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Old 06-13-2019, 02:17 PM   #1
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Electric awnings slow to retract

I have 2 electric awnings on my Hill Country 32RL. One of them needs a little help while being extended. (Someone has to stand there and pull it away from the trailer until it reaches a certain point, then it extends out the rest of the way unassisted). I can live with that. My problem is when I try to retract them, they go so slow and appear to be having trouble getting started. Usually they will finally get going and roll on up, but when on battery only, they sometimes will not retract. I'm afraid I'm going to get stuck with extended awnings one day.

Can I manually roll them up, or assist in getting them started on the retraction ? Is there any manual override if they really get stuck ?

Finally, are there any maintenance or lubrication points I should be hitting to help them slide easier. I do spray slide-out lubricant on the trailer mounted sliders, which seems to help some. But are there any lube points on the rollers themselves ?

Any help appreciated.

Charlie
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Old 06-13-2019, 02:31 PM   #2
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Check and see what the voltage is at the motors. You could have a bad/corroded connector someplace.
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Old 06-20-2019, 05:51 PM   #3
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Or bad ground.
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Old 06-20-2019, 11:39 PM   #4
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What brand awning do you have?
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Old 06-21-2019, 06:49 AM   #5
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I just finished working through exactly the same problem.

The first "solution" was to lubricate all the pivot points in the awning arm assemblies with lithium grease. Didn't fix anything.

Then a visit to the RV dealer. The techs said that, in their experience, 90% of the time the problem was with the gas struts - they wear out and/or jam up. So I got 2 new ones and installed them only to find out I was one of the 10% where they weren't the problem.

The only thing left was the motor. To be sure, I switched the questionable one with the good one on my second awning and the awning retracted
normally (should have done that first) So I got a new motor and now we are back in business. BTW I got the replacement part on Amazon for $100 less than the dealer price.

It would have been a lot easier if the motor had just stopped completely, but because it kept sort of working it made it harder to chase down the problem.

How this helps.

Paul
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Old 08-23-2019, 11:31 AM   #6
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I have a 280RK 2018 & was wondering about manual Awning opening & Closing. I cant seem to find a name of the awning on it & I certainly don't see any kind of documentation. If the motor is at the Top of the Arm how easy was it to replace the Motor do I have to take the entire Arm apart &/or down to?
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Old 08-23-2019, 11:58 AM   #7
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Your post at first is a little confusing. At first you ask about "manual" awning then ask about the motor on it. I did a quick search and you should have a power awning by Lippert. The head - where the arm attaches to the roller should have a "LCI" molded into it. If you go to the Lippert site and look up awnings _ https://lci-support-doc.s3.amazonaws...cd_0002116.pdf it tells you how to replace the motor.

There should be a label on one of the arms - could be on the inside of the arms or it may have fell off but it should be a Solera awning made by Lippert - LCI.
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Old 08-23-2019, 12:30 PM   #8
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Sorry it is an electric Awning I wondered if there is a manual way to put it in or out in case of emergency like it not working & I am out camping. I re-read it & it was a bit confusing.

I will be getting a ladder out & looking next weekend Then check out the Link
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Old 08-23-2019, 01:11 PM   #9
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I think this is the operating manual you are looking for,


https://lci-support-doc.s3.amazonaws...cd_0001369.pdf
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Old 08-23-2019, 04:27 PM   #10
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Patty:
The link to the Lippert manual that Mark posted contains a good description of manually opening and closing the awning.

If you need to replace the motor, it is easiest to work with the awning extended. You will first have to remove the plastic covers. There are 4 screws holding it together. They are at the bottom of fairly deep channels in the back side of the cover and one of the biggest problems I had was with the amount of crud that was covering the screw heads - lots of scraping and flushing to clear out the crud so I could get the screw driver to fit into the screw head.

Once the cover is off, there are only 2 screws holding the motor in place. Simple removal and replacement.

While you are working on the awning, it's a good time to lubricate all the pivot points on the awning arms, just to make sure that nothing else is restricting the action.

Good luck this weekend.

Paul
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Old 08-23-2019, 04:41 PM   #11
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I should have read the reply from dagst1 (with the link to the Lippert instructions for replacing the power head) before my last post.

I didn't have to replace the entire head (motor, gears, and pin connecting to the awning roll), just the motor.

When you put the new motor in place, it just slips onto the gears. You will see it when you have it apart. Test the wiring hookup ("IN" and "OUT") before you close up the cover. There are two connections to make and, if you are anything like me, you will have a better than 50% chance of doing it backwards.

Paul
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