Rattle in awning arms?

[buford]

Anyone have a fix for noisy awning arms on a 2007 Winnebago Journey 34h? The arms rattle pretty loudly especially when it is windy...

[ThomB]

When it gets windy we anchor the awning down. I have a couple screw in type dog tethering anchors and a couple of tie downs (not ratcheting) that we put on the end and it will keep some of the noise down where the arm mounts into the RV if that’s the part you’re asking about.

[buford]

That's what I have Thom, I don't know what kind of dog anchors you have but I guess I could drill and tap the arm for a bolt to push against the inner arm to help stop the noise...Thanks, Buford.

[Oldchinahand]

If you have manual awnings as do we, there are a couple of fixes we have done.

If they rattle while retracted and you are driving, there is a "U" shaped clamping device part way up the arms intended to hold the inner and outer arms (upper and lower when extended) secure. I carefully closed the legs of the "U" a tad. Solved our problem. Also, make sure the plastic locking knob lower down the legs is tightened.

To minimize the rattling when the awning is deployed, we, like ThomB, use tiedowns to anchors (or five gallon buckets of water, depending on where we are), but we include a short length of shock cord between the tiedown and the anchor.

Also, on the outboard end of the upper leg is an odd shaped "knuckle" that slides along the lower leg and locks at the outboard end of the lower leg. With or without anchored tiedowns, those things rattle. We cut a 2" x 3" piece of exercise mat and contact cemented it to bottom of the knuckle. Stopped the rattle. It doesn't show to passersby. Yet another use for that mat.

If your awning is electric, none of the above applies.


Fair Winds and Following Seas

[Steve & Bunny]

Sometimes all you need to do is make sure the our upper arm is fully extended when you tighten the knob. The hardware can always rattle a little, especially if the wind is coming from the open side. Be really diligent if you decide to use tie downs, I've seen them pull right out of the ground and go over the RV along with the bent arms. You should never leave your awning deployed in winds higher than 20 mph.

Keep the shiny side up.

[buford]

Thank you everyone for all the tips ...I will to remedy the noisy things now...

[4x4van]

Once my upper arms are extended so that the awning material is tight, and the knob is tightened, there is no rattle; the knob effectively locks the two upper arms (inner and outer) together and makes them as one, and the tension of the material prevents the "knuckle" at the end from rattling. If the wind is strong enough to still cause rattling, it's time to roll the awning up.

[AlanO]

I have an electric awning on my View. The rear arm will sometimes pull out an inch or two after retracted but the front one stays tight against the rig. Can’t seem to figure out why? Anyone have a thought?