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Zip Dee Awning repair

Yahoo Message Number: 18964
To all Zip-Dee owners.

The unspeekable happened. At Haringdon Delaware it rained, boy did it rain. I was told to tilt the awning and forgot. I paid the price.
While at one of the programs we had a real gully washer and upon my return, found the awning colapsed.
Aluminum bends, castings snap, and steel tubes buckle. It was destroyed.
With the help of several of my Capitol Chapter friends we removed the awning, cut the steel tube at the buckle and I was able to place the components inside the coach for the return trip.
The factory price is Approximatly $6.50 per foot plus shipping. That is the hooker as frt.is more cost than the tube. The serch was on for another sourse. I had one quote of $379.00 and it went down hill from there.

Determined to repair the awning, as it was not torn, I ordered the 2 castings that snapped and straightened the one bar that bent a bit , I set about finding a way to splice in a patch.
Guess what 18 Gauge steel tubing that Zip Dee uses is 3" OD with .049 wall thickness. 2 1/2" (declared) EMT electric tubing is 2.85 OD. It fits very nicely inside the cut off parts of the original which were still usable.

I wrapped a layer of vinyl over the now slightly smaller center section so as to maintain a constant diameter. The EMT is about 16Gauge so it is about 12 lbs heaver than oiriginal. Reinforcement of the pulled out rivet holes was accomplished with Iron dungaree patches, new Stainless steel pop rivets and some help from my wife Millie and a neighbor and we are back in business.
A bitter lesson learned. TILT THE AWNING or don't put it out when bad weather is comming. By the way , total cost was $11.80 plus rivits and $26.30 for Zip Dee castings.

James M Green 'Rollingghetto" see Photos on second page Title "WB3DJU Int."
 

Re: Zip Dee Awning repair

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 18965
From: "rollingghetto" wb3dju@...>

(snip) > A bitter lesson learned. TILT THE AWNING or don't put it out when bad

Quote
weather is comming.
A good rule is, "Always tilt the awning at least a little ... regardless of weather ... and never leave the campground while the awning is extended, even if it IS tilted."

Rain, after all, is not the only problem. Wind destroys awnings, too!

Dick (& Geri) Campagna
'98 36' Intrigue #10571
Mfd: 11/97

(still not sold)