Awning Brackets Failure

surfgeek33 · 06-30-2009, 03:38 PM

My wife and I were watching our daughter play in the sand in our local beach. We were under the awning relaxing until our awning flipped up and came down on my wife and myself. There were moderate winds, but we have had our awning deployed in worst winds, since we do live close to the ocean.

Since our July 08 delivery date I took the advice of gregde and was very diligent on tightening the awning bolts monthly or after a long trip, to avoid this from happening. Now we're stuck with a bent awning (which we will have to replace) and body damage.

In a good note, no one was injured and thank god my daughter was NOT under the awning with my wife and I.

Watch those brackets! make sure they are tight!

When we finally brought the whole awning down and further investigated, this is what I found;

Ray

CJ · 06-30-2009, 04:03 PM

Thats just not right.

Glad to hear no one was hurt other than the 4x4 baby. I am going out to check mine, we just got back from a two week tour.

hope it works out positivily for you. Let us know your fix.

neeemo · 06-30-2009, 05:06 PM

That's a nasty scratch too. I just removed my awning to have the brackets powder coated and was not thrilled how it is mounted. Those rubber countersinks really aren't meant to hold that much weight IMO. Unfortunately the large holes for the rubber countersinks are there so something like an expanding star countersink may not work unless it's huge. It's too late for me--in many ways--but I wonder if a washer the size of the hole--so it would fit through the hole--could be welded to a 1/4" nut and used to support the back of the rubber countersink. The bolt through the countersink would be longer and extend out the back and thread into the welded nut/washer assembly. When it's tightened, the washer would support the back of the sink. Or maybe a 1/4 star expanding nut could be used instead to at least catch the awning if the rubber fails.

Tom

PS: Two of my old countersinks had already started to fail when I pulled it off.

**BroncoHauler** · 06-30-2009, 05:11 PM

So if I'm interpreting the pics correctly (big IF), it appears the backing nuts came off the bracket bolts, and then the awning together with the bracket pulled free from the van and came crashing down? Are the rubber bushings there to compress and make them too large to theoretically pull through the hole, or just there to isolate vibrations? Shouldn't they be backed by washers twice as big as the hole?

WOW. Most importantly as CJ mentioned, I'm so glad no one was hurt, and as you mentioned, that your daughter wasn't in the immediate vicinity.

BTW, how do you even get at the bracket nuts?

Herb

charlie56 · 06-30-2009, 06:10 PM

During my build I asked SMB to provide backing plate for the bracket. I didn’t get it probably because I wasn’t clear in what I wanted. I’m wondering if us non Eli bracket owners can retrofit a solution.

Ray:
With the holes that are currently in the van to accept the well-bolts, would it be possible to slip in a flat-bar stock that is tapped. Getting it in would require some fancy hand work. Secure it to the inside of the body with epoxy, and then attach the awing bracket with thru-bolts instead of the well-bolts they used.

Any other ideas?

surfgeek33 · 06-30-2009, 06:14 PM

The rubber "nut" (sorry, don't know the proper term) is suppose to expand while tightening the bolt, I'm guess to hold the awning mount in place. I don't want to make any false assumptions, but maybe the hole SMB made was a bit too big for the rubber nut, or the awning was simply just too heavy. Herb, Its how you see it in the picture, the whole thing (the two brackets and four bolts) just popped off! I did not put the bolt back on the bracket, thats how it looked when we saw it. The front mounts are the only thing that stayed on, since I found out when taking the awning down that it was bolted on the body with a good old nut and bolt.

I hope I can find a body shop to fill those holes and fix the damage, since we don't want the SMB mounting system AT ALL. One failure is enough to scare the hebegeebees out of ya! (specially if you were under it)

Quote:

Originally Posted by CJ

Thats just not right.

.....

hope it works out positivily for you. Let us know your fix.

Thanks CJ.....So far its nothing positive. Need to by a new awning, $1000.00. New mounts, $100-200. A body shop to work on the SMB, which is harder than I thought and can't even imagine the cost.

Our $100,000 rig is quickly becoming a $105,000 rig

Ray

surfgeek33 · 06-30-2009, 06:25 PM

Charlie,

I went to two body shops today, and they refused to work on the SMB. They said it was to complicated to disassemble inside of the van (behind the awning mounts) to fill the holes from the inside, due to the electrical system, etc. and they don't see these type of vans very often.

One funny thing though is both repair shops agreed that there should have been more support for such a heavy awning.

Ray

charlie56 · 06-30-2009, 06:33 PM

Ray

I was thinking that the flat stock reinforcement could be inserted through the holes from the outside. With it being tapped, the awning would then be bolted into the new reinforcing bar. The bar would help stiffen the flimsy body panel. Use permanent loc-tite and the bolts should never come out again.

pjpvi · 06-30-2009, 07:15 PM

I did something like Charlie56's second picture to attach an aluminum plate over the rear holes prior to using Eli's brackets. It's hard to see the plate behind the bracket, but it gave the new bracket a bigger flat surface area to rest on and covered the holes.

This is my temporary (read permanent because I'm lazy) fix to the big holes left by the center bracket. I know, nice rip in the sheet metal too. These are just generic plugs from the hardware store that I siliconed in place. Not that pretty, but I don't think I've even looked up at them since I did the work. (I hope they are still there!)

Sorry to hear of the failure and like everyone else am glad no one was hurt. I was very surprised how heavy these awning are when I removed mine.

Phil

LenS · 06-30-2009, 08:02 PM

Holy Smokes!!!
I have had some of those rubber "plug nuts" in my bolt drawer for years waiting for a use. I think I MIGHT throw them out. I got some out and took some pics. The ones I have fit in a 1/2" hole. So I drilled one in a plate so we could see how it is supposed to work.

Here is the plug/nut:

Here is an x-section of one installed:

Here is a pic of one with the bolt tightened up but not in a plate.

To be honest by the distortion in your failed parts, it looks like it was partway out the last time it was tightened up.