Thor Delano RV FB 2020 – So The Awning Just $&@! Broke….

How many things can break on a brand new RV on our first trip you ask? Add yet another thing to the list.

Now I know why guides tell you to buy used RVs.

So we headed from Keystone, SD to Devil’s Tower, WY. Lovely trip.

It was maybe an hour and 45 minutes? We stopped for groceries and gas at a Safeway in Rapid City, SD – so I can’t give exact time – let’s just say it wasn’t long.

So we are at Devil’s Tower, WY KOA. Its nice here. Open and pretty.

When we arrived it was early in the day and mostly empty. It’s Thursday. We are supposed to leave on Sunday for Thermopolis, WY.

Then, the awning broke immediately after we extended it.

I swear to you I feel like the house on this RV is held together with rubber bands and bubblegum.

We’ll let you know just how many things ultimately break on this NEW RV, but we only have another 14 days or so on the road to go – and it’s not looking good.

I already had scheduled service/repairs for this thing for September 4th – two weeks ago. So that should tell you something about it.

Broke list – so far re short list of fixes we are at:

1. Sunroof shade;

2. Dinette seat/bed area that wouldn’t lay flat and wrecked facing on table;

3. Ineffective/weak bathroom mirror magnet/closure;

4. A bunch of the cheap ass drawer locks are broke; and now…

5. The Outdoor Awning.

A bolt and the end cap came off and wires were loose. Ok. It got stuck extended out. If we can’t get this awning thing fixed we won’t be going anywhere….

We tried zip tying wires and cap (Good Sam guy also recommended – more on that below).

Zip tied wires up – still wouldn’t work.

Undid zip ties. Tried to retract – no good. So then we read Thor manual. We checked fuses. We looked online. There was no awning manual included with our RV manuals. Also, more on that in a minute.

We called the Thor “Elite” service (they are on East Coast time – and Thor was closed for the day – they couldn’t tell what type of awning we had).

The Elite guy (Tom- very helpful BTW) and I couldn’t find the brand of awning on google. The brand isn’t visible on the awning itself. He (Tom at Elite) said be getting back to me tomorrow (Friday) (fingers crossed) after he called Thor.

We called Good Sam early Thursday afternoon. They said they’d get back to us. They didn’t. We decided to try again in Friday am. We then went to bed frustrated.

But wait, there’s more….

Ok, it’s now Friday morning. And last night SUCKED. Wind and a storm came in at about 2:30am. There was lightening and rain. And remember the AWNING is STUCK in the OPEN position. We don’t want that thing to tear off or blow into neighboring RV.

We don’t have an awning manual.

We can’t find anything on youtube.

We get the motor end cap off – but can’t figure out how to get the thing to retract. This just sucks.

I call Good Sam (again) – this time they manage our call/request. We end up having a mobile repair guy get here at about 4am. He does something to wires, says to zip tie end cap again and deal with it when we get back from trip.

Awning is broke for the remainder of trip. But at least we can drive this thing. And we of course have to pay for mobile repair service trip.

This morning’s pictures –

Elite guy (Tom) called back first thing this Friday am. He had been hard at work and talked to Thor and got awning manufacturer information.

The awning is made by Carefree of Colorado. “Specially” for Thor. Model Latitude – OEN. Dual Pitch. Carefree’s tel is 303-469-3324. I’m feeling real “special” right now….I probably need another cup of coffee.

Elite guy also got awning manuals and wiring information to me.

Gratitude.

This guy was awesome. He e-mailed me the PDFs. We’ll review tonight (because I’m working on low sleep today…).

But our awning is still broke and now I need to order parts from Carefree so they can be waiting for our service stop.

The RV house side thing sometimes kinda sucks. I oscillate between this is fun and WTF broke now? Perhaps on a Saturday with some sleep I’ll be more chipper.

But damn. I’ll try to regain some perspective tomorrow – after more sleep.