Diagnose And Replace A Failed RV Awning Motor 

Now THIS is how you do an instructional video! Excellent and thank you!

Darren you make things look so straight forward and easy. When I do it that's not usually how it works. I know a lot of it is experience and knowledge. I didn't know about the spring so I would have taken the motor off and bamn, retract! Great video! You're taking the repair shops lunch.

I love your sense of humor. You aren't only the best trouble shooter/repair technician i have ever watched, you are hilarious.

I knew the awning is spring loaded but you were the absolute best in showing how to simply handle that issue. On my way now to pick up a new motor.

This is the first video of yours that I have ever watched and I give you A+ 5 Stars! Very professional and well put together, explaining all aspects of this DIY trouble shooting and fix. Liked, Subscribed and clicked the Bell for Notification. Thank you D! You have saved me several hundred dollars!

Just wanted to say thank you! This video was exactly what I needed, my awning is back up and running with a new motor!

Thank you for posting that and the how to step progress Sir! Much appreciated and will give it a shot at mine to see if that’s the same issue. Have a safe 4th!

Thank you for the video and troubleshooting tips! Our awning wasn't moving at all. I disconnected at the motor power connector, had good voltage from the trailer, and the motor worked when I connected to a 12V battery. Plugged everything back together and it worked. I suspect that there was just a little corrosion in the connector that caused a bad electrical connection, and that the unplugging / testing / re-plugging cleaned it up sufficiently.

Thank you! Was great to see you go straight into troubleshooting. So many videos out there where it takes 10 minutes before actually seeing what you came there for! You’ve got a new subscriber. 😊

Heck yeah!! Thanks for the help with our awning. Definitely earned a subscriber today!! Full time RVers here.

Thank you Sir for the video! I was having trouble with my awning and just used the 7/16 driver to move mine a little ( must’ve been stuck) and now my awning is working perfectly! 🙂

Excellent video. Had to change one of the motors while on the road. Thanks to Amazon and your video, changed it out very easily!

"Lolly lolly lolly..." Okay, now I must subscribe. LOL Second video I've watched today about troubleshooting some things on my RV. Regardless of the issue, just watching your videos today have given me more information to decide if I want to have a professional address the issue or do it myself. If I do have someone else tackle the problem I know more about how things work and we can discuss in the same language and I have more knowledge to spot someone trying to take advantage or an honest technician. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience!

You are da man! Thank you so much for posting this. So easy to do. BTW for others the bits are 3/8 for the motor bolts and 7/15 for the emergency retract.

Daron! You are a life-saver! Your video is thorough and easy to follow. Just what we needed!

I don't know what I liked more. The motor repair or the Dewalt battery as a test 12 V source.

Just fixed our motor after your wonderful instructional video. Enjoy all your videos.

I just replaced my motor using your tips - worked great and the awning works good as new. Thanks for the video 👍

Good job. My awning got stuck a little less than half way. Thanks to you I believe I can fix it. Thanks.

Great video. I hope I never have to do this on my awning, but if I do, you showed me how. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for the video! Our stupid awning has been blowing fuses when it retracts. I phoned lippert and they sent us a free replacement motor. It finally arrived today (took two months) but we followed what you did and had perfect success! Thanks so much for the clear instructions!

This video and your expertise were a huge help in me diagnosing my awning problem today. Thank you for posting such great content!!! A new subscription for me to follow!!

Very nice video! I love learning new things about RV’s

Thanks for the video! I had to replace the motor on mine and appreciated the warning of using the ViseGrip!

VERY nice right to the nitty gritty vid in a very understandable by anyone video ...reason I watched is I have a friend in washington (im in montana)who is a widow that had to move to an rv because of her husbands passing and not enough income to stay in their old apartment, which had the rent jacked about the same time as her loss....anyway her awning dosen't work and its getting too warm in the rv so I sent her your vid. ....window a/c wont keep up... maybe her brother in law can help her get it working with the instructions in your vid... tx keep up the good work!!!

