Swapping my old awning for a newer but heavier one?
Hey all, I have a 1989 Ford e-150 Sportsmobile which still has the original Carefree awning. Previous owner broke the gear that rolled/unrolled the awning and so he never used it. I devised a simple fix that gets the job done but is hard to roll the awning up without someone holding up the end and pushing it towards its base because the tool I crafted doesnt give me quite enough leverage to work against the spring loaded arms. Sorry if this is confusing already, but all I'm trying to express is I'd love to get a different awning some day!
Well today I saw someone list a much newer Carefree "Freedom II" awning with the cranking arm and everything for free on craigslist so I went and picked it up. I was surprised it was heavier than I thought it would be and is a full foot longer than the one on my van. I was already a bit concerned about the brackets on my van being able to hold the awning thats on there already. I'm wondering if I could get anyone's opinions on here if its even worth experimenting with or if I'd definitely need a different style of bracket or potentially a third bracket to make this newer awning work on my van.
I'm providing some photos of the current awning, the brackets holding it and photos of the new awning. Thanks for reading!
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