12-12-2016, 07:04 AM
I am posting about my recent hack on the Girard awning to provide a solution to a catastrophic problem.
The cause is this. Girard apparently used a plastic gearbox on the motor end of the awning, and has since converted to a metal gearbox. If and when the gearbox fails, it releases the motor from the awning tube, and the awning completely unfurls. The unfurled awning interferes with your fuel mileage and obscures the lane to your right.
Luckily when this happened to me, I was very close to my house.
The challenge is how to get the awning in, and keep it in so that you can continue your travels. Keep in mind the manual retraction mechanism IS the gearbox that just exploded.
Inside the gearbox is a worm and a helical gear. To get the awning in, I drilled small holes and put screws in to hold the gear. That allowed me to press the switch and retract the awning. However, this fix only lasted about a 1/4 mile, but that was good enough to get me home. The problem is the awning motor has LOST where it is in the in and out positions, and driving activates the wind sensor. So if you have to patch it on the side of the road, either kill the power to awning (mine was on the inverter breaker box) or deactivate the wind sensor ( I used tape).
For a more robust temporary fix, I removed the end plate from the gear box, and removed the gear from the motor. The gear will self center on a boss on the front plate. With the gear in place I filled the front plate with quick epoxy. After the epoxy sets the gear cannot rotate, so the motor will turn the awning tube again.
This will get the awning in, and keep it in. Remember though to kill the power, or disable the wind sensor to keep the motor from continually activating and potentially undoing the fix.
It took five minutes to type this and three days to learn it. I may have left out all the failed fixes that I attempted.
I hope you never have your Girard unfurl on the side of the road, but if you do, hopefully this will help.
The cause is this. Girard apparently used a plastic gearbox on the motor end of the awning, and has since converted to a metal gearbox. If and when the gearbox fails, it releases the motor from the awning tube, and the awning completely unfurls. The unfurled awning interferes with your fuel mileage and obscures the lane to your right.
Luckily when this happened to me, I was very close to my house.
The challenge is how to get the awning in, and keep it in so that you can continue your travels. Keep in mind the manual retraction mechanism IS the gearbox that just exploded.
Inside the gearbox is a worm and a helical gear. To get the awning in, I drilled small holes and put screws in to hold the gear. That allowed me to press the switch and retract the awning. However, this fix only lasted about a 1/4 mile, but that was good enough to get me home. The problem is the awning motor has LOST where it is in the in and out positions, and driving activates the wind sensor. So if you have to patch it on the side of the road, either kill the power to awning (mine was on the inverter breaker box) or deactivate the wind sensor ( I used tape).
For a more robust temporary fix, I removed the end plate from the gear box, and removed the gear from the motor. The gear will self center on a boss on the front plate. With the gear in place I filled the front plate with quick epoxy. After the epoxy sets the gear cannot rotate, so the motor will turn the awning tube again.
This will get the awning in, and keep it in. Remember though to kill the power, or disable the wind sensor to keep the motor from continually activating and potentially undoing the fix.
It took five minutes to type this and three days to learn it. I may have left out all the failed fixes that I attempted.
I hope you never have your Girard unfurl on the side of the road, but if you do, hopefully this will help.
Richard and Rhonda Entrekin
99 Newell, 512
Maverick Hybrid Toad
Inverness, FL (when we're home
)