A Little Awning Maintenance

Hey Camping Friends!  How's everybody doin' today?  We're doing a bit of maintenance in anticipation of our upcoming camping trip to The Holler. There was a question posted today over on our Facebook group about the older Dutchmen T@B awnings.  A lady wanted to know about the structure of those awnings and Daisy's Mom suggested that my Mom might be able to help.

So she pulled out that grand ole silver awning to snap a few photos. That's when she noticed that the duct tape holding the bottom of the storage bag closed was in desperate need of being replaced.  Out came the lime green duct tape, some cleaning supplies, and Momma Sharon went to work.

The original tear in the bottom of the bag needs attention

The opening is now closed securely with lime green duct tape

Once the poles were pulled out, my Camper Mom noticed that the colored labels near each end needed to be replaced. 

Five poles are all it takes to hold my awning up

We use garage sale labels on the end of the five poles to get them in the correct order before threading them through the awning.  Red to red, green to green, blue to blue, yellow to yellow.  It's a simple way to get them perfect every single time!

Cheap garage sale labels to the rescue

Green to green

Red to red (well, actually orange to orange)

Yellow to yellow . . . easy peasy

Alice on Facebook was curious about the five tension rods that extend from the awning pole back to me to hold that awning taut.  It's a pretty simple arrangement . . . one end has a rubber tip and the other end a plastic attachment.  It works like a shower curtain and extends from point A to point B.

If you can't picture what that looks like, here ya go . . . 

The end that attaches to the awning pole

The end that snuggles up to me

How they attach to each other

Everything is stored in nifty bag that's light-weight and easy to carry. It will pack easily in Splish and this is one awning that Momma Sharon can put up all by herself.

And when all is said and done, this is what that original awning looks like!  It's one of our favorites and is the ONLY one that has never leaked.  This photo of me is from when we camped with Aunt Becky and T@Bber Linda up at Moonshine Creek on Balsam Mountain one July many years ago.

I appreciate you stopping by on this toasty July day as we do a little bit of maintenance before hitting the road in a couple weeks.  Stay cool out there and until I'm back with another Tale, always remember . . . 

"Peace, Love & Little Fixes"