RE: Awning post weights

[Redwolf]

 
Our favorite local state park is Inks Lake, about an hour NW of Austin, TX.   Beautiful park with rolling hills, lots of trees, a nice lake...and lots of breezes.  Spring is storm season here in central Texas, generally accompanied by lots of wind.
 
 Our last trip to Inks was last fall, and I ended up getting out of bed in the wee hours to take down the awning, as it was lifting the poles off the ground and banging them back down due to the wind.  
 
 This time, I made weights to hold them down.  Knowing the wife would prefer something other than cinder blocks filled with cement, I bought some 8"  plastic plant pots.   The awning poles slide into 1"  PVC pipes cut about 4"  above the top of the pot.  90 degree bends are glued to the bottom of the pipes, to hold them into the cement.  I wrapped aluminum foil around the bottom of the pipes to keep the wet cement from filling them.   I then filled each pot with cement, centering the PVC pipes as best I could.   I even pushed some fake lilacs down into the cement to give the illusion of potted plants.
 
 When I sent the trailer up this weekend, each awning pole was slid into a pot, and then I drilled a hole through the PVC pipe and awning pole, and put a eyelet bolt through and tightened it on with a wing-nut (the eyelet giving me something to hold so I could do this without tools).
 
 Sure enough, we had rain and wind the first two nights we were there.  The pots did their job, keeping the awning held down.   I got up and checked on  em when I heard the wind picking up, but they worked great!
 
 I ll get some pictures up shortly!
 
 

[tlhdoc]

 Redwolf
Someone told me they saw someone else using tiki torch bases for their awning poles.  I bought 2 at Wal-Mart and will try them out at Easter.

[Ab Diver]

 Redwolf
Good for you, Redwolf! If you thought of this by yourself, you re smarter than I was. I copied another member s idea and made awning weights too, after getting tired of pounding metal concrete stakes into the ground. Made my weights out of coffee cans, and painted them black so they d look like-- well, uh-- black coffee cans, I guess. []
 
 They work great, don t they?

[cowboy]

 Redwolf
I think that I may be missing something here. My awning has the option to go carport or connect back to the trailer body it s self.  I here a lot about campers who are taking measures to keep thier Awnings on the ground during high winds. Do I need to take similar precautions or am I ok with the Awning attached to the camper during medium to moderate winds?
 
 Any response would be appreciated

[MtnCamper]

 cowboy
Attached to your camper, you should be OK, They tend to " float"  in the wind. That s why I made mine similar to yours.  
 
 You can have a Coleman with an attached awning, Without buying a new one. Check it out [link=http://groups.msn.com/MtnCampersAwning/shoebox.msnw]HERE[/link].
 
 I will gladly help anybody interested in doing this.

[Ab Diver]

 Redwolf

 Cowboy, my awning isn t made to connect to the trailer with the support poles. It s only connected to the trailer on one end of the canopy. The poles are designed to be tied to the ground with ropes and stakes. It s kind of a hazard at night, and just a general PITA the rest of the time. The awning bases we made hold the support poles in place during mild to medium breezes. If there are strong winds, my awning s gunna get rolled back up so it doesn t get damaged.

[Gamecock Camper]

 Redwolf
Ab Diver,  I ve only needed to secure my awning poles on one trip where the winds were a little stronger than normal.  Just putting the poles from the awning end to the ground seems to be ok for us most of the time.  With the new Rockwood s Carefree of Colorado awning, we connect the awning poles to the camper.  Now that we have the AAR (first trip using it in 8 days) we will probably need to stake down the AAR room panels.... we ll see.

[cowboy]

 Redwolf

 Thanks for all the imput.
 
 I was starting to get a little concerned about leaving my awning attached to the trailer.
 
 With all the stories about middle of the night excursions outside to check the status of the awning, I was thinking, hey it might be a good idea to ask a few questions.
 
 So far I haven t posted a lot, but  have had a hell of a good time just lurking and learning  little bit more each day.[]
 
 
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[sure2rain]

 Redwolf
Very creative idea Redwolf. I ve been using the cinderblock/cement version for a few years. They work great, but admittedly aren t appealling to the eye. I guess I found a project to fill some time until the snow melts. Thanks

[whippetwrun]

 tlhdoc
Tracy - we use them, had them at the PUT Rally last fall.  They work good don t how well in a strong wind though.  I was thinking of staking the holders into the ground with a U shaped stake.  Be careful though,[] you can dent in the bottoms of the pools if you fasten it too tight.
 
 The torch holders are great when you have pets, small children and clumsy adults (me).  There s nothing to get hung up on and they do keep the awning poles where you want them.
 
 Umbrella holders may be heavier although you might need a longer thumb screw for it.
 
 We still roll up as long as we have the chance to in stronger than average winds.

[Tim5055]

 Redwolf
I also switched from mu original cement block bases to flower pot bases.  It was only after teh cement dried that teh DW asked if we could put some plastic flowers around the top of the pot.  Too late[:@]
 
 [link=http://www.title-3.com/AwningBase.htm]Take a look[/link]

[forestwalker]

 Redwolf
Seems like they would be awfully heavy & bulky,if tow weight & space are concerns.We did have the roof of our pu damaged by a flying awning once-Kinda like the Wizzard of Oz(looked out the window to see our s flying by).We liked the movie better. I sure would hate to see the damage that a concrete filled flower pot could inflict.

[Red neff Barchetta]

 Redwolf
Hey all,
 Somehow I ve missed this thread the past few days.
 I use 10 lb. barbell weights and have absolutely no problems.  This great idea came from a guy in Louisiana early last summer and we are extremely happy with it.  We ve used this set-up now about 14 times in some pretty heavy wind with no movement at all.  I ll just post the thread if you want to check it out.  I store the 3 weights under the TV seats during travel.  Everything else stores on the poles in the awning bag.
 
 http://www.popuptimes.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14914

[tlhdoc]

 whippetwrun

 

ORIGINAL:  whippetwrun
 
 Tracy - we use them, had them at the PUT Rally last fall.  They work good don t how well in a strong wind though.  I was thinking of staking the holders into the ground with a U shaped stake.  Be careful though,[] you can dent in the bottoms of the pools if you fasten it too tight.
 
 The torch holders are great when you have pets, small children and clumsy adults (me).  There s nothing to get hung up on and they do keep the awning poles where you want them.
 
 Umbrella holders may be heavier although you might need a longer thumb screw for it.
 
 We still roll up as long as we have the chance to in stronger than average winds.
 

 
 I think Hersheygirl was the one that told me about them.  I was thinking of attaching the guide line from the awning to the base so I didn t have to tighten the screw too tight.  do you think it will work?
 

[wssfetch]

 Redwolf
My Jayco s awning is staked right at the base of the support poles.  There is a large D-ring at the bottom of the pole that you drive a stake through, hooking onto the ring.  You can still use guy lines but don t need to.   So far that is all I ve used.  Is there anyone out there with a similar Jayco awning that has other thoughts on that?