Recommendations on where to replace awning fabric?
Sometime in the next 6 months we want to replace the fabric on all of our awnings, and perhaps flex keys and some springs. We already replaced the springs and flex key on the two slideout awnings last year.
We are currently in Oregon, will transit through NV and into AZ by late summer or early fall. We may consider TX (or maybe just AZ) for the coming winter.
The fabric seams thread let go on most of the awnings, and I seam sealed them a year ago for the interim to keep them together.
Any recommendations of places to do it, and estimate of cost for all window and slideout awnings? We may also do the main patio awning at the same time.
How long are you going to be in Vegas? I have a guy but you have to watch him close >> nothing major but the straps are not perfect on mine.. It only bothers me I guess.
Anyway I can get you his number. He does all our work awnings.. I took it off and he matched it and he can make new pieces (Keyway? Not sure the name) the piece that goes to the coach and connects to the flex key but Its an easy one for ZipDee to send out to .
I dont like referring people so use at your own risk..
If you plan to be in or around Quartzite in January there are people there that do that work. Our neighbor in park Jan 2020 had his awnings replaces on a bluebird and he was happy with their work. He told me it was a little over half what he had been quoted at other places. He was from Washington/oregon area.
Chris
When I bought my coach the awnings were in terrible shape. The cotton thread that they used was deteriorated and the panels were splitting plus the fabric had seen much better days. I had a bunch of sunbrella leftover for a boat project that I never finished. So what was going to be a bimini and dodger became awnings. Four of them. Since I didn't know how to sew I had to teach myself to and I bought a sewing machine since I didn't know how to sew I had to teach myself to and I bought a sewing machine fromsince I didn't know how to sew I had to teach myself to and I bought a sewing machine from sailrite. I didn't get the zigzag one which I should have but it's not necessary for the awnings. Through YouTube I learned how to sew and I made all the awnings except for the big one. That one I bought sunbrella Plus in a pattern. Also I use Gore-Tex tenara thread which is impervious to ultraviolet radiation and has a lifetime warranty I believe. Right about that time the sewing machine decided to crap out. but it was warranted so I got a new one and paid the extra hundred bucks for the zigzag one. But never did use it finish the big awning with my ex-wife's help. I don't think I could have done that by myself luckily I had a 12-ft dining room table to do the work on. They came out really good for just money on the parts. when I left Texas my ex sold the sewing machine to somebody for probably a ridiculously low amount of money. Taking off the big awning was the biggest problem and it took three of us as well as putting it back on although we probably could have did it with two adults. I had kids and you know how their work ethic is LOL. so if you want to save some money do it yourself. If you want it done right and to your satisfaction order it from zip dee. I don't think that you'll find anybody else that will do as good of a job as you will but I'm sure I'm wrong on that. once I get in a place where I can receive mail I'm going to get some more parts for my awnings. Not the fabric of course cuz that's all done but I have some parts that need replacing. Make sure you get the right rivets from zip d to do the job because the rivets are different and if you use the wrong one it may interfere with the spring.
I have a seam over the slide where the thread is missing
I was going to start a post asking what type of glue might hold up, as I don't want to remove the awning.
JBWeld?
Or is there a better choice?
Gear Aid Seam Seal or Gear Aid AquaSeal, and brushes. Buy more than you think you need. Amazon should have it along with reviews.
It will darken the fabric where used. I recommend some painters blue tape to make a "stripe" of the darker material the seal will cause. Then it looks more like a intentional feature.
I replaced my cover over the slide from zip dee direct. May be able to get made locally but price wasn't too bad and they were on time with shipping. Also installed new zip dee strips on top. All of them. I'm sure every twenty year old coach should have them replaced before they fail and drop the awning and aluminum cover. Not a one person job, but can be done. I used scaffolding along coach to walk on during install two people is much easier on main patio cover..
Scott
Fulltiming, so I'll have to hire this out. We use our window awnings often, and sun fade and failing threads in seams.
We plan to replace the fabric on every window awning at the same time.
Our awnings are a grey/silver color.
Sunbrella Cadet Grey #4630 per the original order paperwork ;)
(that's a marine-grade fabric per Sailrite Sunbrella® Marine Grade 4630-0000 Cadet Grey 46" Fabric - Sailrite (https://www.sailrite.com/Sunbrella-4630-0000-Cadet-Grey-46) )
You can purchase the Sailright fabric and heavy duty sewing machine, and the electric cautery to cut the fabric cleanly,
or, you can call ZipDee, the original manufacturer.
