Hi we have just bought a second hand dorema awning. It has steel poles with the easy or quick lock system, whatever its called. Anyway we have great success in putting it up, but have an issue with one of the upright poles. Its a corner one so important.
The pole is up and holding the roof etc, however if any pressure is put on the pole it slides down a bit. In other words its not staying put under pressure, and we would be worried about it in windy conditions. Is there an easy way to get them to stay put. None of the others appear to have an issue although we havent destructively tested!!!
We only realised as we tried to put a storm strap on and it is pulling the pole down. Thanks
We have a Dorema awning with steel poles but ours have the thumb screw clamps which are not the quick lock system. I thought that the quick lock clamps were only fitted to the glass fibre lightweight poles which have a type of swivel clamp so which of the two types of clamps are they, a thumb screw with thread or a plastic swivel clamp with no thread?
Discounted Insurance Quotes for UKCampsite.co.uk visitors! Up to 12.5% off!
After looking at the link I can now see exactly what type of clamping system you have. If the one pole is not clamping together it could be one of two problems. Firstly it could be that there is some debris on the surface of the inner pole or contaminated with grease or polish etc. so I would suggest that you remove the inner pole and wipe it clean with white spirit or similar first to remove any surface contamination but just wipe it clean afterwards and don't polish it. If that doesn't work then it could be down to a defective clamp which you could try interchanging with the opposite corner pole to see if the problem still exists. If it does then the corner pole will need replacing as the clamps are an integral part of the pole.
HI Katie B the quick lock clamp you are worried about may be clamped to far on the larger diameter pole, check none of the outer pole is protruding into the slot about halfway in clamp if so, slacken allen bolt with a allen key if you have one 5mm if I remember rightly push clamp so no outerpole shows in slot and retighten allen bolt, this should allow you to tighten a bit more on inner tube. If this does not work in a emergency cut a strip of ally out of the side of coke can about 3 quarters of circumferance of inner tube wrap round tube and retighten clamp this will hold it for ever more. I did this on an NR frame about 8 years back and lasted the whole season in Angelsy their quick locks were same near as damm it.
The clamp is definitely defective. We swapped it onto a less essential pole and it still moves under pressure. We have the other clamp on the corner now and that is sted fast. I'm sure there would be a way to make it work, like the coke can idea, genius. Will try something along those lines or a new clamp - sold in sets of 4 I see!!!! Thanks.
These are excellent awnings and I think one of the easiest to put up. If one of your poles are slipping change it or order a new one . We had this once and it was sorted easily . Don't worry they are brilliant.