You have helped me multiple times. Thank you so much! You the man.

Thank you so very much !! NOW i have a action plan to fix my awning !! another to-do project to get done !! Thanks so much !! just now gotta get a new motor !!

I am currently having the same issue with a solara unit. I’m gonna try this basic trouble shooting process. Thank you!

Thanks. I've got to do the same to our awning on our camper, it runs so slow this last time I closed it up I was lucky to get it closed all the way to the camper.

Thank you for sharing I’ll be trouble shooting mine tomorrow 👍🏼

Nice job well done 👏 I like the multi purpose 12v battery drill and vise grip tricks 👍

Reassemble Stephanie!! Love it 😂 Johnny 5!

Excellent video, it will be of great value in the future if things go as may be expected. Thanks you sir.

Thanks for the great video on the motor replacement 😎

Great video, Thanks for the tips!

Not sure if mine can be manually operated, but, all in all, very informative. Thank you.

Great explanation Extremely helpful

Great Video !!! Helped me fix the problem

Thanks for the video, I’m happy to subscribe.

That was easy :) Good job on explaining again!

I which you were in this area, good videos. Thank you

Most helpful video ever made🤙

Thank you for this video. My awning is extending and retracting but I’m noticing it is a little more noisy than before. Is there any points of lubrication I should check.

What an interesting video. Learned something.

Thanks Darren

Great stuff.👍🏻 Thanks for posting.

Very good video love all of them

Great video!

thanks just what i needed to go repair my friends motor 🤠

Hello, This was a great video, it will help my Brother-in-Law and I to replace his Awning motor. Thanks Question. I am fairly handy, would it very hard to replace a conventional manual awning with a newer electric Awning?

Is there any kind grease fitting or any way to lube it ?

Awesome video thank you

Great videos!

Excellent vlog

Thanks Darren for the excellent video and commentary. I was wondering if you ever got to your "rainy day" project of tearing the motor down and finding the cause of failure. I seem to be having the same motor problem that you diagnosed and that others have mentioned in these comments. except that the motor will still turn to roll the awning out, but not retract.

Thanks Darren. Best channel on RU-vid.

Thank you for the video. I just found it on my search. have Dometic power awning that is stuck in the retract position. Do you know anything about Dometic?

Thanks a lot !!! Funny that you do that while raining :-) !!!

Thanks for the video very interesting and helpful my question is my awning is completely retract all the way closed and when I hit my remote control, it moves backwards, but when I go forward it doesn't move or click or anything but if I go backwards I can hear it clicks and moves, but again it doesn't want to come out how can I check if it's the motor or something else please let me know thank you sir

Great video, but I have a ? I have a horrible squeal at the motor area when extending or retracting. Is this a motor issues, or something inside the barrel that needs lubed??

Nice work. New sub here from Redding, CA

I have a A& E power awning. Is this motor in your Video interchangeable? Like the ease of changing out the manual operational feature. Thanks, Bob

Great video! I ordered the new motor for mine, which is identical to this one BUT I wish you showed how to remove the housing. Mine aren’t Phillips or torx. I can’t see in the hole well but it looks like rivets. HELP!!!

thanks for the help great video

Thank you for the clear troubleshooting process. We bought or very first rv today. Guess what didn’t work? The power awning. I thought the world had stopped turning. It doesn’t seem like such an ordeal after watching your trouble shooting and repair

Hi Darren...Great video! My Awning works, but really, really, slow? And I checked to make sure it was not rolled up backwards. Any ideas for me? Thanks

Great video. Now the motor will probably go out shortly because of rain getting on it. My case anyway. Stupid motors get any water in them, they go toast. Thanks for posting

Any need to grease those gears on a regular basis? Thanks

Great video Thanks for sharing

very helpful, thank you

What brand motor did you use as a replacement?

Thank you sir.

