One of the best parts about being a full-timer is that life is never boring. Just when you think your day will be exactly like the day before, this RV awning disaster happens.

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Carefree RV Awning Destroyed in Less Than 5 Seconds

Last Saturday was like any other this season. It was a sunny, beautiful spring day in the desert. There was a breeze, but nothing that indicated wind was on the way. As we putzed around the inside of the RV doing random domestic chores, a sudden “thwap! thwap! thwap!” slapped the outside of the rig. It sounded like Godzilla was batting us around. I ran to the screen door in time to watch our RV awning disaster unfold.

A dust devil hit us, and was tearing one side of our RV awning apart. The fabric flew up toward the bright blue sky like a big sail.

“AGGGGH! SHIT! OH MY GOD! The awning!!!” I screamed. I couldn’t bring it in fast enough. The whole ugly scene happened in less than five seconds.

“Retract it!” Jim yelled as he raced outside while the hard “thwap! thwap! thwap!” continued. But retracting was futile in the wind.

I’m surprised nobody called the police

Remembering that our neighbor had a ladder set up next to his tiny house, he ran to grab it as the tailwind batted the awning around. He got up on the ladder and yelled “Start retracting it!”

Clearly this was not going to be a DIY repair. I knew we needed damage photos for insurance purposes. But not until I let out an ear-splitting, rip roaring string of Sailorific swear words. Apparently I was heard a block away by people who were concerned about the yelling.

Yeah, I can yell loud. Wouldn’t you do the same if you walked outside and saw this on your brand new RV?

If we waited any longer, the wind could possibly rip the awning hardware out of the fiberglass and tear it apart.

We had to take action, fast. After snapping the photos and video, Jim yelled at me to go inside. He wanted me to slowly retract the awning at the switch. Then he manhandled the arms so they could collapse back together. It took brute strength, but he managed to get the broken hardware back together while keeping the awning fabric on track enough to cleanly retract.

This was our first RV awning disaster in 18 years of RV ownership.

We have always been so vigilant about bringing the awning in during wind or heavy rain. I hear about this common RV awning disaster happening to other people all the time! Usually awnings get destroyed because some newbie RVer left it out. Then they went somewhere, and wind kicked up while they were gone. The irony for us is that we were inside the rig when this happened. There was no sign that wind was about to slam against our rig.

I know some other full-timers whose brand new RV awning was destroyed just like this, with a mild wind gust that caught the fabric in an odd way and ripped the entire awning apart. It makes me wonder if hardware is getting cheaper, and this is yet another example of the poor quality of so many manufactured products these days.

The good news is that our insurance company (which we’ve had less than a year!), Foremost, has responded quickly. I think it will be a fair and easy way to help us get it fixed. Unfortunately we are hitting the road on the 15th. Which means we can’t get this replaced until we are back in Colorado in May. This weekend Jim will tie the hardware down a lot more aggressively. This sucker better stay put on the 2,300-mile journey.

Just when you think you have a boring, predictable full-timer routine down, you better watch your back. Mother Nature always bats last.