Dan, if you are going to replace all of the awning fabric you could consider changing color. Our coach has burgundy colored awnings and they always seem to look nice, they are out almost all the time we are away, 11 of the last 16 months. I see some coaches with tan awnings and they always seem to look a bit dirty. People have asked us if our awnings are new, nope original.
Roger
You might want to see if Zip Dee can give you a list of dealers (or has one on their website) for the areas you plan to be in - nice thing about using a dealer is they will know how to make the pertinent measurements for things. The hold-downs for the slide topper awnings, for example, have that extra piece (and might also be longer). Bonus points if the Zip Dee dealer is also a Girard deal who can handle the big awning fabric swapout.
We use Shadepro, RV Awning Shades & Accessories Online | Shade Pro (http://www.shadepro.net) , and have been very happy. They are in AZ, Cali and I believe NV as well. They have mobil installers who come to you! They replaced our slide topper and did a great job. I would get your flex keys from ZipDee. We used ZipDee for our main awning, but all the small ones, Shadepro, no problem!
Oregon Motor Coach Eugene, OR should be able to help you out. It's on your path south. They are one of the Foretravel recommended repair facility. They honor the Motorcade 10% discount. At least they used to. Give em' a call. 1 800 942 6860
see ya
ken
I would definitely ask him to use the tenara gortex thread. Lifetime warranty impervious to sunlight.
Update on my post about replacing awning fabric on our 2003 U320.
For the Girard patio awning ONLY, I ordered 17 yards of 60" wide Sunbrella cadet grey fabric from Sailrite, had it shipped to me when I was in Oregon. $470 including shipping.
We are now in Nacogdoches, MOT removed the old fabric, Trina sewed the fabric into the replacement size. MOT then re-installed the fabric, plus a new seal between roof and Girard awning.
There was some difficulty with the removal and re-install, but completed today at 5PM. $1706 for Trina's sewing work, and techs removing/re-installing the fabric, plus the new seal for the roof which they had in stock.
MOT applied the Motorcade discount, and then further discounted becuase the removal and re-install took longer than they expected.
Happy with the work and results.
Side note: MOT is EXTREMELY busy, and covered up with sales coaches and repair/remodel work. On the remodel side, large expansion of parking area under way, and some new pedestals for hookups.
Now a update on the 4 window awnings, and 2 slideout awnings:
I ordered replacement pre-sewn fabric directly from Zip-Dee, shipped to me in Oregon. Zip dee sewed up the 6 Sunbrella cadet grey fabric awnings, and I also ordered new flex strips.
For all 6 awnings, plus flex strips, and includes new straps, $2180 including $70 shipping. No sales tax in OR where I had it shipped.
I have a appointment at Xtreme in Nacogdoches on 29 Nov to install the awning fabric, plus some fiberglass and paint work on one bay door.
The awning labor and shop supplies estimate by Xtreme is $945 to install the new fabric on the 6 awnings.
Ouch. That's expensive but they will look good. I think I was all in for less than $1,200 and that was including the sewing machine. But I really don't remember now. I just ordered and received parts for my big awning. The locks are not right so I'm going to replace both sides as well as the spring and the front part doesn't expand anymore so I'm going to replace that as well, including all the rivets to do that was over $550 from zip dee. But it's worth it cuz I like these awnings.
When we replaced the flex strip on our 1989 GV I also ordered a new front end lock and release mechanism for our patio awning.
Seemed like a good time to replace it as long as the spring tension was off the awning. Glad I did. The new locking is more positive and a bit crisper than the 32 year old one.
Guess I became a bit paranoid after reading about others having their patio awnings flair out when encountering high winds.
Better safe than sorry.
Word of caution........Replaced my Lock mechanism when I bought the coach and mine still flared out in high winds, 2 different times. Needs replacing again now. I zip tie mine now. :o :D :D
I finished the forward part of the big awning yesterday replacing not only the lock but also the side pieces that not only push the awning up and out away from the coach but also the piece that locks into the top. That had broken 2 years before and I finally got around to replacing it. I don't know if my locks were original or not but the new one does work better. I was going to replace the rear lock including a new spring today, but looks like we're going to a country club at noon to hang out at the pool with Glenn and Amy and twig and whoever else is coming. So I guess I'll be working on this tomorrow instead. Not looking forward to unspringing the spring but have done it before so aware of what's involved. I was a little bit disappointed in the casting of the piece that locks into the top flex key area. Cast aluminum and it broke in the middle. It doesn't look like a very strong piece. I guess it's design for the load that it was designed for and I probably put some side tension on it causing it to fracture being out in the sun and wind over 20 some years. Probably didn't do it any favors either. Eventually everything on these coaches will need to be replaced one part at a time.
