alduquette
RVF Newbee
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2022
- Messages
- 2
I’m posting this for any 2022 Thor Omni owners with a Carefree of Colorado “Latitude” electric awning or any other Thor models that might use the same model of awning. PLEASE read this rather long post to see if it might affect your awning operation.
On our third trip in our new Thor Omni BT36, we started to extend the electric awning and it suddenly shot out from the side of the RV, one of the gas shocks flew off, and the folding awning support arm on the right side (looking toward the RV) was therefore swinging loose. At that point, the retract button did nothing, so we couldn’t pull the awning back in. I frantically tried to find any information on how to manually retract the awning but had no success with that via either Thor’s resource site or Google.
While my husband tried to locate a mobile RV repair service in Durango, Colorado, I called Carefree of Colorado directly. They don’t provide consumer support, so I hung up and went back through their phone tree as a dealer, hoping I’d get through to a human. After an hour of waiting, I got hung up on. I called back, got through to a receptionist, and she connected me with a tech who explained in detail how the awning is attached to the arms and motor. The awning shaft goes through the folding arm attached to the RV, an E-clip secures it from coming out of the arm, and the shaft then fits into the gearbox/motor assembly.
Here’s the important information: when our awning was installed, the critical E-clip wasn’t put in place, so the shaft of the awning had NOTHING securing it from sliding back out of the motor assembly and dropping out of the folding support arm. After a couple of trips in our new RV, the shaft of the awning simply vibrated out of the motor assembly, which is the ONLY THING keeping it from shooting out from the side of the RV from the 85 lbs. of pressure from each of the gas shocks. I’m grateful to God that we were parked in an RV park when this happened. I wake up in the night still envisioning what would have happened if the shaft had come loose from the motor assembly while we were driving down a highway at 65 mph.
We were fortunate that we found a mobile RV technical in Durango that could help us. While he didn’t happen to have a E-clip to secure the shaft, he used an O-ring to hold it in place so he could slide it back into the motor assembly and we could retract the awning for travel.
From my perspective, having the entire structural integrity of the awning resting completely on a single E-clip is a pretty hinky and dangerous set-up. When we got back to Scottsdale, we took off the plastic housing on the motor side of the awning, removed the motor assembly and gearbox, and installed the appropriately sized E-clip. We then slid the awning shaft back into the motor and replaced the plastic cover. We’re handy and this was a 15-minute, two-person job, since we knew exactly what needed to be done. However, I’m very uncomfortable with the E-clip being the only thing that stands between us and disaster, so we plan to remove the motor again and slide a toothed retaining ring on right next to the E-clip for additional security. We'll do the same thing on the other side, which is also secured with a single E-clip.
I’m posting this because we have had endless quality problems with our brand-new 2022 Omni, many of them just bad workmanship, but some of them serious. This one could have been fatal if the awning had deployed while we were driving. I’ve attached the image from the Latitude awing service manual and circled the E-clip in red. If you’re concerned about whether your awning has the E-clip in place, you should be able to easily remove the black plastic motor cover using a screwdriver and visually inspect the exposed shaft. Or you can have your dealer or service center do it next time you have your RV serviced.
I hope this information is useful, since I’d hate to have other owners encounter what we did, or even worse.
On our third trip in our new Thor Omni BT36, we started to extend the electric awning and it suddenly shot out from the side of the RV, one of the gas shocks flew off, and the folding awning support arm on the right side (looking toward the RV) was therefore swinging loose. At that point, the retract button did nothing, so we couldn’t pull the awning back in. I frantically tried to find any information on how to manually retract the awning but had no success with that via either Thor’s resource site or Google.
While my husband tried to locate a mobile RV repair service in Durango, Colorado, I called Carefree of Colorado directly. They don’t provide consumer support, so I hung up and went back through their phone tree as a dealer, hoping I’d get through to a human. After an hour of waiting, I got hung up on. I called back, got through to a receptionist, and she connected me with a tech who explained in detail how the awning is attached to the arms and motor. The awning shaft goes through the folding arm attached to the RV, an E-clip secures it from coming out of the arm, and the shaft then fits into the gearbox/motor assembly.
Here’s the important information: when our awning was installed, the critical E-clip wasn’t put in place, so the shaft of the awning had NOTHING securing it from sliding back out of the motor assembly and dropping out of the folding support arm. After a couple of trips in our new RV, the shaft of the awning simply vibrated out of the motor assembly, which is the ONLY THING keeping it from shooting out from the side of the RV from the 85 lbs. of pressure from each of the gas shocks. I’m grateful to God that we were parked in an RV park when this happened. I wake up in the night still envisioning what would have happened if the shaft had come loose from the motor assembly while we were driving down a highway at 65 mph.
We were fortunate that we found a mobile RV technical in Durango that could help us. While he didn’t happen to have a E-clip to secure the shaft, he used an O-ring to hold it in place so he could slide it back into the motor assembly and we could retract the awning for travel.
From my perspective, having the entire structural integrity of the awning resting completely on a single E-clip is a pretty hinky and dangerous set-up. When we got back to Scottsdale, we took off the plastic housing on the motor side of the awning, removed the motor assembly and gearbox, and installed the appropriately sized E-clip. We then slid the awning shaft back into the motor and replaced the plastic cover. We’re handy and this was a 15-minute, two-person job, since we knew exactly what needed to be done. However, I’m very uncomfortable with the E-clip being the only thing that stands between us and disaster, so we plan to remove the motor again and slide a toothed retaining ring on right next to the E-clip for additional security. We'll do the same thing on the other side, which is also secured with a single E-clip.
I’m posting this because we have had endless quality problems with our brand-new 2022 Omni, many of them just bad workmanship, but some of them serious. This one could have been fatal if the awning had deployed while we were driving. I’ve attached the image from the Latitude awing service manual and circled the E-clip in red. If you’re concerned about whether your awning has the E-clip in place, you should be able to easily remove the black plastic motor cover using a screwdriver and visually inspect the exposed shaft. Or you can have your dealer or service center do it next time you have your RV serviced.
I hope this information is useful, since I’d hate to have other owners encounter what we did, or even worse.
