Zip Dee Awning control box

Topic: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires. (Read 2376 times) previous topic - next topic

Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

March 29, 2013, 09:11:07 am

Anyone know of a mobile Zip Dee awning repair person/company in Houston? Opened the control box in the basement to check/replace batteries for the awning and found that the insulation was melted burned off of the wires connected to the batteries. Have sent an email to Zip Dee in Ill.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #1 – March 29, 2013, 09:26:46 am

Rudy Leggett (in Baytown, near Houston) is friends with a guy who owns an RV repair shop that was just across the street from the RV Park we stayed in. Rudy recommended the park to us as a base while he did our Aquahot service. We met the fellow (he also did Dave Metzger's electric fridge install) and he is one of those guys who can fix anything that comes down the pike. You may want to make a detour to Baytown and check out his facility.

CUTTING EDGE RV SERVICE, 12535 I-10 East, Baytown, TX, 77523 281-383-1438 ... Lee Morris is the guy's name. We stayed at the Houston East RV Park. Nice, clean, reasonable.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #2 – March 29, 2013, 10:14:34 am

I second the cutting edge service! Very nice folks, they have a couple of 50 amp plugs so you can spend the night. Plus Rudy could take a look at your Aquahot if need be!

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #3 – March 29, 2013, 10:47:22 am

I will recommend him too. He fixed my Aquahot with help from Rudy and saved me a replacement charge of way way more.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #4 – March 29, 2013, 10:47:45 am

Oh and he worked under my coach till 930 pm.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #5 – March 29, 2013, 01:26:47 pm

John, he fixed our Aquahot as well, but he did not START until 9:30pm!

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #6 – March 29, 2013, 07:05:55 pm

Thanks Folks-
Rudy called, as he was coming up to Spring to checkout the AquaHot and suggested I contact Lee about the awning. I will make arrangements to get there when we have finished our stuff here in Livingston.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #7 – April 03, 2013, 07:10:43 pm

Well - Zip Dee is building another complete controller box to exchange for ours. They also wanted the right arm shipped to them so they could rewire it. (right arm as you look at the coach from the side). Here is the challenge. The Zip Dee is hooked into the aux. air compressor that also controls the Auto level system and the slide ballasts? So... how do I cap the Zip Dee air line so I have air pressure to the bladders and auto leveling so I can live in the coach until the control box and the arm are returned in 7 to 10 days.

Would much appreciate your input.

Thanks,
Scott

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #8 – April 03, 2013, 09:18:13 pm

Scott,

In my case I disconnected the three air lines from the front arm (double male connectors, just inside the coach, behind the door step electrical panel) and plug them with nails, etc. pushed inside the ends or kink them over and secure with cable ties. Be sure to label all lines with masking tape for proper reconnection. Hopefully you will get the new, improved control box that allows more air pressure to the arms. Talk with Jimmy in the service dept. at Zip Dee - he is very helpful.

Jim

2002 U320 42'

build 5957

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #9 – April 03, 2013, 09:23:26 pm

Thanks Jim-

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #10 – April 03, 2013, 09:36:23 pm

Agree with Cutting Edge RV Service, Lee Morris, for sure a "Can Do" shop right on I-10 Baytown, east of Houston slightly.
The more I look at and think about that large refrig box in my 36', I laugh, looking at it, it looks impossible, but seemed simple for the Lee Morris gang, I'm still amazed. Correct price I feel also.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #11 – April 03, 2013, 10:37:22 pm

When we replaced the awning arm with the wiring, we bought it from ZipDee, had it shipped to Foretravel for install, and then returned the damaged arm to ZipDee for our credit. We purchased a rebuilt arm, not a new one ... at about half the cost. They then rebuilt our damaged arm for someone else!

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #12 – April 04, 2013, 08:45:42 am

Thanks Dave M for the vote of confidence for Cutting Edge. It's always a challenge trusting your "girl" to some one you don't know to perform work. We are hopeful that the "new" control box and rewired arm will return to Cutting Edge mid to late week next week. In the mean time we would like to take the coach and Live in her until the parts arrive.

We are going over there later this AM and check things out.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #13 – May 13, 2013, 05:21:37 pm

Update - Long story gets longer - Had the rebuilt control box and front arm installed. Unfortunately after many hours of adjustment we called it quits. While in Nac recently for the top re-coat we also had the awning "looked at". The tech. said, ont in these exact words, that these awnings are crap and not to invest another penny in it. They do however have a nice Girrard that they could let me have for about $7500 and it would only take about 3 hours to install - not to mention some body and paint to cover the holes from the ZipDee. Said no thanx. Ran into a couple of great guys at Nac and active contributors to this forum and they suggested that I contact Jimmy at ZipDee in Elk Grove, IL. Well I did just that. Not only was he familiar with this problem but stated that the awning must have 110psi min to work. He told me what year coach I had and told me what was happening with the awning before I could tell him. (Front arm extends and the back one doesn't always - said that FT installed a compressor that does not supply enough pressure to activate the arms. -

He asked for my name and # and would contact another FT owner that has installed a compressor that successfully activated his awning. This is becomming a very interesting experience. Thoughts?

