I'm with N.Y. Bill on this one. We've bought several RVs without awnings, but every one we ever sold had a patio awning installed.

Of course, there's been more than one occasion when we got up in the middle of the night to retract an awning when the weather changed unexpectedly. Those rare occasions were more than offset by the days relaxing in the shade, in a cool breeze, quaffing a cool drink, & enjoying the scenery around us. But then, if you restrict yourself to crowded RV parks, there's usually not much scenery to enjoy, & you have to stay inside anyway, for the a/c to do much good.

The key is to practice enough with your awning to be able to extend & retract it without lost movement & fumbling around.

When i joined here i decided to call myself Shadow Man because i had been lurking in the shadows on this board and several others for a while. I am usually not big on joining anything. And most of the time i prefer to be in the sun.... the reason why we moved to Maui from Wa. and then later from Wa. again to Az.

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Originally posted by noble97monarch:

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In high winds, we have a technique that is better than the usual. Pictures or description on request.

I'll bite, love to see your wind defeater.

Nothing really special, and not exactly a wind defeater, but it offers less sail area and is more solid. If we expect winds or need limited shade, we extend our A&E awning fully and run the top arms fully up, but do not tighten the black knobs. Then, we flip the lever and let the awning roll up until the top arms are fully telescoped in. Then we lock the top arms and adjust the main arms.

The adjustment of the main arms is usually so the sun does not hit the coach above the floor line. This makes a much cooler coach, and can often be enough rain protection depending on the nature of the rainfall.

This mode has two disadvantages:

1. the awning must be fully unrolled before the upper arms can be stowed and the awning rolled up.

2. Since the awning is partially rolled up, the groove in the roller is not exposed, and our shade curtains or Susan's candle lanterns cannot be used. We do, however, use the side curtain to block sun and wind when needed.

We also use plastic tarp clips and ball bungees as de-flappers.

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Originally posted by olroy:


Of course, there's been more than one occasion when we got up in the middle of the night to retract an awning when the weather changed unexpectedly.

My days of entertaining neighbors in my skivvies are long over. Our rule has become to never leave the awning out when sleeping or away.