This ’02 Winnebago Journey left the factory with a fabric awning over both the living room (LR) and bedroom (BR) slides. They were in pretty good shape up until the storms of early 2020 where some wind event started tearing the LR slide. It only amounted to around 4″ but it was getting longer so I thought it would be a good time to replace both of them as they are both 19 years old. The LR slide awning (aka ‘Topper’) also had that event where some raptor of some type seemingly caught some prey and brought it up on top of my awning where it bleed out staining the fabric. I once noticed rivulets of some red liquid with droplets creeping over the edge of the rolled up awning fabric. A month or so after I’d spotted that, I had it scrubbed but it never really went away. So that was another reason I wanted to replace. You can see some of it in this picture after it had stopped weeping and turned from red to brown to this black color. Took a couple years to turn black. I suspect the blood became home for some airborne mold.
And here’s a shot of the BR topper…
What I decided, was to replace them both and while here in Pahrump in early 2020 I contacted ShadePro to arrange the replacement. They could only get to me in mid March and only in Yuma so I traveled there and let them know I was in town. They scheduled a tech to come out a couple days later. He measured things, gave me a quote which I accepted and he came back on a Saturday for installation.
First he unsecured the old fabric, cleaned up the extruded aluminum slots the awning slides into, one on the roller and one on the RV, removed the old fabric, clamped the spring wound LR roller, then slides the new awning into the rail’s and roller’s slots.
Then after the new awning is slid into the rails, and all the screws are installed to ensure the fabric won’t slip out of the slots, the spring wound roller is released, and it tightens the fabric. All work was done with the slides extended and retracting them wasn’t necessary.
And then he moved to the rear BR awning and performed the same procedure. So pretty simple really, and I could have done it myself if I’d wanted…I just didn’t want to.
So that’s it. Topper Awning replacements, if you have the proper tools like two ladders, is a simple process. After he finished those two jobs, then he moved onto installing the new 12′ wide pull down awning I’d ordered for the two slide out windows in the LR. You can see the article on that job here: Living Room Awning…
LR Topper tear…Late ’22
For several months now, when I’d move the RV to a new site, when I’d try to extend the LR slide, it would buck and lurch wildly the last 12″ of travel. This is scary of course as slide repairs are really expensive. I tried to figure out what was happening by trying to observe operation but it really didn’t show me much standing on the ground as someone else pressed the Extend switch. After numerous attempts to find out what it was, I posted on iRV2.com and then PM’ed AZPete to read the post. He’s the resident HWH expert and works for them as a tech. And my slides and jacks all run off an HWH system. He helps out by answering questions on the RV’ing forums. Anyway, he answered back:
“Go outside and watch the room topper as the slide extends. It may be the roller is hanging up. I have found several with this same problem.
If not that, remove the inside facia and watch the mechanism, as it extends. inspect it for lose pins, or missing rollers.”
Ah HA! This is great news to me, because an expert didn’t think it was the HWH slide mechanism at all. That’s good to know. So again, with that in mind I went out and this time was able to borrow a ladder and I found something I hadn’t really noticed from the ground before…that the “Awning Extension Rod” has a big bend in it. I think maybe it had gotten hit somehow and bent slightly though I can’t find any evidence of that, then the repeated attempts to extend the slide just kept repeatedly stressing the rod until it finally ended up with that big ‘wow’ in it. Each step made the slide buck and lurch just a tad bit more. I kept thinking it was the HWH hydraulic system causing it, but no, not at all. It was because when the roller was turning and got to that point where the roller was putting strong tension on the fabric it would lift the entire slide body. Then as the mechanism slipped down to floor level, it would finally break free, dropping the last 2-4″. So, buck & lurch. Once you see it, then it makes sense.
And here’s some pictures of that bent rod. Fireup from iRV2 suggested using my jacks and some wood to straighten it rather than a hammer and I think I’ll try that. Now that I know the symptoms of what happens when that rod is bent, I can track it in future.
I couldn’t see the forest for the trees before I finally noticed this bend. I could see from the inside of the RV that end of the slide would rise up and drop down but I didn’t really put two & two together. Dumb, I know.
The views here show why I missed the fact that the rod was bent. Shows why I need a taller ladder I guess.
This is the end that has a normal hex rod. This end (front of the slide and nearest the wall) was where the awning fabric began to tear last September. The tear started out at 1″ or so and slowly over time got to be around 24″. 
