From the beginning of our build, I couldn’t wait to add an awning to the exterior of our trailer. I guess I think of it as the cherry on top accessory. It just gives the outside of the trailer the look of being a camper instead of a utility trailer.
Since we owned a few other travel trailers before, we had an idea of the weaknesses of modern awnings. It seemed as though the slightest wind or rain would buckle an awning. Because of this, I knew I wanted a better built system.
I started looking at motorhomes and what they used. In my mind, a quarter of a million dollar RV wouldn’t use an awning that would fail so easily.
This led to a company by the name of Carefree of Colorado. They manufacture an awning that looks like a rectangular box with no vertical legs. It uses folding arms to hold the awning out horizontally and it just looks like magic. I had to have one! That is until I priced one… $4,000 for a magical awning box?? Not happening.
I decided to go down to our local RV store and check prices there. To my surprise, the local store was able to get an awning for not much more than what I could find online and the freight charge was free!
I didn’t go with the magical box style, but I did purchase a Carefree of Colorado Awning. It’s an Altitude Series and it uses a scissor style arm that appears to be stronger than the style we owned in the past.
Once the awning arrived, I pulled Big Red to the local store and loaded it up. I spent that night reading the installation instructions and I think I slept only a few hours due to my excitement.
The next morning, I began the install! It was not terribly difficult, and with a little help from my parents, we had the majority of it completed in the first day! The most complicated part of the install was welding braces to the frame of the trailer to support the awning arms. That really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, considering the fact that I haven’t welded since high school.
Day 2 was spent wiring the awning. Normally this wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but it included a bluetooth module to allow us to control our awning from our phone. The extra wires and module were tough to hide in our thin walls, but we made it happen. After a few hours of wiring and re-installing wall panels, our awning was completed!
What an awesome addition to our trailer!! It completely changed the appearance and I couldn’t wait to get to our next campsite and relax under it!
Please continue to visit the blog to find our more about our build and to get updates on the awning. Almost two years after our purchase, I’m not sure I would do it over again. I’ll fill you in on that later!
Check out the full install video on our YouTube channel.