Thought I'd share this little tid-bit with y'all.  A couple of years after we bought our 3h LQ I cleaned it inside, washed the outside and decided to let the awning out and clean it as well to make sure there was mold or mildew.  Neighbor called, needed help with something, small rain cloud moved through with some wind and guess what?  Ripped a seam in the awning about 2 feet long on the roller while I was up at the neighbor's house. 

 Wife was not happy! 

I cruised by the local RV dealer here in town and they said no problem, we can fix that.  When I got the estimate, I decided to wait awhile to have the work done.  In the meantime, we've still been using the awning.  I just leave about a foot of awning on the roller and it works fine.

Here's where we get to the good part..........the tid-bit.  Did a weekend trail ride and a friend walked by and said, "see you got smart about your awning, I do the same thing with mine."  Well, Mark Twain once said, "if you keep your mouth, no one will figure out how dumb you are."  I took his advice, kept my mouth shut and waited.  That night, while sitting around the campfire, the conversation turned to trailers, LQ's and so on.  My friend said something to the effect, "when y'all buy a LQ with an awning, make sure you don't roll it our all the way unless you know there is absolutely no chance of any wind coming along."  Needless to say, I sat there real smug like and nodded at my friend and once again...........kept my mouth shut. 

  So the thing to do when using your awning, leave a little rolled up on the roller and it should last a lot longer than mine did without a 2 foot rip in the seam. 

Happy trails,

deranger

YA THINK?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Yes, thanks for that tip.  We usually put bungie cords connected to handles of our water jugs and attach to ends of awning hoping that helps if it's windy.  We had only had our new 3H/LQ about a month when we thought we'd leave the awning out and camp in the barn yard for a couple of nights. Well, one evening a huge storm came upon us in a hurry and we really didn't think much of the camper being set up.  Well, we went to town to get something to eat and when we got home, the storm had quieted and our awning had blown over backwards on the top of trailer.  Talk about newbies and LQ, we couldn't believe that happened.  So needless to say, it had to be replaced, but lucky our insurance paid for it.  One of many lessons learned about LQ trailers.  On another note about awnings. Does anyone else have trouble with mold and meldew?  Ours is out in the weather rolled up but I notice it is looking bad and is worn up next to trailer.

To help with the mold problem and it will be a problem unless you are in Pheonix.  ;-)

I take a spray bottle and fill it with a 25% bleach and 75% water.  I clean/scrub the awning first then while it's still wet, spray the diluted bleach solution on and let it sit for a while.  Then I start the clean/scrub session again.  One cycle of that usually does the trick and the awning looks good for weeks.  If you mist a little bleach solution on the awning before you roll it up, it helps control the mold.  Just wait until everything is dry before you roll the awning up.  If you are worried about using the bleach the first time around, dilute it a little more.  Bleach is a great disinfectant and a mold inhibitor.

deranger

Yes to the screw in the ground tie downs.  Walmart for less than 10 bucks.  And very easy to use.

The key to using the bleach is to dilute it to your satisfaction.  I've worked at too many church camps where costs are always a concern and cleanliness is important.  We had a health dept. inspector come through one time for a spot inspection and told us everything we were doing wrong and what we needed to do differently.  He went to our storage closet and pulled out a gallon jug of bleach and told us how to use it and why.  Dilution was the key, and we used it for everything in the camp that needed to be cleaned when soap suds were not required.

deranger

Ahh, awning stories... My ex-wife (the awning did not cause the divorce...lol) and I were camping and had the awning out (an old box awning).  We went to bed and since the weather was so nice we decided to leave the awning out.  We woke up to some light rain but rather than do the smart thing and put the awning up we just went back to sleep.  At some point the whole trailer shook and I immiediately thought about the awning.  Sure enough, I tried opening the door only to find the awniing pinning it shut.  Managed to push the door open enough to squeeze out (of course realized I had left my rain coat inside after I was out).  The arms on the awning had buckled (thank goodness it didn't come completely off).  So, there we are in a lighting storm trying to figure out how to get the broken aluminum parts off so we can roll the awning back up.  In hindsight it must have been pretty funny to watch. 

Ya' know, for as expensive as awnings are, I would think they could with stand a little more.

I like A&E that Sundowner uses..