Front curbside awning trips breaker

[Mark3101]

Just started doing it yesterday while I extended them to get width measurements for a new garage in the spring:). All four went out fine, but when trying to bring them back in, the breaker tripped almost right away. I reset it and tried again and the did the same thing. So after that I reset the breaker and did them one by one to see which was doing it and it is the front curbside one.

Any collective ideas on where to start looking? They are Zip Dee awnings FWIW. They do not make funny noises or anything and when they went out the front and back traveled at the same speed and worked normally.

[jack14r]

ZipDee has upgraded the motors at least twice because of problems,I would check and see if the motor is a dead short.

[charlesebrownjr]

I have a ZipDee auto awning on my 99 CC. When it went out, I checked the power wire that runs up the awning arm to the motor. Check this wire with an OHM meter to see if is shorting out.
If it is shorted, it will zero your meter when you put one of the probes on the hot wire and then put the other probe on the arm so that you are grounding the motor wire to the arm. You might can ck the motor this way as well.

The wires running through the arm will short, as I have found out.:eek:

P. S. The breaker tripping instantly indicates a dead short to ground.

Good Luck

[tpr]

Mark,

I am flying Dave Rousey out here to Pennsylvania tomorrow. He is going to do some electrical upgrades to my 2006 Legendary. Dave was the service writer and field warranty tech for Legendary until their demise. I will ask him if he has any suggestions for you and let you know. His shop is in Oregon and you can reach him through email dave@styleworksrvrepair.com.

[Mark3101]

Mark,

I am flying Dave Rousey out here to Pennsylvania tomorrow. He is going to do some electrical upgrades to my 2006 Legendary. Dave was the service writer and field warranty tech for Legendary until their demise. I will ask him if he has any suggestions for you and let you know. His shop is in Oregon and you can reach him through email dave@styleworksrvrepair.com.

Thanks! I talked to him once right after I got the coach with a question about heat in the bays. I have coach 1026 FWIW.

I will PM you with a couple of questions...

[garyde]

I believe your circuit breaker is a GFI Breaker. If there is any current to the metal housing , neutral conductor, or ground it will trip. Even if the current is very little. You may have a bad motor in which there is some voltage leakage to the housing. Or, the wire which goes to the awning may be pinched at the housing or at the j-box crimping the hot, neutral, ground wires together. You may find nothing in a reading with an OHM meter, in such case, the GFI breaker is considered a nuisance trip, which you should then replace the GFI.

[phorner]

On the Zip Dee Auto Awn, if the batteries are low enough, it will trip the breaker when you try to retract it.

As the voltage drops. the amperage increases, thus tripping the breaker. I would try replacing the batteries first if you have this type of awning. They can be found at Radio Shack and are commonly used in burglar alarm panels.

[Orren Zook]

The battery used by ZipDee AutoAwn is also used on utility & camping trailers on the electric brake 'breakaway', you should be able to get it at any trailer dealer or service facility.

[rfoster]

My experience is the awning (like me) works properly in southern climates.

[garyde]

The batterries for the older Zip Dee fold out awnings are part of a 12 V electric & air system. The new Zip Dee on the top of Coaches are 120 volt.

[Mark3101]

ZipDee has upgraded the motors at least twice because of problems,I would check and see if the motor is a dead short.

Well, it turned out to be a bad motor. Then ZipDee sent out a new one with the wrong mounting bracket. They shipped the right bracket and all is now well.

Weird thing is that the dealer had put a new motor in the last week of October and I don't think the awning got used more than 10 times before it puked. I noticed that they went from SIMU to NICE for the motor mfg. fwiw.