RV Awning – How To Videos

An RV awning can be a great adder to enjoying your RV. This page has lots of information to help you get more from your awning.

Awning Picture Gallery

Here are many of my RV awning pictures. Maybe you’ll find something that you find helpful.

RV Awning Videos and Information Page :

Nothing on or in an RV represents better the goal of the RV lifestyle than the RV awning. The awning represents the lazy carefree days in its shade drinking your favorite I-am-just-hanging-out-relaxing” beverage and generally just “peacing-out”. Life under the awning says – slow down and smell the roses. It says – visit with friends and enjoy companionship.

You should be able to utilize the awning to make a nice space for lunch & dinner, having drinks in the evening, and depending upon your awning maybe even sitting outside during a light rain storm.

So you see, the purpose of the awning is to increase the livable space of the RV by utilizing the “near” outside space of the RV. You’ll see other techniques for doing this on other types of of RV’s like outdoor speakers, outdoor TV’s, Toy Hauler garage doors that create additional space by folding down flat to make a floor. When your maximum legal size is 40 feet by 8 feet ( US highway standards ) you have to be clever on the space utilization.

Another thing the awning does is reflect the sun and actually make your air conditioners work far less on hot/sunny days. When we extend our awning, we can feel cooler as its extending. Of course that is not the temperature of the RV going down, but the reduction of radiated heat on my skin.

Even if you don’t stay under the awning, extending it on hot days can reduce the sun on the side of your camper and reduce the stress on your RV air conditioner.

I read this article on rvt.com where RVT claims that an awning can reduce the internal temperature of your RV by 10 degrees. I think that is a pretty big claim, but the awning DOES reduce the sunshine from hitting your RV which should reduce energy costs. Also, the awning will shade the pavement it covers too which means that even more heat will be reduced next to your RV.

But these darned awnings are simply NOT carefree. They aren’t bad, but you can’t be mindLESS about them.

Jayco travel trailer control center awning control

The two big types of RV awnings

Awnings can be as inexpensive or as expensive as you want them to be. The two major types of RV awnings are listed here:

Manual rv awnings. These will be found on most of the smaller campers where the manufacturer was squeezing every penny out of the cost of the RV. They aren’t hard to operate, but each manual awning that I’ve used seemed to have a couple of secret tricks to get it going.
- Secret trick from our Tiny Texas Tumbleweed awning : The awning has a mechanical lever that allows it to extend or retract.
- Secret trick #2 from the TTT awning: There are little hard to find tabs you have to “flip” to get the support arms to release before you can retract. Those were hard to find and a little hard to remember.
- Secret trick from Puma: This awning would expand & retract without a lever.
Electric RV Awnings. These awnings don’t use spring loaded mechanisms to extend and retract, but instead use an electric motor. You control the electric motor from inside the RV usually. Some quick notes about the electrics.
- If you can control remotely, MAKE SURE you visibly watch for any obstructions. With a manual awning, it is pretty obvious. But with an electric it is easy to get loosey goosey and extend it into a tree and not notice.
- The rain sensors can cause problems by being too automatic sometimes.

You can find the awnings in all shapes and varieties. Usually the RV manufacturer provides a list of the components in the RV. The awning is normally listed with the manufacturer and part number for the awning.

I’m pretty sure you should clean your awning but in all our years of RVing, Sheri and I have yet to clean the awnings. They do get mildew on them and ours has mildew streaks. I suppose I should work on the RV and not this site!

We used our awning more with the Open Range 399BHS than our Tiny Texas Tumbleweed. I’m not sure why but I believe an electric awning makes using your awning much easier.

The Open Range was a much, much larger RV and larger awning. Also we had a small wooden deck or other ready made surfaces for the Open Range. Having a nice surface makes using the awning more enjoyable.

As I reflect back on the recent TTT trips, we didn’t have a great opportunity to be outside for a number of reasons. Once example was taking it to a family reunion as our portable spare bedroom. We didn’t stay under the awning because we were always with family.

Once when we had to replace an awning due to a gust of wind, I’ve since been very nervous about wind and the RV. That has reduce my joy of using the awning quite a bit. Certainly we always bring ours in at night or even when we leave for even a short amount of time.

I’ve written several articles as I’ve learned the ins-and-outs (no pun intended) of the awning business!

Some of my articles were :

Tying down your RV Awning
My first and not-so-smart awning video
Some problems I found with the Camco Awning deflappers
My story about filing an insurance claim with our awning
My first attempt at a training video – it was pretty bad
Part of my book, Your 5th Wheel RV, the Exterior, showing the awning controls for an electronic awning.
Other articles on tying down your awning! Article 1, Article 2
Short article discussing – Can you put an awning on a slide-out?
Reader wonders – Should an awning sag?
Another how-t0 section on RV52.com about slideouts, some awning related stuff is in this section.
RV52.com believes awnings should be standard features on 5th wheels and standard features on travel trailers.

There were more articles, but you get the idea.

I hope you find this page useful. Please if you have any questions, comments, improvements, or requests, ABSOLUTELY leave a comment. Don’t be shy. Too many people are shy about that. Or if you think this page is useful DO SOMETHING with my sharing buttons at the bottom of the page. Thanks!

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If you are looking for Dometic 9100 Awning information:

The manual for the Dometic 9100 is in the manual section on this page.
You can find the Dometic 9100 Awning fabric replacement here:
- Dometic 9100 Fabric Replacement from Amazon
- MANY Dometic 9100 Fabric Replacement Choices from Camping World