Carefree Traveler awning heads up

[RBH]

Traveling down the highway at 65 mph, looked in my rear view mirror to discover that the awning on my 2008 Cameo had self deployed. The fabric was ripped off the roller of course. After examination, discovered that the end cap on the roller that attaches to the motor had stripped which allowed the awning to deploy. The output shaft on the motor has a flat milled on to it and the end cap that fits onto this shaft has a flat in the hole that the motor shaft fits into so that the cap, and the roller attached to it, can not turn independently of the motor, which holds the awning in the stowed position. The flat in the hole of the end cap had rounded out allowing the roller to roll out. I had to replace the motor and cap assy. and discovered that the new motor shaft had two flats milled into it instead of one and the cap of course had two flats in the hole instead of one, doubling the holding power. Carefree evidently realized there was a problem and modified the newer ones. If you have one of these awnings I would advise you to check to see if you have the old one flat shaft or the updated two flat shaft. If its the old one be sure to check the play of the cap on the motor shaft to make sure it isn't ready to fail like mine did.

 

It would have been nice if Carefree of Colorado had informed people of the upgrade before a very dangerous situation occured.