Awning fabric repair advice needed

[GeoffL]

The rafter ends look like they have an Allen key screw holding them. I cannot see why they would pin them as its then impossible to adjust. Hope you manage to sort it. Sail tape might work but the Fiamma tape certainly does. Have fun hope you manage to sort it.

The plate that adjusts the lateral arm position is held on with two Allen screws. However, the end of the arm is pinned to that plate and hinges on the pin. Hopefully, clearer in the piccy below:

 

[QFour]

Yes so you just back off the allen bolts and the end of the arm will slide along the track. Just make sure you mark where it goes. The two arms are handed so they stop the front beam from moving left or right. If you undo both it lets you slide the front beam left or right so you can get to the damaged section.

 

[mariesnowgoose]

beading can be any round section flexi stuff . i have used 1mm twincore cable , and 6 and 8mm blue rope . if you need thinner , material shops do an assortment

Aye, that was my thinking too

The bottom line with the awning supply/repair places is they don’t really want the work if the kit and kaboodle to make a repair isn’t standard stuff they already stock or deal with day-to-day.

Doesn’t just apply to awnings, it’s common everywhere, unfortunately. Easier to bin the broken stuff and buy new instead

Good luck with the fix, should be sortable if you persevere

 

[GeoffL]

Good luck with the fix, should be sortable if you persevere

Thanks. FWIW, only one of the potential repair companies identified both on here and another media offered to repair. That was Specialised Canvas in Chesterfield. However, even they required me to remove the fabric from the frame and ship it to them; and even then, they have a lead time of about eight weeks! Eek! it would be easier and quicker to get a local sailmaker to do the deed! That said, to get the fabric off the frame, it seems that I'd need to remove three or four cabinets and/or cut out sections of wall board to access the inside fasteners to first remove the awning entirely. It seems that, to have the awning recessed into the side wall of the van, Auto-Trail had to pre-assemble the awning to the brackets and fit that prior to fitting out the inside of the van On conventionally mounted awnings, you can access the underside of the frame to loosen the screws that clamp the frame to the mounting brackets, but not on my van ...

Anyway, I now have a plan. I just need to find somewhere to fully extend the awning for a day and also get some awning/sail repair tape...

 

[GeoffL]

Eek! has it really been a month since I asked this question? Anyway, quick post to tidy things up. The repair is now done pretty much as suggested. Two screws on each end and a few taps with the handle of a screwdriver and the endcaps were removed. This is an Omnistor, and so I had to get Jan to support the end of the awning so I could stow the legs to be able to 'fold' the outer plate to gain access to the screws that secure the end plugs and the kadar. With those removed, the legs were redeployed. The positions of the ends of the folding arms marked and the securing allen screws slackened, allowing the assembly to be slid along the kadar to expose and hence be able to repair the damaged section. Reassembly (as Haynes manuals say) was the reverse of disassembly, but with one note: I should have also marked the position of the kadar ends.
Thanks again to all for the help.