main awning ridge pole repair

[HANK]

Way to go Ralph..that was fun reading..................The OZZIES are like that
too.........two homemade OZZIE "BIRDS" comming back from Tamworth county western
week, one blew a piston etc....other "BIRD" parked behind it on side of road for
a week and stayed with it until others returned with parts etc..they fixed motor
on side of road and finished the trip home and saved a bundle........one ozzie
"bird" did have a CAT 3208...............that's as close as these homades came
to a Wanderlodge......

take care,
Hank Hannigan in OZ
90SP36..in CA

--- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, "Ralph L. Fullenwider"
wrote:
>
> Hello everyone:
>
> While down in Texas working on the gen set, not long ago, an over night, un
> expected rain and an un lowered main awning corner for water run off,
> caused the ridge pole to fold in the center.
>
> Bim and I finally got the awning rolled up and tied down for travel and I
> would look into replacing the main awning ridge pole from Zip Dee.
>
> A call to Zip Dee one morning confirmed that a new 23 foot awning pole
> would run around $175.00 and while that is not a bad price, the shipping
> price floored me to the tune of $600.00 trucking charges. Whoh up, I was
> tempted to drive up there for that price. LOL
>
> So I call a local small muffler shop and was told "sure, I will work with
> you on that." So Charolette and I stripped the roller down and removed all
> pop rivets and loaded the bent pole of 3 inch 18 ga galvanized steel into
> the van, tied a red rag on the end of it and I was off to the muffler shop.
>
> The owner of the shop chose a 24 inch piece of 3 inch exhaust pipe after
> cutting out the bend on mine. And swelled a tight slip fit bell on both
> ends of the repair tube. Then being sure of the length measurement he
> welded the patch tube to my original. I paid him $30.00 for the repair and
> loaded up and was off to home base (about 1 1/2 miles or so.)
>
> The pole was decidedly much straighter of course but needed a little
> tweaking. We re installed the tubing into the awning fabric and re attached
> the hardware and set the spring tension. Charolette, walked the repaired
> awning tube right up into travel position as easy as you please.
>
> Point being, those tubes can be repaired and they work after wards. I have
> added before and after photos in the photo section under awning repair.
>
> Safe travels,
>
> Ralph and Charolette Fullenwider
> "84FC35 "Ruff Diamond"
> Duncan, Oklahoma
>