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How to Protect Your Awning in High Winds
Caravan awnings are exposed to the risk of getting damaged by high winds. Just take a quick look at the highway on your next caravan road trip and you should be able to see bits and pieces lying on the road. It is not uncommon to experience high winds on a trip. You just need to know the precautions that can help you to avoid damage to our caravan awning.
If left unattended when the wind comes up, the awning material will likely rip away from the track that secures it to the side of your RV. Replacing the caravan awning is the most appropriate move that you can make, but it will burn a hole in your wallet. I am sure you wouldn’t want to shell out a lot of cash when you can easily avoid the problem with a few measures.
Caravan awnings are usually not covered by insurance because they are considered to be accessories. In case your caravan awning gets damaged, you might not get any financial relief. Insurance adjusters also know that RV awnings are rated for low wind load. If you chose to ignore that fact, they may not accept responsibility for the damage.
Tips to Protect Your Caravan Awning from Flapping.
Reinforce Awnings with Clamps
When extended, manually operated caravan awnings can be reinforced with awning clamps. The clamps help to reduce the flapping or whipping action of the fabric and prevent the fabric from tearing away from the mounting rack. This does not provide a 100% guarantee of safety, but it does get the work done and minimizes risk to a good extent.
Use a Tie-Down Kit
The tie-down kit helps to secure the awning to the ground. Although this is good enough when used on its own, it works best when used in combination with awning clamps. With this, you get better stability for the caravan awning, and it will become more tolerant towards the high-speed wind.
Stow Your Caravan Awning For Travel
Secure the caravan awning carefully before hitting the road. You would not want it hanging loosely on the side of the caravan. Not only would this cause the awning to get damaged (during high-speed wind), but also cause the caravan and the towing vehicle to wobble out of control. If you think that the awning is not properly secured in place, then you can go for clamps or bungee straps to secure it in place.
With a little precaution and proper planning, you will never have to worry about awning damage due to high-speed winds. Get the best caravan awnings to make sure that they deliver long-term performance and have adequate durability as well.
Awnings are soon becoming an obligatory accessory with RVs. A motorhome without awnings seems incomplete and uncomfortable. May it be an automatic electric awning or a manual awning, if you have an RV, then you must have one. Automatic awnings that come with weather sensors can roll up when they sense lousy weather. Still, with a manual awning, you must take the accountability of detecting the weather and making the decision to roll it up.
How to Protect Awning in High Winds?
Rolling them up when it’s not sunshine anymore is the best advice on protecting the awning from high winds. An awning is made to protect from Sun so as soon as Sun is off and out, you must roll up your awning too. Weather change must be considered seriously, and right at the moment you feel the breeze turning into heavier winds, you must take out the awning and pack it.
- You can look for a secure space surrounded by a hillside to set your campsite.
- A permanent structure or RV park can also help in reducing the direct impact of winds on the awning.
- Unless not possible, find a big tree and park your RV near it.
- If possible, try to drive near a wall and park your RV near a shade.
How Much Wind Can an RV Awning Take?
Depending on the kind of your RV Awning, its capacity to withstand the windy weather and wind pressure might differ.
For instance, one of our clients replied to me after such an encounter with a windy storm, and according to what he mentioned, I got to understand that he had an electric awning in the past that blew away at a mere 5 MPH wind speed. Whereas the manual inflatable awning that he bought from us, withstood wind speed of 20 MPH without the need for him to roll it up quickly after the weather started changing.
He added that in the future he will never be worried about windy weather unless the wind speeds are too high.
How to Stop Caravan Awning Flapping?
When forced to face the inevitable, your awning might be bound to face the windy weather. And if you are wondering - ‘What am I going to do then for?’, well, first you must understand that nothing can be done now! You can only take out your tape and feel sorry for your own loss.
But if you are wondering it hypothetically and lucky enough not to face it yet in person, then you can use
- De-flapper clamps to increase the awning stability and capability to withstand the winds. This will also reduce the noise of flapping – which might be scarier than the winds themselves.
- Stabilizer Kits that come with spiral anchors to peg awning strongly into the ground.
Xtend Outdoors
Australia's Leading RV Annexes Specialists
Founded in 2004, we are an Australian owned and operated company based on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. As the leading manufacturer of RV Annexes within Australia, we focus on delivering innovative, premium custom-made products at affordable pricing to the Australian market.
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