Are the end peices and the shaft-to-roller tube....supposed to wobble when rolling in and out? Carefree Traveler power awnings for reference. Made closely identical to this awning your working on

Next time I would start the screws first. The top one was threaded right but the other two you cross threaded and just ran them in. He will probably not have to change it again before the trailer lifetime is up. It kind of reminded me of the set up people from the furniture store when they took the screws and put them in the impact and ran them in without starting them first. I made them take it back and bring a new one

Your video was spot on ... had a lightning strike and the motor was toast. Your video was perfect and on the spot to get replaced. Thanks ..

Thank you great video I can do this

Very informative

Will have to change out my charger/inverter soon, any vids on that?

Thank you

genius! thanks for the tips. A+ 5 stars..... and in the rain...

awesome, thank you.. I am going to check mine out....

can the tooth gears be changed out in a awning motor or best to repalce the entire head and all

Cool video

My awning is making a slite noise and found out the cylinder most likely needs some cleaning. What do you recommend ?

So I have a similar Solara/Lippert Regal style 20ft awning that for whatever reason gave way and deployed and clipped a telephone pole at the end of last season. The arms and the main awning and spool are still intact, but it was enough blow to destroy both the power and the idler heads. I’ve finally gotten around to ordering new heads and plan to make the repairs before spring. In studying how this awning is designed, I find it dumb that the only thing that holds the awning retracted is the motor itself. That seems to be my point of failure from what I can deduce. My question is there a good way to secure or lock these awnings during travel. I don’t know if I want to put my faith in the power head gearbox again. Thanks.

Thanks.. if I ever have to replace a awning motor, I will know how. Although mine is a care free awning

Great video, very clear and linear..So does the 12v battery pack come with input jacks that you plugged the test leads into? Or did you have to modify it for this feature?

Does Carefree also have a manual emergency operation?

Thank you!

if want to save some $$$ a 1994 or so chevy lumina passenger side power window motor is the same and Darren your videos are great keep'em coming

I know 1 year old. But I’m going to need to replace my awning. Seeing videos. Only one video said that motorize are the easiest. Because they don’t have springs in them. I looked at my owner books looked at the awning the only thing I found was don’t put your fingers here. I’m asking the look of mine there’s no holes no grommets to take out to put a pin in to stop the spring from on winding. So would that be new springs to worry about just cut the awning disconnect it from the arms and start putting the new one on after removing the old one. ??

Gotta love the engineering of the wiring of our place to run it, and the LED light all down the back of the pinch point of the struts and only a plastic cover with some wire and showing that eventually will get pinched retract in and extending all the time I think these places want you to bring it into the RV shop for major repairs, when it should be an easy fix for the average Joe

Awesome job. With average use what is the expected life of an awning motor

Darren, please tell me what a reasonable price would be for that exact mobile repair. New motor and install. I realized different motors may have different costs but just a fair cost range. Thank you very much.

If you extent the awning all the way out, does that eliminate the need to hold back spring tension with vise grips?

Has anyone tore apart one of these motors.? What did you find? Could the motor maybe be cleaned or repaired?

very helpful

Well, we should have watched this video prior to replacing our motor but we didn't, haha. So when we initially took the motor off it extended completely. Now even with a new motor it won't retract, seems to have tension issues. Any videos or tips on this?

Have a Solera awning that is very slow to retract, I have changed the motor and aligned the fabric better, still super slow on retract, extend is ok. oh, also changed gas cylinders. Any ideas?

Darin, Very informative and I love your approach to provide information. and make it personalized with your jokes. My problem is not the fact that the awning does not work, it's a mystery, and I want to know if you know if this is possible or my trailer is haunted. My Forest River Vibe is a Year old, and the awning switch is working fine (in (retract) is up switch, out (extend) is down switch) today it is reversed?!! (up switch is down? and down is in) Its has switched polarity inside the wall or the motor. what should I do? I can buy those little label stickers and put them on the switch and forget this ever happened. Thanks, Jim