Spring unwound on Dometic 9100 power awning

[remoandiris]

Anyone have suggestions on where I can find the number and direction of rotation for the spring on a Dometic 9100 power awning?  While replacing the awning fabric, the pin I used to hold the spring in place came out and the spring unwound.

I checked a lot of vids on Youtube and got nothing.  I was on hold so long with Dometic tech support that the call eventually failed.  I'll call them back if no one here is able to help.  At least the awning is retracted and not a problem.

[Kirk W]

The spring on awnings is wound up as the awning is deployed. In the extended position, it is would to it tightest. The rotation is such that the awning winds on to the tube over the top when retracting. When completely unwound, the tube should rotate in the same direction to wind the spring as it would to roll up the awning. 

[mptjelgin]

The number of turns depends on the length of the awning and how far away from the wall it is when you wind it.  I've done this one time and will say that you need to be very careful and know what you are doing before you start.  The spring will injure you badly it it gets away from you. 

It is easiest to wind it slightly away from the coach wall as it is under less (but still significant) tension and will give you a bit of wiggle room for moving it in or out to align pins, bolts, etc.  The guidelines for 2 feet out from the coach wall are:

up to 12 ft long awning = 8 turns
13-14 ft = 9 turns
15-16 ft = 10 turns
16.5 - 18ft. = 12 turns
19 ft-up = 13 turns.

The spring is prewound in a direction that places the awning under tension when retracted, and then tensions further as the awning is deployed. Dometic sells a tool to assist with winding the spring, but you can do it using "other" tools. 

Again, please be very cautious.  These things bite hard!

[remoandiris]

Thanks guys.  I need to wind it 10 times toward me as I am standing on the ladder.  I may just do it 8 times, see how it works, and take it from there.  When I installed a topper, I had a similar issue with the springs.  At least this is only 1 spring.

Edited July 7, 2020 by remoandiris

[travelinbob]

19 hours ago, remoandiris said:

Thanks guys.  I need to wind it 10 times toward me as I am standing on the ladder.  I may just do it 8 times, see how it works, and take it from there.  When I installed a topper, I had a similar issue with the springs.  At least this is only 1 spring.

Why would you only do it 8 times when it needs 10 times ??? Just curious.

 

[remoandiris]

3 hours ago, travelinbob said:

Why would you only do it 8 times when it needs 10 times ??? Just curious.

 

If you read the post from mptjelgin again, the guidelines he wrote are from 2 feet out from the wall.  IDK about you, but I won't be up there with a measuring tape and going back and forth to the switch to make sure I have 2 feet from the coach.  Maybe if I had scaffolding, but not with a regular ladder.  So I'm going to see what works and go with it.

[Hadar Adler]

We just replaced our awning  fabric and had the same issue. BTW.. I think my wife and I both have a broken finger. Anyhow... we followed what was posted above. We did 9 rotations. The awning now can't roll back in. We have readjusted the torsion down (I'm thinking too much) to 4 rotations. Better... but still very slow to retract and stops half way. Need to wait 1 minute and then it will go again. I'm thinking the motor is over heating? Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? 

[mptjelgin]

18 minutes ago, Hadar Adler said:

We just replaced our awning  fabric and had the same issue. BTW.. I think my wife and I both have a broken finger. Anyhow... we followed what was posted above. We did 9 rotations. The awning now can't roll back in. We have readjusted the torsion down (I'm thinking too much) to 4 rotations. Better... but still very slow to retract and stops half way. Need to wait 1 minute and then it will go again. I'm thinking the motor is over heating? Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? 

The spring should actually be helping to pull the awning back in, so more turns should make it come in more easily. Think of it as applying tension when the awning is all of the way in, and getting even tighter as the awning is deployed.

Is it possible that you wound the spring in the wrong direction?

[Hadar Adler]

We wound it counter clockwise. We went clockwise to loosen the tension. 

I'm positive we marked the motor on the right hand side and put it back the way it came out. Could that be an issue? Awning out of alignment by a smidge?

[GlennWest]

Take a fully charged 12v battery and apply it to the motor. A drill 12v battery works good. Reason I state this mine was doing same and I suggested bad motor. Motor was good, controller bad. 

[Hadar Adler]

Interesting.  I guess that's possible. Had no issues till we did this swap. I'll have to try that. 

[Wrknrvr]

If the awning is out to the left or right. You need to take the set screw back out. The one that holder the awning from moving sideways. That is if you put it back .

 Then tun the awning out maybe a foot. Then push in on the awning and move fabric and tube to fit as needed.

 

   Vern in a T-shirt 

[GlennWest]

Yes, if awning coming in cocked it will bind up. 12v battery test is easy. Will rule out or confirm motor problems.

[FizNAl]

On 5/29/2021 at 9:09 PM, mptjelgin said:

The spring should actually be helping to pull the awning back in, so more turns should make it come in more easily. Think of it as applying tension when the awning is all of the way in, and getting even tighter as the awning is deployed.

Is it possible that you wound the spring in the wrong direction?

This was the problem with mine.  It would come in a bit and stop.  Wait, and it would come in a bit more and stop.  Apparently a previous owner had taken it apart and wound it backwards.  Works great after winding the correct direction.

[Kirk W]

2 hours ago, FizNAl said:

This was the problem with mine. 

Welcome to the Escapee forums!

[GlennWest]

My spring and motor bad on mine now. Think spring has been bad. Wife and I rolled it back up and I tie wrapped it

Edited October 20, 2021 by GlennWest

[Ray,IN]

 GlennWest I have a manual Carfree awning, when we got the MH the awning and slide toppers did not retract properly. I used spray PB  blaster and the  spray extension to spray blaster in through a hole in the end caps to lube the springs.

