Awning / screen room ? not impressed yet!

[gr8lite]

We just bought our first Pop up. 1995 Coleman Cedar ,nice unit plenty of room for us. Interior is great ,exterior is great!
        However this awning and screen room deal is fast becoming closer to the dumpster! The awning "bag" has a broken zipper  (this is a very poor design) , so this is a pain in the azz to put up!
 I am making out of aluminum 3 new ends for the 3 roof poles! For now whats left of the peg  holds them in.
   I get the awning up , and start on the screen room..... How will this ever work? The screen room is too heavy to be held up by velcro (who's idea was this) How is it ever possible to hang up the screen room? There are some cheesey little "ties" on th esvreen room , I would imagine they tie to the roof  poles? The screen room is heavy so it pulls them out of adjustment/tension.

  I have a nice heavy silver toppped tarp that will work great as a awning. As for a screen room it would be cheaper to buy a self standing unit from Walmart and put it just outside the door.

 Are there any tricks anyone can share with me? I am fast looking to sellthis and go back to regular tent camping.......................HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

[TheViking]

We just bought our first Pop up. 1995 Coleman Cedar ,nice unit plenty of room for us. Interior is great ,exterior is great!
However this awning and screen room deal is fast becoming closer to the dumpster! The awning "bag" has a broken zipper (this is a very poor design) , so this is a pain in the azz to put up!
I am making out of aluminum 3 new ends for the 3 roof poles! For now whats left of the peg holds them in.
I get the awning up , and start on the screen room..... How will this ever work? The screen room is too heavy to be held up by velcro (who's idea was this) How is it ever possible to hang up the screen room? There are some cheesey little "ties" on th esvreen room , I would imagine they tie to the roof poles? The screen room is heavy so it pulls them out of adjustment/tension.
 
I have a nice heavy silver toppped tarp that will work great as a awning. As for a screen room it would be cheaper to buy a self standing unit from Walmart and put it just outside the door.
 
Are there any tricks anyone can share with me? I am fast looking to sellthis and go back to regular tent camping.......................HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

Alot of people just use an EZ-up outside the camper door.  hook a screen room up next to that and you have a serious square foot addition.

[tlhdoc]

The awning poles should be tight between the awning rail and the roof.  The ties on the screen room do tie onto the awning poles.  They do work.  Install the screen room before cranking the roof all the way up.  That way the ground supports part of the screen room weight until you get it tied/velcroed in place.  

[Elly]

We have a screen room attachment we have used once. It made us feel too enclosed. We do put up our awning on each trip. We also have a free standing unit we use. We have used a screened in free standing unit but the bugs still get in but don't have a way to get out. I swear we end up with more bugs in the screened in unit then out of it.
El

[diane]

I use heavy duty canvas snaps on all 4 corners. This helps with getting it to stay attached to the awning while completing set-up. Before I put these on, as I was attaching one area another area would come down. I only use the screen room when it is really buggy.

[hoppy]

Don't give up on the awning just yet. After a few more times, you should become a pro with it, and have it set-up in under five minutes.

 I don't remember a trip that I didn't set it up. It's great to keep folding tables, the outside stove, storage bins, and the cooler out of the direct sun light.

 One trick that I learned that does make the set-up a lot easier is to lift the PU roof about 1/2 way, remove the awning from the bag, install the center rafter pole through the fabric loop, and the front awning rail, and drop down the center verticle pole into position. The awning is now self supporting. Repeat this on the two outside poles. Now continue raising the roof fully. It's real easy when you are doing everything at eye level, that over your head. Reverse this procedure during the take down also.

  As for the screen room, can't help you with that one.  I never purchased one, and read that they can be a little cumbersome to work with. But others mentioned that they love them.

 Don't become too discouraged this early in the game.

  Good luck.

 Now for the broken zipper on the awning bag.... duct tape!

[CoPilots]

We have taken our Bayside for its maiden voyage. Fortunately, I had a week to look at the bag, take stuff out, put it back in, read the instructions, etc, before tackling the actual installation of the add-a-room.

There is definitely some assembly required (see below), but once I got the hang of it, it was OK. It definitely helped to keep the awning poles extended so the awning is reasonably taut. This takes some arm strength and, as hoppy noted, best done with the roof only half-erected. We carry a short step-ladder which also helps when working on the awning.

We like the result. Most importantly, we have a dry vestibule in wet weather, which keeps the trailer floor much cleaner than the alternative, and a dry place to store fold-up cloth chairs, shoes and boots and other intermittently-used stuff.

But, it's time-consuming. So, we're currently thinking that the awning only gets extended for stays of more than one night and the add-a-room stays in the bag unless we're staying for more than three nights.

Installation stuff, peculiar to Fleetwood:
Since the add-a-room is an option that they no longer provide as part of the package (at least at the dealer we got it from), the bag of pieces included snaps that have to be screwed into the awning's cross beam. This requires that the user drill holes into the steel. No thanks! If I screw it up, I own the mistake. So, as part of our deficiency list to the dealer, we've asked that they drill the holes. We'll see if they charge us. We think the holes should be included. The purpose of the snaps is to mate to snaps on the add-a-room to support it as you attach the velcro. I feel for gr8lite: it's certainly a pain in the butt to support the material while velcroing.

Cheers

[tlhdoc]

Since the add-a-room is an option that they no longer provide as part of the package

The AAR was alway an option that required instillation prior to use.