Leaky awning repair

Captain Bud · 10-19-2005, 07:17 AM

Just completed sealing the seam where the metal awning cover is attached to the fabric. I unrolled the awning about a foot or so, I applied two coats of a clear polymer sealer to the stitching that is exposed. Will see this weekend if it works.BTW the leak was just an irritating weep from the stitching.

Captain Bud · 10-19-2005, 07:17 AM

Just completed sealing the seam where the metal awning cover is attached to the fabric. I unrolled the awning about a foot or so, I applied two coats of a clear polymer sealer to the stitching that is exposed. Will see this weekend if it works.BTW the leak was just an irritating weep from the stitching.

tderonne · 10-19-2005, 07:47 AM

My dealer replaced my whole awning fabric under warranty to fix the same issue on our 2004 Adventurer. I honestly haven't been in the right kind of rain to really notice if it's fixed.

What kind of sealer did you use? Is it very visable?

Tom N · 10-19-2005, 10:13 AM

Liquid Stitch works great for small holes and sealing seams.

Buy it at Walmart for ~$2 in the sewing/fabric department.

Joe-K · 10-20-2005, 07:50 AM

Sealing of the seam where the metal cover and the awning fabric come together is tricky. You may be successful by sealing the area did , but more than likely the awning will still seep.

If you study the awning, from the roof, you'll see a narrow stip of fabric with brass rivets in it between the top edge of the awning cover and the coach where the awning attaches. Those holes in the rivits allow water to get under the metal awning cover and flow down to the bottom edge of the cover. At that point, the water collects and seaps through the stitching holes and drips under the awning.

When you seal those holes from top side between the metal cover and the awning, you still can get water through the awning. Ask me how I know

After both ISLAPP and I got dripped on one to many times, he talked to his dealer who was able to get a copy of Awning Bulletin AE7-4A from Dometic. The bulletin described how to seal the awning between the metal cover and awning from the inside where the water is seaping through.

I followed the bulletin procedure and have been drip free. If you can get a copy of the bulletin it's a simple procedure to follow. If not, I'll see if I can scan the document and email it to anyone who needs the procedure.

The procedure simplified requires removing of 1 slat from the metal awning guard cover. Once the slat is removed, the cover is in two separate sections and the bottom half can be folded away from the awning. WIth the metal cover folded back, sealer is applied in the valley between the bottom slat and the fabric preventing water from running through the awning.

kenbt · 10-20-2005, 08:32 AM

I would appreciate you emailing me the awning leak fix that you have from the factory. Send it to [email protected]

bobpie · 10-21-2005, 04:41 AM

Hey Joe K could I get a copy of that fix also, thanks bob. [email protected]

Joe-K · 10-21-2005, 06:59 AM

Ooops. Left my office last night and forgot the bulletin sitting on my desk. Sheesh, I'm getting forgetful. I'll really try to take it home tonight and scan it over the weekend. I've got my fingers crossed it's legible when scanned since my copy is a faxed copy.

I'll get it emailed to you guys as soon as I can.

Joe

Captain Bud · 10-23-2005, 11:41 AM

Well after sitting thru the downpours this weekend at Holly Shores CG in Cape May I have no leaks. However a fellow RVer across from me left his awning up without enough of a tilt. and during one deluge the water collected and folded the awning up intp a pretzel, I spoke to him afterwards and he thought he had enough pitch. If I was going to leave my rig alone this weekend I would have put my awning up...

hogbreth · 10-23-2005, 01:58 PM

Could I have a copy of the fix also.
Thanks
[email protected]

Joe-K · 10-24-2005, 06:45 AM

Several folks have looked for the Dometic repair bulletin for the repair of leaking awning seams at the metal weatherguard. Thanks to ISLAPP, I was able to get a copy of the bulletin. I'm happy to say the documented repair has worked on several awnings we've tried it on.

The scanning quality of the bulletin isn't that great as the original document is a fax, but hopefull the document will be readable for everyone. Bill has been kind enough to host it on the irv2 server since the file size is large to make the document readable.

It is a superlarge sized scan, so the best way to view will be to "right click it" and select "save target as" to save the scan to your PC. Once it's saved there, you can open it with your picture viewing software to resize it to make it readable.

Dometic Awning Bulletin page 1

Dometic Awning Bulletin page 2

kenbt · 10-24-2005, 09:47 AM

Not being able to read the scanned repair order I contacted Dometic at 574 294-2511 and was connected to customer service that faxed me a copy directly...My question is that this bulletin appears to be for a manual type awning, correct? not an automatic type?

kenbt · 10-24-2005, 09:55 AM

Disregard my last question if this article is for manual awnings only...it appears it is for all types...at the bottom of the article they also list numbers for the Technical Service Dept that you can call for assistance or probably even the service bulletin the numbers are 800 216-5115 or 260 463-2191