![]() ![]() It seems that, despite the shortage of parts in the RV business, they have product available. Lippert has all sorts of replacement parts for awnings for folks who do what I did – from roller tubes to awning fabric to arms and more. But the Smart Arm functionality is just icing on the cake. In summaryĮven without the fancy Smart Arm technology, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy this awning knowing what I know now about the ability to retract it and the rain dump feature. ![]() I was very fortunate that it didn’t damage the trailer – so the replacement was easier. ![]() I pulled over to give them some space and, when I pulled out, a tree limb caught the awning and bent it backwards. So, I’m sure you want to know how I damaged the old awning, right? Essentially I was on a narrow country road and a giant fifth-wheel horse trailer was coming the other way. I could be wrong on this, but that’s what it feels like. This feature, alone, makes this awning superior.īut I also feel the fabric is a bit better and the arms feel a bit heavier gauge. ![]() Or, stick an electric drill and driver in there and use that to retract the awning. Should you ever have a motor failure or even just lose power to the RV you can open the access port and manually retract the awning. There’s also an access port to the drive gear of the awning. The bonus of this is that, should you forget to put the awning back in “flat” position, you won’t damage it by retracting it. This new awning you just pull down and it stays. You could pitch down either side of the awning by pulling that side down with your hand and then tightening a knob to keep the awning at that position. My old awning had a manual pitch setting that you had to adjust with a knob. Not just the fancy features but there are two features, in particular, that make this a much better product than what came with my trailer. So how is this awning compared to the one I had before? Better. Or it could function as an automatic courtesy light if you go away and then return to your RV after dark. This would also be good for scaring off critters but may be most useful for scaring off unwanted visitors to your campsite. In fact, there’s an upgrade where the awning would have a heat sensor and the lights under the awning automatically illuminate if it senses someone is there. What makes other campers happy is that there are also three levels of brightness for the LED lights under the awning, including one that’s only 10% brightness – which really makes you a good neighbor. You can also activate a wind sensor, and there are three levels of wind sensitivity you can set. This makes the awning even more convenient as you can unlock the control panel and then tap the extend button twice and fully extend the awning without standing there. In addition, there is a button for the light under the awning as well as one for a wind sensor. The Smart Arm technology has a series of buttons right on the arm that allow you to extend or retract the awning right there. In addition to simply replacing the awning, I upgraded to a Lippert Solera Smart Arm model, which is a direct replacement for my old awning in terms of fit but offers more features. Speaking with the Lippert folk, I learned that they want more opinions about the whole process from the parts themselves to the shipping process to ordering – so here I am. So, to be very clear, I originally had every intention of paying for it but they sent me this awning so I could give it an honest review. Then, after seeing my email with the confirmation, she forwarded it to Lippert’s marketing folk and they, in turn, sent me the awning so I could evaluate it. I was very impressed with her knowledge and attitude and it makes me a bit sad that I didn’t write down her name. The lady on the other end of the phone literally could have given classes in how to be great at customer service. I clicked and picked and believed that I had come up with all the right parts based on their recommendations, but I called their number just the same. Unfortunately, it had been so long since my old awning had been removed and disposed of that they didn’t have those numbers any longer.ĭismayed, I flipped through Lippert’s website where the awnings are and it didn’t seem overly difficult to choose a replacement. I have worked in the RV warranty department and know that the part numbers of the old parts makes it much easier to buy the new parts. Seeing that Lippert had a retail awning division, I asked the repair shop that took off the awning I had damaged for the parts numbers. ![]()
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