Collapse the front arm all the way so the awning is hanging down as far as it will go. Keep in mind that the more you unroll the awning the greater the spring tension. Lock the front end so zero rotation.
Put a 6' step ladder under the awning roll about 6" to the rear of center of the awning.
Carefully remove the anchor end of the spring loaded rear awning arm from the coach. Here is where I tied a rope to the rear awning axle and the other end of the rope to my hitch on our Vue. This held the awning out from the coach, but also down onto the ladder.
Or have someone keep the awning far enough away from the coach that you can rotate the entire arm to reduce the spring tension.
Keep count of every full turn so you can return to original spring tension. As an alternative, follow Zip Dee's instructions on preloading spring tension. You can always increase the number of turns if you find the awning doesn't roll up completely or requires assistance.
I think it was 21 or 22 turns when I put the new fabric on 2 years ago. But this is a new spring so I imagine that it should take less turn to get the same tension
In Xtreme's parking area in Nacogdoches waiting for them to open tomorrow morning at 8 am for the Zipdee presewn awning fabric install, and minor fiberglass and paint on one bay door. Here for approx one week.
Saddlesore pulled in next to us this afternoon.
If anyone is replacing the flex joint. ZeeDee's video shows to take the awning cover off the coach with the use of the two tools they send with the flex joint. But, not sure why that is the best way? I followed the removal and worked on the work table, for one side.
But this last year I did the other side's 3 window awnings, plus the huge awning, without removing them off the coach. My thoughts were, to stitch the new flex joint to the old, and use the old to pull the new flex into the channels. It worked really well, and allowed me to do the 3 window joints myself. I had a helper for the main awning pulling the tape in.
All awnings now have the new fabric installed, so I am doing the update on completion.
I already posted about the Girard patio awning, so this update is on the window awnings and slideout awnings. As posted earlier in the thread, all awning fabric was ordered in advance directly from ZipDee, and Xtreme in Nacogdoches did the install.
There were some issues with ZipDees work on providing the awnings.
I had provided the exact measurements ZipDee had asked for, that were the demensions of the existing awnings. They also wanted to know the depth of the two slideouts.
When the awnings arrived in Oregon, I pulled each awning fabric out of the box, and verifed the measurements to the existing. The new ZipDee bedroom slideout awning fabric was 5" longer, from coach to maximum extension.
I called ZipDee and informed them. They looked it up and told me they did that intentionally based on slideout depth, and that it would ensure the "slope" was correct when installed (saying original was too short and slope was wrong). They offered I could ship it back to them and they would cut and resew it to my measurements. I was short on remaining time in Oregon so did not do so.
So when installing at Xtreme, the bedroom slideout fabric was indeed too long, my measurements were correct, and their "fix" of the slope was wrong. Another issue was the driver front awning strap they provided was a couple of inches shorter than required. Luckily I had a extra awning strap of the correct color on board, longer than needed.
Solution: Infinity in Nac cut and resewed the bedroom slideount awning, and cut and fixed the extra strap I had to fit the drivers front awning. My out of pocket cost fixing ZipDees errors was $135 at Infinity.
Next issue was with ZipDee awning fabric: The new fabric is thicker than the originial (Infinity called it Sunbrella Pro in the thicker version).
While thicker more robust fabric seems better, it caused thicker wrap when rolled up, which meant the awning latches now would not work (could not be latched due to thicker roll when closed).
Xtreme had to relocate the travel latches on the window awnings, and make spacers to go under the slidout awning latches. All awnings can now be latched.
Most of the awnings look fine with the thicker material when stowed, and all look fine when extended. However, the living room slideout awning is no longer fully enclosed by the metal slats when stowed. The top and side is enclosed, the bottom of the rolled up fabric is exposed.
I may take a pic of that and post it in a couple of days (dark outside, travel day tomorrow).
Xtreme says every ZipDee sewn set of fabrics they have installed over the past year plus have been issues and a hassle. They are "likely" going to stop installing ZipDee sewn fabrics. Instead, they intend to pull awnings off, have infinity make the new fabric, then install that.
Xtreme resolved all the issues, but needed more man hours to overcome the ZipDee issues. I am happy with the work Xtreme did, on both awnings, and some fiberglass and paintwork.