Awning Clamp Assembly.

These pictures show how I lash my awning after I’ve locked and clamped it in place before a trip. The added rod and bungee cords help prevent the wind from picking up the awning and unfurling it while traveling down the road. The installed locking mechanism sometimes can be vibrated loose by the road or by wind gusts.

RVs that are unlucky enough to have this happen can end up in a ditch or can cause huge accidents. The awning can unfurl and flop over the roof or rip off and fly or can act like a parachute and lift the RV up and push it over a lane or two, all depending on wind speed and direction. Not sexy.

I had my awning unfurl about 12″ once while on the freeway not far from Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. I happened to notice it happening just as I was slowing down to make an exit. After I quit screaming like a little girl, I got on line and did some research. I found on my favorite forum, Woodall’s, that this happens often enough, and is dangerous enough to make it a worry.

One of the forum regulars had come up with a simple, inexpensive, and quick fix. I had the parts on board so the cost was $0. The following pictures are how I installed it. Since this works so well, I’m not certain I’ll do anything more for this potential problem. There are commercial products for this but they all start around $50 and seem needlessly complicated.

Here is the awning pull-down rod (comes with the awning) inserted into the hole in the end of the awning tube, and after the rod is lashed down, it prevents the awning from unfurling:

Here are the bungee cords that hold the rod and after being looped around the arm, they are hooked into the eye of the rod and then the bracket that supports the arm, they are 18″ long and have plastic hooks to prevent maring:

Here’s a side view looking toward the rear of the RV, note that neither the rod nor the plastic bungee cord hooks touch the side of the rig, helping prevent chaffing the paint or sidewall: