Warning - Wind Storms and Awnings don't mix ! - Montana Owners Club

melnjoy · 12-09-2006, 01:40 PM

We had us a doosie of a wind storm out in the Foothills of Yuma on the night of Wednesday the 6th! Even though Mel had our Awning completely secured down with 8 awning clips, a full length nylon Awning strap that was securely anchored in the ground on either side of it, I still almost lost the Awning!

Mel is away at work right now so... Thank God for good neighbors and family! At about 1:00am the unusually loud noise from the awning woke me up, when I looked outside, I could see that the awning grippers were letting go due to the heavy gusts of wind, I tried to put them back on but the wind just kept getting worse and I was losing the battle quickly. I ended up getting rescued by our neighbors and Mel's aunt & uncle. By 4:00am, with the support arms all blown apart, we ended up just laying the awning down across the front of the rig and securing it down with rope. I had to get in and out of the rig through the laundry hatch until yesterday afternoon when we were able to put it all back together and roll it up. I think the only real damage is the fabric itself. Like I said everything was pretty well secured. The fabric looked like a parachute everytime the wind hit it and I think it stretched it all out of shape.

So... from now on, when Mel goes to work....Up goes the awning! I'll not go through that again! My warning is if you think a wind storm may be heading your way, don't assume everything is secure, get those awning up and put away!!

Joy

LonnieB · 12-09-2006, 02:23 PM

Joy, living in an area where the wind seldom stops, I can relate to what you are saying. I'm glad you had some help, and got it secured before any major damage was done.

hazmic · 12-09-2006, 03:31 PM

Rule of thumb!!!! Never leave the camp ground with the awning out and never go to bed with the awning out. Works fine,no problems.

bsmeaton · 12-09-2006, 03:35 PM

Joy,

So sorry you had to go through that! The last windstorm we had that came up left Dory smashed up against the Monty as soon as she released the arm support. The wind pushed up on the awning fabric pulling in the arms and it took 3 of us to get it pulled back out so we could retract it.

I have a tendancy to want to leave it out when I leave just because it takes so long to set up using clips and hold down straps. I've been lucky so far. I really think I'll just replace the factory one with a simple electric from CW. I won't be able to tie it down, but won't need to if I just hit the button and retract it everytime I leave or go to sleep. When I want it back, hit the button and in 2-seconds, presto!.

JH Sechelt · 12-09-2006, 04:30 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by hazmic

Rule of thumb!!!! Never leave the camp ground with the awning out and never go to bed with the awning out. Works fine,no problems.

I Agree.
J&D

MAMalody · 12-09-2006, 06:03 PM

Two things I do when leaving camp for over 1 hour is turn off the water and put up the awning. At night, the awning always goes up. Almost lost it once, and that was enough for me.

Montana Sky · 12-09-2006, 06:45 PM

Joy,
So glad to hear it was not any worse than it was. Good neighbors and family are a true blessing.

smc · 12-10-2006, 12:10 AM

Yes, that was some wind. Between the wind and a siren that went for a couple of hours, nobody got much sleep. Our awning survived just fine, but we are protected by other rigs. A lot of Christmas decorations ended up going west. Our neighbours side wall of her awning blew off, but her awning was fine. Not often we get an east wind here.

Tom Gina 06 · 12-10-2006, 01:39 AM

Brad.... I talked to the dealer about ordering our new 3400 with the automatic awning. They said it could not be done because the structure walls would not handle the stress and weight of that type of awning. Might want to do some more checking to make sure it can be done. I am curious myself what the awning people selling them have to say. If it is possible it sure would be nice to get one. I too work on the road and it would be nice for Gina to be able to use the awning without having to worry about the wind. I know the Cambridge came out with that option but not sure what extra stuctural modes they made to accomidate them.

to Keystone on this one if it is true!

DHenry · 12-10-2006, 02:25 AM

Joy, sorry to hear about your awning. Good neighbors and family are nice to have around during those times. I bet Red Velvet cakes are in the oven for them

Please post the pictures of you exiting and entering through the laundry hatch, I am sure we all would LOVE to see that

ols1932 · 12-10-2006, 02:46 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by hazmic

Rule of thumb!!!! Never leave the camp ground with the awning out and never go to bed with the awning out. Works fine,no problems.

Exactly! Great words of wisdom. It's what we do also.

Orv

melnjoy · 12-10-2006, 03:52 AM

hazmic, you can believe we will be using your "rule of thumb" from now on! We've always had the awning out most of the time we are in Yuma because of the sun, and the fact we like to decorate in and around it. The decorations and "stuff" I had up was part of the reason it took so long to get the darned thing undone. And by that time the wind was too strong and it really did turn into a parachute!

Dave, your right about friends and family being a blessing! At the time to me, it was a miracle! My neighbor told me she couldn't see me outside, but she could hear me praying out loud, although I think It was a combination of praying and begging for just a little more strength! Once the neighbors came out, I was able to get my phone and call in the family.

Doug, I think this is going to call not just for some Red Velvet Cakes, but also a big Steak Dinner!

When I told Mel about it, he felt so bad about being stuck out to sea in Washington, he was adamant about doing something for them all! So, looks like we will be having at least a couple of big nights out this next month! And if you guys think I let anyone see me climbing in or out of that hatch, let alone take a picture, you have got to be crazy!

Brad, we knew as soon as the arms started to go that there was no-way we were going to be able to roll that darned thing back up! So we just ended up laying down flat against the 5th wheel. I was really getting excited about your idea of getting an automatic Awning, and thinking that was just the fix we need, since I think we will have to replace the Awning anyway, until.....Tom burst my bubble with the possibility of not being able to get one, since we have a 2004 3575Rl it probably isn't reinforced enough either. But, you can bet we are going to check on it!

