Quote:
Originally Posted by rumbleweed
Despite beinng told it`s ok by my dealer and seeing others do it, I never unroll my awning more than about a foot without supporting the end rail. Extending without supporting is tough on the arms and even tougher on the mounting points on the roof of the TM. If you do the math, the torque on the mounting points is very high.
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Meh, you'd really be surprised. At least on my TM, the mounting rails are solidly fixed to the support channels on the corners of the roof. They're not going anywhere. I roll it out far enough to reach, then pull out the support legs. Not at all worried about the TM attachment point, although I can definitely see your point on straining the arms, I think they're designed to handle the weight. I lift the awning on and off every time, the whole thing doesn't weigh so much that just the end weight of that rail seems like quite a bit less than the arms should be able to handle if, say, a breeze should come along, or a hard rain. While we all know to roll it up if the weather turns sour, they still need to engineer in some strength to the system; my understanding is that weather related damage is usually to the fabric first, rather than the arms, telling me that the arms are actually well engineered.
Just my opinion and experience, but again that connection to the TM is solid, at least on my model (2009).