Zip Dee Awning redo.
As I had previously posted, the Zip Dee awnings on our coach when we purchased it, were in bad shape. Some a lot worse than others, but still the seams had failed, the fabric on most, worn, and the flex key on several worn and torn. I also did not like the green color. So after calling zip dee and estimated the replacement cost north of 3 coach bucks, decided that something else was needed. My first thought was to go local, I received a quote of $1200 by the same guy who did our jackknife sofa. I had enough sunbrella plus on hand to do the 4 smaller awnings, and a spool of gore tex tenara thread, so all I needed was the large awning material, which I ordered through Sailrite with a nice discount they were running at the time. But then I remembered that I had used to have a sail rite sewing machine to make a dodger and bimini, plus possibly my own sails, and knew that I could do it for a lot less, just my time. I Had NO previous experience sewing. NONE. My wife has some, and we have a singer, but that wouldn't do it.
So I ordered a Sail rite LS-1, a commercial single stitch sewing machine from them for $700.
I ordered replacement flex key and a few other items like a new head on one of the rollers that had broken in the past, some cotter pins, and rivets. They don't make it easy to do it yourself I can tell you. You have to figure it out. They seem to use some nonstandard stuff like rivets. But in the end I had all I needed and proceeded to start on the smallest one first. Taking them down from the coach was a bit of a experiment, but as usual, youtube helps a lot. Zip dee also has some good info on this. I used sunbrella plus, a better fabric, with one side coated for more moisture control. I had white so that's what I used. Many would not go with that color, and I would probable agree, but I had it, and they came out looking great.
The first one I added a valance of sunbrella shade which didn't come out like I wanted it to. Difficult to sew, it puckers which makes it a bit short. One day I will redo the entire thing. The larger ones came next. I did all 4 without assistance of any kind as it was finals week and my wife (a professor at A&M Corpus Christi) was busy. All came out great. Not exactly what zip dee would have done, I'm sure but good enough for me.
Next came the biggie. This featured Sunbrella in a striped pattern. This was 46 inches wide vs 60 on the other, so first we had to cut 6 panels of 99 inches by 46 inches and sew them together. Once that was done, then the seams, and the polycord tubing had to be sewed in. Last the loop for the tubing it revolves around. During this time, our last big part, the sailrite machine started to act up and would not sew correctly. Also I got shocked several times when I touched the machine and my laptop at the same time, from a bad ground I believe. A call to sailrite and they were supposed to call me right back, but did not. I figured out that the poor sewing was due to the timing of the piece that makes the bottom knot and the machine wouldn't time right due to a bad setscrew that had come out and was not not able to seat right. We managed to finish by resetting the timing several times until it was done. Some stitches were not perfect, but good enough. We couldn't leave on our trip until this was done and on the coach.
Putting them back on was a adventure in itself. I put the bedroom ones on myself, and my younger son and I put on the 2 larger window awnings. It was a all hands on deck for the 22 foot awning and my wife, and both sons and I were out there in the Texas heat. It took a while but they all went on. Then we went to roll the big one up and forgot we had not turned the spring! So the next day again we were out there, and winded the spring 22+7. It went up, but I believe the spring needs replacement, a future project. Also the locking mechanism is on the wrong side on one, so that will have to be redone as well. I also have to more the smaller locks to line up with the ones on the coach. Some are off by a inch or so.
So we learned a new skill, saved a ton of cash. Have 5 new awnings that look great and work fine. All in all a great project. Took me a week to complete I would say. 1 day to take them off, 1 day to put them on and one day each for the smaller awnings, 2 for the larger one, but again, trouble with the machine caused some delays. And Sailrite did get a hold of me when we were on our trip in Waco and offered to send us a replacement, and we will pay extra for the LSZ-1, the one that does zip zag stitches. Great company!
Our awnings have a lifetime thread on it, so they will never wear out like the kind zip dee uses. The sunbrella plus also a better fabric so there are 2 plus. I put in some reinforcement in critical areas including the pull down strap.
But I could not in any way say that our stitching is on par with what zip dee would do. But I saved a lot of cash!
Topic: Zip Dee Awning redo.