We still have to have some sort of a sun screen outside, after my bout with Melanoma last year, we don't want to take any extra chances with the sun. We both just love being able to sit outside so often now, we will have to rig up something. I've seen some free standing sunscreen/dividers that people have out around here, maybe we can start with something like that. Anyway like I said before, we are just grateful no-one was hurt and no real damage was done. Thanks everyone for your concern.

Joy

richfaa · 12-10-2006, 04:07 AM

All those tie down straps just impede you from getting the awning up fast. The de flappers are ok in mild wind but we don't even use them. There is a lot of surface area on those awnings they are like a huge sail and our our sailor friends tell us it does not take much wind to get them billowing. We pay close attention to the weather reports and do not leave the awning down if there is the slightest chance of windy conditions.We have more than one time rushed out and got that awning up fast while our neighbors were struggling with all the useless strappings and tie downs. C.W will be glad to sell you all that stuff and we have bought our share..but they are of little use.

bsmeaton · 12-10-2006, 05:03 AM

Tom&Gina - MelnJoy,

If your Dealer was thinking of the armless type of power awning used on motorhomes - I would agree - the Montana could not support this type without additional support.

However, the arm type power awnings should be fine. They are designed for travel trailers and have arm supports located near the same positon as the regular awnings with the short arms. The primary stress is on the fabric rail at the top on both types, not the arms.

I will check it out as well through Keystone, but I suspect your Dealer uses his own set of excuses just like mine does. The Dealers don't like anything that they actually have to do themselves. Keystone offered them as factory options on the Cambridge, and will be on the new Big Sky as well. If the arms are anchored to the wall stud, I doubt there is any structural difference between the models. CW says they install them all the time on all TT and 5er models and have had not problems with structural support.

If you pursue it further, let me know if you hear anything to the contrary. I am going to try and talk to Keystone direct.

Brad

melnjoy · 12-10-2006, 05:52 AM

My bubble is once again inflating!

Thanks Brad. Mel gets home next week and we will be definitely be replacing the Awning with something, hopefully it will be with something automatic! I just love this forum, so many good people with such great ideas! Thanks again!

Joy

jkbeaudin · 12-10-2006, 03:39 PM

I leave the awning out all of the time and I am in the Rio Grande Valley of the wind. Seems to be blowing here all of the time.

Last year a Montana had their awning blow over their unit. Now his awning is out all of the time and it is fine.

The secret?

Several things we do:
- First of all we are here for over three months so we have the time to set up camp for the long haul.
- Second we make sure our tie downs at each end of our awning are into good deep and strong holding soil with anchors that can't be pulled out (we usually screw them in) and tough ties that are doubled up between the anchors and the ends of the awning.
- Third we use "bows" that connect between the side of the trailer and the awning roll up. The bows are located approx every three feet. Had 6 of them last year on my 19 foot awning. Only need 4 with this short awning on this year's 3400RL.
- 4th install lots of holders holding the sides of the awning to the bracket extended from the trailer to the roll up awning bar.

Again we have lots of wind in the RGV and had some pretty good rain storms this year too. No problems.

Awning is pretty useless here if you have to pull it in everytime the wind is blowing. Also if it is that easy to pull-in every evening and every time you leave the campsite, obviously it is not secured as per above.

melnjoy · 12-10-2006, 04:37 PM

I am still on the water, but we do have internet through wireless data transfer when the signal is strong enough.
Thanks for all the concern and tips on the topic of Awnings. We have been doing this for a long time and we are not on some weekend trip where the Awning is out and not secured.
We normaly do not have a problem with the wind. This was a very strong wind in excess of 50 mph with higher gusts. We had the Anwing well secured with the legs spiked down with 12" spikes and also straped down with webbing straps to springs and spiked into the ground with 14" spikes we also had 8 Awning clamps out. Now this is normaly enough to hold but like I said this was not a normal wind. This being said I will not leave the Awning out when I am gone agian. We were very lucky Joy did not get hurt I can always replace the Awning but could never replace the Love of my life.
Mel

bsmeaton · 12-10-2006, 09:44 PM

Let us know what you decide Mel - you'll probably have something before I get my rig.

Brad

melnjoy · 12-11-2006, 02:52 PM

jkbeaudin,
The only thing different from what you have and what we had is I think, the bows. Which I don't think would have helped much, in this case, because the problem was not, if the roll up bar, legs or support bars on the side were secure, it was that the wind litterly whipped up under the awning and stretched the fabric so badly that it actually started to parachute on me, and then with every gust that got stronger, it was that much easier to start popping off all of the grippers, at that point, it was all over. In hindsight, the only thing that would have prevented the problem would have been some kind of I guess you would call them "bows" not just underneath, but they would have to have been over the top as well to hold the fabric down more from billowing. I didn't have any problems with the legs or support arms until after I "unsecured" them to bring down the awning fabric, If I hadn't, the fabric would have ripped itself free, of that I have no doubts. We too thought everything was going to be just fine with all the straps, anchors and grippers we had on the awning, if anything I would have said it was "overkill", but I have since learned. So I repeat, Never, never leave the awnings down if there is the possibility of wind gusts. Especially if only one person is at home.
Joy

adelmoll · 12-12-2006, 12:40 AM

"This being said I will not leave the Awning out when I am gone agian. We were very lucky Joy did not get hurt I can always replace the Awning but could never replace the Love of my life."

Awe Mel, that was so sweet. I'm glad you know how lucky you are. I am so glad that nobody got hurt, but what a nightmare.

Helen

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