Semi-permanent awning???

[woodylmiller]

Girard awning.  Main big awning on curb side of coach.  We are spending the winter in Desert Hot Springs just outside Palm Springs.  The wind really whips here, it's the reason there are several million windmills in the area.  Coach is parked where the curbside is "downwind" to avoid all this wind.  Would like to keep the awning out in spite of the winds.  The wind thingee on the roof doesn't seem to work in terms of bringing the awning in during the gusts.  So, my plan is to place supports under the arms of the awning and then tie down the arms to anchors in the ground using bungee or shock cords to allow for a little give up and down.  Anyone see a problem with this?  I also plan to disconnect the wind thingee just in case it decides to activate a retract while I have the awning tied down.  Thanks, also, no rain expected in the next year, had a down pour yesterday with flash floods that closed roads, hadn't rained in a year.  I will cut the vertical supports to allow for a slight slope for run off should it rain again.

Woody Miller

09 Dynasty

[Rick A]

I found the answer in your post.

“Thanks, also, no rain expected in the next year, had a down pour yesterday with flash floods that closed roads, hadn't rained in a year.“

Apply this to your awning design, expect the unexpected. 
 

[FishAR]

I wanted to leave my awning out while in florida on my old Windjammer tt so I put limb supports under both ends of the tube and strapped it down with ratchet straps, one end lower than the other.

If things looked bad I'd go through the process of taking it down and putting the awning up.

One beautiful blue sky day I went inside to eat lunch. A storm came out of nowhere and tore everything up, one of the supports, ripped my awning, I had to work to get my door open. It rained so hard the water couldn't get off even though one end was lower than the other, and the weight of the water tore up everything.

Since then I won't tie down an awning. I put bungee cords on my awning shade cloth on the fifth wheel I sold to keep it from blowing around but that's the end of it.

I did discover limb supports through that ordeal though. Very handy. Since my Monaco engine back hood/cover/door won't stay all the way up on it's own I use 2 of them to support it under the metal hinge when I need to be in there.

[Paul J A]

1 hour ago, woodylmiller said:

Girard awning.  Main big awning on curb side of coach.  We are spending the winter in Desert Hot Springs just outside Palm Springs.  The wind really whips here, it's the reason there are several million windmills in the area.  Coach is parked where the curbside is "downwind" to avoid all this wind.  Would like to keep the awning out in spite of the winds.  The wind thingee on the roof doesn't seem to work in terms of bringing the awning in during the gusts.  So, my plan is to place supports under the arms of the awning and then tie down the arms to anchors in the ground using bungee or shock cords to allow for a little give up and down.  Anyone see a problem with this?  I also plan to disconnect the wind thingee just in case it decides to activate a retract while I have the awning tied down.  Thanks, also, no rain expected in the next year, had a down pour yesterday with flash floods that closed roads, hadn't rained in a year.  I will cut the vertical supports to allow for a slight slope for run off should it rain again.

Woody Miller

09 Dynasty

WE had an all Girard awning coach, including slide out toppers. I would not do that. The wind and sudden rain in the desert is so unpredictable. I saw many awnings destroyed by that type of sudden turbulence in our 10 years full timing. We never left our awning out when we were not at the coach, and at night as well. 

[cbr046]

Our roof anemometer (the wind thingie) doesn't seem to respond to wind, but if I get up on the roof and manually spin it then it spins freely.  It's not stuck but I think the wind moves over the top of it.  It did retract automatically once, and another time I felt it was getting too windy I manually retracted the awning.  You can also move the switch out of auto-retract, but as others have said, I wouldn't disable it. 

Try to think of it as a giant parachute or sail . . . which it is. 

- bob

[Ivylog]

You can adjust an arm up or down… I would want 1’ difference so water cannot stay on the awning. I would only use ratchet straps to anchors 3-4’ further out from the awning so the arms cannot raise out of the U in the top of your posts.

[Ivan K]

I have enough experience with wind gusts to know that there is no winning. It will always find the weakest spot. Once at Goosenecks, UT, I was watching a couple of MCI conversion rigs relaxing under the awning way past my wind threshold. Looked like they got it all figured out but few gusts later the frame stayed put while they were running around trying to stop the sail from smashing everything around. There's no winning with a solid fabric awning past certain unexpected point. That's why there are wind flaps and shade nets like the military uses.

[granvillebarker]

Shade sails on Amazon are pretty cheap, I guess adding some anchors to the coach and some type of post for the third corner, you could probably have decent shade with one of the triangle ones.  If it tears up, your not out much and I doubt it would hurt the coach.

[FishAR]

Not a help for someone on the move, but I'm building a shade cloth structure for my patio at The Glades where we spend the winter. A neighbor has one and I've stared at it long enough.

Approx 15 ft x 3.5 ft made out of 5 - 4x4 legs and just enough 2x4 wall and roof supports to hold it together. Tie a few ground anchors to a few of the 4x4's so it won't turn over. Shade cloth along the long side. Possibly a cheap tarp on top instead of shade cloth just in case I want to sit under it during a drizzle.

I had measurements for all of it for when I had the fifth wheel, now that we've got the Monaco I'll have to remeasure because of different slide placement.

Taking my carpentry tools with me. I fully expect the Glades County inspector to give me grief but I'll spar with him since it isn't going to be in the ground.

[woodylmiller]

Thanks for all the responses.  I went with the shade sails.  Just got the shade sail today, waiting for the support poles.  Very windy today.  Our table and umbrella blew over and the umbrella was not open.  So now I need to just find an anchor point on the coach.  About $100 for a 20x16 shade sail and two support poles, much cheaper than replacing an awning.  Thanks,

Woody Miller