Zip Dee awning improvements

[Petervs]

Ever since I bought my 94 Marathon in 2001 I was unhappy with the Zip Dee awning arms. They were just bent in a sharp kink to allow for the curvature of the Prevost side wall. It just looked tacky to me.

So one day I ordered some straight awning arms from Zip Dee , made some hardwood forming blocks, and bent them to the right curved shape on a shop press.

You can see the before and after in the pictures. I think they are a nice improvement.

Drive carefully,

Peter

pvans@pacifier.com

[win42]

Peter: Very nice job on the bending. Now you woke us all up to another project to look forward to. The existing arms may be able to be reformed without ordering new straight ones, but you certainly came up with an excellent improvement.

[MangoMike]

Peter,

I didn't think my arms looked that bad... Until I saw your improved version. Nice job.

Maybe Harry can mass produced them and do a yard sale at POG III.

Mike

[Petervs]

Peter: Very nice job on the bending. Now you woke us all up to another project to look forward to. The existing arms may be able to be reformed without ordering new straight ones, but you certainly came up with an excellent improvement.


I played around with rebeNding them at first, it is just not possible because the arms are solid aluminum and they are bent too sharply, there always remains a little kink that does not look good.

And the large Patio awning is a little different. The main part of the arms has to remain straight because it telescopes into the outer portion so it can extend. As a result, the curving is not quite as nice a match, but it is still much better than original. The arms nestle much closer to the sides of the coach as well. And the actual support arms for the patio awning are stainless steel. I bought a 20 foot piece that was enough for 4 arms ( 2 buses worth) at the local steel supplier. I could not find the square extruded aluminum anywhere except ZipDee.

Peter

[BrianE]

I bought a 20 foot piece that was enough for 4 arms ( 2 buses worth) at the local steel supplier. I could not find the square extruded aluminum anywhere except ZipDee.

Peter

Peter had been complaining about how tacky the awning supports looked for a long time so it was no surprise when he told me that we were going to replace the supports on "our" busses. As you see in his attachments, the results were well worth the effort. Some trial and error was necessary before the bending blocks were correct but the conversion was pretty simple. Now the bad news: When working on the awnings, be sure and visit ZipDee's website, download the maintenance instructions and read them BEFORE you begin (http://www.zipdeeinc.com/rv_maintenance.htm). The results of getting ahead of yourself can have unpleasant results. Even though both awning lock arms were engaged, somewhere in the process one of them got bumped open and the other one was tripped when the awning came loose in my hand. Suggest that the patio awning should be taken down with two guys on ladders at both ends. Much less expensive.:mad:


BrianE
94LibertyXL