4 replies to this topic

[Andy Douglass]

A couple of weeks ago, we spent a few days at Lake Pilsbury at Oak Flat campground. We found a nice spot with access to the water for our kayaks. Water was under 50 degrees, so kayaking didn't happen until the last day when the wind went away. We had our Fiama awning out the whole time, and we were parked under an oak tree.

 

I guess I forgot to check the top of the awning before rolling it in. This week, we did a short trip to some family property in our area and when we rolled out the awning, we could see a line of "stretched" spots in the fabric, like a trail of footprints that faded away. We could see two tiny spots of daylight in the biggest stretched area. Turns out a tiny oak branch, thinner than a pencil and about 3 inches long, had gotten rolled up in the awning and was riding around in there for about 10 days. All the movement and vibration was enough to wear through the one spot. I am not even sure if the hole goes all the way through, and it is small enough that I don't think that water will come through unless the awning is completely flat. But it is still a bummer, so always sweep the awning before rolling it in.

[ardvark]

Get some awning repair tape and you will be fine, good stuff.

[5outta6]

Otherwise, how do you like the Fiamma awning?   is it a F45 ?  tnx

[Andy Douglass]

Overall, ease of use and functionality are fantastic. It took us one time to master setting it up, and once person can deploy the thing in less than a minute. Size and roof pitch are very flexible, so it fits a lot of situations and weather conditions. 

 

I was parking in an underground lot, backing into a spot, and didn't realize how sloped the floor was. Right as I was squeezing by a concrete pillar, my rear tire went into a little patch of broken concrete and the truck pitched over enough so that the closed awning ran into the pillar. Thankfully, the pillar turned out to be stucco, but I was still impressed to find out that there was no damage to the awning other than small scrapes in the paint. 

 

Since day one, the rear end of the awning has had trouble closing completely. It is always about a quarter inch out while the front end nestles seamlessly closed. I have not been able to find an adjustment that fixes the issue, but I haven't bothered to research it. I found that when closing the awning up, it helps to crank it all the way in completely, then open it up a few cranks, and quickly CRANK it closed again (the awning cranking equivalent of slamming a door). When the awning is being closed, there is a point where you stop cranking it so that you can collapse the legs and swivel them up into their storage position. The awning is designed for this, but it can have a pretty steep angle once the legs are up. After closing it completely and then opening it slightly again, the angle is reduced and it seems to minimize the issue at the rear of the awning, but not eliminate it. Before I figured out to do this, there would be quite a bit of rattling on rough roads from the awning.

 

On our last long trip, we were zipping along at 80 on a highway in southern ID. I glanced at my passenger mirror and saw that one of the awning legs was down. I pulled over and found that the awning was open a few inches and the leg had rattled out of its stowed position. There was absolutely no damage because of this, but I think it must have happened because of the issue with the rear end not closing completely.

 

I have no experience with any other awnings, but the Fiama 45 is great. I think there might be a slight defect or adjustment causing the small issue, but other than that, it would be a flawless item.

[PaulT]

I had trouble with the Fiamma closing completely until I started pushing the bottom of the leg into the slot while pushing the pivot point to seat it. Both ends of each leg should seat into the proper depth.

There should not be a gap at either end of the awning when you snug up with the crank. Someone pointed a gap out to me when I was packing up at a campground. I'm not sure how long it would have taken me to notice it otherwise.

Paul