That solved the inadequate spring tension problem.

[GlennWest]

My motor stripped out. it runs, nothing moves. Awning can be rolled out by hand.  actually just start it and goes out own its own. Takes 2 people to roll back up. I put ty wraps on it. My spring may be good. with the motor stripped out I don't think there is anything to keep it from unwinding.

Edited October 20, 2021 by GlennWest

[Normchevy]

Does anyone know of a video for this procedure? The spring unwound on me and nailed my thumb about 10 times while unwinding. Let me tell you that hurt. 

I would love a video of some kind to help put this back together if anyone knows of one.

[palmeris]

video of some kind

[Ray,IN]

Carefree of Colorado manual awning service manual:   https://catalog.carefreeofcolorado.com/documents/Patio-Awning-Service-Manual.pdf  includes how to wind spring tension/replace spring on page 6.

 

If you have a motorized awning, look up that service manual.

Edited May 13, 2023 by Ray,IN

[Rick James Bish]

On 7/6/2020 at 1:09 PM, mptjelgin said:

The number of turns depends on the length of the awning and how far away from the wall it is when you wind it.  I've done this one time and will say that you need to be very careful and know what you are doing before you start.  The spring will injure you badly it it gets away from you. 

It is easiest to wind it slightly away from the coach wall as it is under less (but still significant) tension and will give you a bit of wiggle room for moving it in or out to align pins, bolts, etc.  The guidelines for 2 feet out from the coach wall are:

up to 12 ft long awning = 8 turns
13-14 ft = 9 turns
15-16 ft = 10 turns
16.5 - 18ft. = 12 turns
19 ft-up = 13 turns.

The spring is prewound in a direction that places the awning under tension when retracted, and then tensions further as the awning is deployed. Dometic sells a tool to assist with winding the spring, but you can do it using "other" tools. 

Again, please be very cautious.  These things bite hard!

13 turns when it is just two feet out from the coach wall? That seems like a lot. Extending would wind it tighter. My math is not that great but based off the distance out (minus the 2 feet you mentioned) and the diameter of the tube, that would be another 6 turns tighter to extend fully.

I  am not saying you are wrong but I am in the process of replacing mine and have to start from scratch with the spring tension. To test this with no awning attached and zero roller tension. We pressed the extend button and I counted turns. We got to 7 revolutions and it sounded like the motor probably could not go any further. It seems to me that starting at a tension of 13 turns with the awning only extended two feet would make it impossible for it to extend based off the 7 turns I got in the testing.

And yes that do bite hard. My wrench slipped off and my hand caught most of the damage. My shirt probably saved me a little as it wound around the end of the mechanism and stopped the rotation early.

So I just want to be completely clear before I go winding this up.  I have a Dometic 9100, which from what i can tell has one spring oposite the motor end. It is 20 feet wide.  With the awning installed and extended just two feet, the spring should already be a tension of 13 turns ?

[Ray,IN]

On 7/6/2020 at 2:09 PM, mptjelgin said:

The number of turns depends on the length of the awning and how far away from the wall it is when you wind it.  I've done this one time and will say that you need to be very careful and know what you are doing before you start.  The spring will injure you badly it it gets away from you. 

It is easiest to wind it slightly away from the coach wall as it is under less (but still significant) tension and will give you a bit of wiggle room for moving it in or out to align pins, bolts, etc.  The guidelines for 2 feet out from the coach wall are:

up to 12 ft long awning = 8 turns
13-14 ft = 9 turns
15-16 ft = 10 turns
16.5 - 18ft. = 12 turns
19 ft-up = 13 turns.

The spring is prewound in a direction that places the awning under tension when retracted, and then tensions further as the awning is deployed. Dometic sells a tool to assist with winding the spring, but you can do it using "other" tools. 

Again, please be very cautious.  These things bite hard!

Yes it is not hard to break a wrist or hand if the installer makes a mistake.

This is for Dometic  2 step awings: https://documents.dometic.com/media/download/56240?templateId=0

 Here is the A&E pdf for replacing awning fabric with a chart on page 7 showing number of turns with,as you said,  awning tube 2' from coach: https://bryantrv.com/docs2/docs/aespring.pdf  If anyone is interested.

 

 

Edited June 7, 2023 by Ray,IN

[jerryd151]

I have a dometic 9100 power awning.  I caught it on a tree and bent the arms pretty bad. I was going to replace the whole thing and took it all apart until I realized they wanted $1500 for just the parts to replace it.  I have straightened most of the parts and ordered a few from Ebay but now to put it back together.  I took the motor out of the right end, not sure if that was when the spring unwound.  Did not see anything just heard it.  Probably lucky from what I have heard on here about the spring.  I have to canvas off and the motor off the right end. The roller is on a saw horse.  Where do I start to put this thing back together.  Spring first motor on , first, canvas on first.  I don't know what part to turn to wind the spring.  I see know videos that help in my situation.  Any help appreciated. Most of the documentation are for manual awnings.

Edited June 15, 2023 by jerryd151

[Hapazap128]

I am about to do the same thing. Unfortunately for me I was replacing the awning arm and did not have the torsion assembly pinned as suggested.  Needless to say it unwound and snapped the end casting bracket and took a small bite of my little finger.  These things bite pretty hard so make sure to pin the torsion assembly with a 5” x 5/16 bolt to prevent it from becoming unwound.  I found a recent video from a local RV expert repair guy that details the job pretty good.