Awning Lock

Hello again,

Have been reading some of the posts and am getting concerned about our decision to purchase a Wildcat. One of the things I don't understand is why should it be necessary to purchase an after-market awning lock? I've had two other trailers and both were able to be adequately locked with the locks that came on them. Is this because of the new electric awnings? Can you order a new trailer that has the good ole manual awings? We would much prefer them as that is just something else to go out and take away from our pocketbook and fun time.
Present 5th wheel has electric slide outs and never had a problem in 12 yrs. Are the hydraulic slides dependable or just something else to go wrong? In another post I asked if they could be opened separately or do they only have one switch?
Seems like it should be easy to have two switches.
Really like the looks of the Wildcats, but beginning to wonder if the glitter is "fools gold".
Jackie

There are only a few mfg of awnings; it does not matter what brand trailer you get, you will have the same awning.

The lock is just a second safety device; a few dollars to protect an expensive awning.

Jackie,

Scott is right. There are only two or three awning manufacturers, so the RV manufacturers have few choices.

What seems to be happening is a failure of the roller lock. On a new awning they're pretty tight and it takes some force to move them from the roll-up or roll-down position. When they fail in the awning closed position, they allow the awning material to lossen and billow in the wind as the awning unrolls at 60mph. Even though the awning legs are tightly locked in the closed position, the awning itself can be unrolled by the force of the wind moving over it at freeway speed if the roller lock fails.

The extra lock looks like a short piece of plastic chain the loops over the rolled up awning to prevent the above from happening. Another model has a pin that secures the roller in place once the awning is retracted.

I'm not sure how prevalent this is, or how many have actually failed. I've never had the problem, but I check the condition of the roller lock each time that I move the awning to make sure that it is making a secure lock.

Hope it never happens to you, whatever model you chose to buy.

This is the one I have. Their website has a lot of information about the issue.

Click Here

scottz wrote:This is the one I have. Their website has a lot of information about the issue.

Click Here

Scott,

Nice install. Looks like a pretty simple (1 wrench) type of job.

schrowang wrote:Nice install. Looks like a pretty simple (1 wrench) type of job.

Yes, easy. I just had to remove and relocated one of the pop rivets that holds the cap on; it was right where my pin needed to go.

Using it is also easy. The only issue is when the awning is out for awhile, sometimes I have to roll it up a couple of times to get the hole to line up.