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #14 – May 13, 2013, 05:26:24 pm

Interesting. Check your compressor as I think you can adjust the PSI on it and as I recall, we had ours set to 110 or 115 psi. It might just be the compressor not set correctly.

I do know that Zip Dee wanted FT to have a dedicated compressor just for the awnings and FT said no, so they share the 12v compressor with the Slide bladders. As long as you have 110 psi, it should not matter what else is on that compressor.

For sure look at the compressor.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #15 – May 13, 2013, 05:51:06 pm

When were at Zip Dee last fall I was eyeing the power awnings. Jimmie told me to stick with te manual awning, simple, less "issues".

Roland

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #16 – May 13, 2013, 07:29:15 pm

Hey Guys - I know that the engine compressor can be increased but do not know how to increase the air pressure on the aux. compressor. The Aux. compressor serves the bladders, awning and HWH auto leveling system. Have done some searching on this site but can not find what I'm looking for. Checked Barry's site too and don't see it there. Michelle - can you find a link?

Roland - I looked at having a manual put on the ol' girl instead of repairing the ZipDee. At that time it would have cost about $3500 for the awning and then about 3 to 4 hours to install. In hindsight maybe I should have done that......... I've got about 2K invested in this one so far. ARGH.

Realistically - We really do not use the awning that often but I just like our stuff to work.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #17 – May 13, 2013, 07:47:04 pm

Can you verify the psi that the compressor pumps to until it cuts off? I thought there was a nut on the bottom of the tube that allowed you to increase the pressure. Talk with James Triana at FOT. He can tell you without a doubt if it can be increased.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #18 – May 13, 2013, 08:59:49 pm

Quote from: Carol & Scott – May 13, 2013, 07:29:15 pm

Hey Guys - I know that the engine compressor can be increased but do not know how to increase the air pressure on the aux. compressor. The Aux. compressor serves the bladders, awning and HWH auto leveling system. Have done some searching on this site but can not find what I'm looking for. Checked Barry's site too and don't see it there. Michelle - can you find a link?

Maybe in the T/A manual? The selected media item is not currently available.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #19 – May 13, 2013, 10:18:57 pm

Michelle - You are absolutely amazing. Thank you.

If I am reading the documents that Michelle found correctly, they show that there is no air regulator adjustment on this model. It appears to produce a min and max pressure of 100 psi. Based on the Gauge mounted on the regulator next to the control box I am seeing about 90 psi. ( (Who knows if that is correct.) a rhetorical question/statement.)

I do find it interesting that Jimmy@ ZipDee said that the awning requires 110 psi to operate while their documentation specifies 90 psi to operate. It also has a light on the control box that will light if there is not enough air pressure to operate. (The light has not been on.) HMMMMMMMM The plot thickens.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #20 – May 14, 2013, 07:47:22 am

So far the Zip Dee on our 02 is working perfectly. I assume we have the original 12v compressor but wouldn't swear to that. There are a lot of moving parts relays etc. so it will break sometime.

We never used our manual awning because it was easier to find a shade tree than put it out. This one however is a different story.

In Oklahoma we can go from no wind to 80 mph in a short time. With the electric we can just put the awning up when leaving the coach or going to bed. We love it.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #21 – May 14, 2013, 07:53:44 am

I think it is Corbett and Connie Poole. I saw their zip dee and it was connected to a second compressor in the first bay. He said no problems since he put that in. I would contact them and talk to him. He showed me the setup and it was pretty sweet.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #22 – May 14, 2013, 09:51:12 am

The unit on our '02 ZipDee Autoawn uses 90psi. I regularly need to use the little button that turns the entire control OFF and ON again, to reset everything... then it is fine for a while. The remote does not like to "talk" to the control through the closed bay door. We have to open it a bit to get good communication.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #23 – May 14, 2013, 10:33:37 am

Hi Carol - Hope things are going well for you guys.

Ours communicates kinda the same as yours. Sometimes OK through the bay door - other times - no.

Re: Zip Dee Awning control box - melted wires.

Reply #24 – May 14, 2013, 10:43:49 am

I would have another conversation with Jimmy at Zip Dee and mention that the doc says 90 psi. Foretravel would not have installed those awnings with a compressor that did not produce the correct PSI.

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