The tilt-your-awning  trick works very well, you just have to learn it the
hard way!   :-)

We were awoken one night at Cape Lookout by a giant slosh of water. The
awning had collected 50 or 60 gallons, then the extender arm bent and let
the water go with a rush.

I was able to carefully bend the aluminum extrusion straight again, and the
awning still works perfectly. Now we slope it at night though!

Its a TransAwn 2000, and its great.

Jake

On 6/17/06, Robert Fisher <refisher@mchsi.com> wrote:
>
> I'll preface this by saying that I haven't seen this or any other Westy
> awning setup so I couldn't speak to application, but I thought I'd pass
> along a tweak that I saw once in a campground. This dude in a trailer was
> having the same problem with water pooling in his awning, so he picked an
> appropriate spot on each panel and punched in a brass grommet (I guess you
> would call them that... the kind you find in the edge of a tarp for
> putting
> a line through). This created a small drain hole inboard of the outer
> edges/supports, a short distance away from where the water that made it
> over
> the edge went anyway. It was unobtrusive when it was dry out, didn't
> effect
> the integrity of the awning, and provided relief from the water pooling up
> that didn't effect use of the awning during rain by draining it off near
> where it was already inclined to run off.
> I hope that makes sense.
> Anyway, if you can stomach punching a hole in your awning here and there,
> that might be a solution for you.
>
> Cya,
> Robert
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Loren Busch" <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Saturday, June 17, 2006 4:34 PM
> Subject: Re: Fiamma Awnings Parts Support
>
>
> > RE: Fiamma awning, rafters, and water
> > What Bob says is absolutely correct.  But, if you look at the
> > directions/instructions that come with the Fiamma awnings they suggest
> > that
> > the awning be tilted down on ONE corner only to allow water to run off.
> > If
> > you do it that way then putting the rafter in makes the problem of
> trapped
> > water worse, not better.  Tilted down at one corner, water runs off just
> > fine without the rafter, as long as that corner is way down.  With the
> > rafter in a pool is formed on the high side.  The solution is as Bob
> says,
> > slope the entire outside edge of the awning, then rain runs off just
> fine.
> > The one trouble with this is our vans are low enough that any down slope
> > leaves you ducking when going or coming, the outer edge of the awning is
> > going to smack you in the face otherwise.
>

--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
www.crescentbeachguitar.com