We "thought" we lucked out and had no damage. However, late this summer, we had the awning out at night, something we rarely do anymore, and we had unexpected gusts in the middle of the night, that darned awning ripped right off of the roller, and thankfully the roller and the arms just fell out away from the rig to the ground and not against it. So of course, we had to replace it. Oh and the arms are a little bit tweeked. So, my point is, Never, never leave your awning out when there is a possibility of wind or storms! Everything has a weak point. the first wind storm stressed out the fabric enough to make it easier to fail on the next wind storm. So be careful!
Joy
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