Hi all. I have coaster with a home made awning that slides into the track. i put it up today and needed two people to do the job. As I will be travelling alone i was wondering if anyone can tell me how i can to do it by myself. any help would be appreciated.
I have an awning that slides into a sail track, but my wife has always been there to feed the awning into the track, if I had to do the job entirely on my own I would have a rope twice the length of the awning, have a permanent pulley located at the far end of the track thread the rope thru that and as I fed the awning into the track at the other end, I would pull the rope to draw the awning along the track.
This is exactly how you hoist a sail to the top of the mast of a yacht while standing on deck
I will have already laid out the poles and ropes and partially hammered the pegs into approx positions with the ropes in place on the pegs I then I pick up the first pole and rope take hold of the 1st corner of the awning and hold the pole up at an angle and partially tighten the rope then do the same to the other corner then the same to the 2 centre poles , i then go around putting the pegs into their final positions and position all the poles and and tighten all the ropes.
I can do this part of the erection of the awning without help as long as I preplan where the ropes poles and pegs go
Cheers
David
I used sail slugs, small round pieces of plastic with a loop on them that are generally used to run sails up the mast or attach trampolines to frames of Catamarans. They come in various diameters and will feed your annexe into the slide much easier if you are a solo. It depend if you can find some to fit your track diameter.
Try the online catalogues of Bias Boating or Whitworths.
An old friend showed me how start the 1st 30cm of rope edge into the track with the lead end of rope still hanging out of the track ahead of the cover. it was squeezed between the top and bottom lips of the sail track, but still slid along quite easily, then just walk along and drag the lot to the other end. at 6'6" with a reach of around 8' he found this very easy. I just use a ladder to do the first bit and then work from the ground
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Cheers - Ian
I slowly realise as I get older that I am definitely NOT the fastest rat in the race.
Also the older I get the more I realise I do not know.
Our slide in awning now rolls up into a zip up bag and stays in the track. We just have straps to Velcro it to the sides of the van for travel. It's the way they did it before roll out awnings.
Hi Yuglamron. Are you saying have these sail slugs sown onto the awning and then slide them along the track rather than the awning itself. thanks shero