I hired Mobile RV Pro here in Tucson, AZ to work on it for me. Tyler was the tech and I had him remove the awning fabric and bend the rod back a bit straight. Inspect everything, including the straightness of various parts…like the awning roll up tube and the extruded channels the awning seams slide into when installed. Everything looked good, and he couldn’t find anything that could have torn the fabric or bent that tube either. Charged a fair price, left things removed while checking for parts, couldn’t find what we needed than came back and reinstalled everything a couple three days later. I do recommend his company.
So for now, I don’t have a slide awning, and ShadePro asked for pictures to decide if they’ll cover it under the 3 year warranty against defects (installed 2 years ago).
Well, hell. My memory kicked in and I just remembered something that may have caused this entire issue. Early last spring, I was parking in an unfamiliar RV space and there was a small but strong tree right at the end of the LR slide. I thought I had just enough room for that end of the slide when I extended it. And so I was extending and saw the end of the slide lift up. Didn’t figure out what that was immediately so tried to keep extending. Eventually I stopped that foolishness, went outside and spotted the cut branch that was causing the problem, and so retracted the slide and it started out with a ‘BANG’ as it dropped back down off the cut branch. Then went out with my saw and cut back the branches, especially the one that caused the problem. I remember the entire situation now. Months later I spotted the small tear in the front end of the topper. I didn’t look very often and we had some strong winds just before I did. And a month after that I had my first experience with the slide lurching and jumping as it extended as that was the first time I’d retracted & extended the slide since the tree problem.
So it’s not a warranty issue after all. I damaged (bent) the extension rod on the end of the topper awning, and the high tension strain it put on the front end of the topper as the roller turned caused the tear. The above pictures of the bent rod should give the thoughtful reader ample explanation of why the slide was lifting, lurching, and bucking when extending, on the last 12″ or so of travel. I suspect ShadePro engineers will be happy to learn of the actual cause of the failure of the seam as I contacted them withdrawing my warranty request. And the seam failure was at the opposite end of the slide, where I wouldn’t have expected it…until I had a ladder to inspect with and found a really high tension on the fabric up there on the bent rod end. Must have been hundreds of pounds of tension. And an hour later there was a big bang and the slide dropped another couple inches that I hadn’t realized was still supported by the awning fabric. I didn’t put two and two together until just today, finally remembered the tree. Recently though I did go outside and look up there several times but didn’t have a ladder available and didn’t see the bent rod from the ground.
As I said earlier, I did have a mobile RV tech pound that rod straight, and then he removed the old torn topper awning so I can travel without worrying about damaging the slide mechanism while I order a new topper. And perhaps a new rod though mine looks pretty straight now.
So now that I know I won’t be getting a free topper awning from ShadePro I’ve started to look for alternatives. Repairs, or replacement awnings. Best I found was at eBay for $119. But it’s vinyl. I’ve had to deal with vinyl awnings in the past and I don’t care for them. I like the fabric awnings that ShadePro makes. They are rip resistant high thread count nylon. Sheds water. And I have one, just a year or two old, but it has a torn seam. Hmm.
Here’s what the tear looks like. I’m convinced that it ONLY tore due to the stress put on it by that bent hex rod. So maybe repair is in order? 
So what I did was trim off all the loose threads, then use a lighter to melt the edges a little (which showed me that the fabric is indeed nylon or of the nylon family) to prevent much unraveling as I worked on it. Gave a nice finished edge to work with. The tear was right on the stitched seam. So it wasn’t wobbling all over. Nice and straight.
First I found some heavy iron on patches in my sewing kit, taped them in place and then ironed them onto the fabric on the top side. That’s the side you’d see if you were standing on the roof. I don’t have access to a sewing machine right now so I had to sew it by hand. And because of my bad eye, it doesn’t look as good as it could. IF it starts to unravel on me sometime in the future, I’ll find a sewing machine. The awning is 159″ long and 47″ wide so it’s not all that fun to horse around but because there’s only one edge involved, it would be doable. Using a machine to resew that seam wouldn’t be all that easy, but possible.
What I’ve done as a back up fix is order a roll of 4″ wide awning tape. I used this kind of tape on my old A&E vinyl patio awning and it lasted 3 years. Back then the roll of 2″ tape I purchased at an RV park cost me $15, but it was worth it as it was easy to apply, and just lasted until it was time to replace the awning. Not a permanent fix though as it eventually started to fail.
This time it’ll be acting as a backup to the sewing I’ve done and not having to actually hold the awning seam together so it may last even longer. And as far as the sewing, here’s what I did. I added some stitching to places I felt needed it after this picture too.
The iron on patch, the stitching, and the awning tape should get me several years out of this awning that I just paid hundreds for a couple years ago. And I can always remove it and use a sewing machine later to get even stronger seams. I’m not opposed to buying a used sewing machine at a thrift store but haven’t spotted one I wanted so far.