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A vintage awning really dresses up the old trailer!

We were very fortunate to find this quality vintage awning at an estate sale several years after we bought our trailer.   The original owner had forgotten about it when he had sold his trailer many years before.   Unbelievably, it had never been used!   The awning is made of cotton canvas and the stripes are painted on.   

It was originally 10 feet long, and we had to modify it to make it 9 feet long to fit our trailer's awning rail length.  It was a lot of work to shorten it and remake all the seams and such to make it look like original.  

This style of awning uses no guy ropes.  It has a spring tensioned upper frame that holds the canvas rigid and square.  (Also, notice that it does not interfere with the door operation like newer "arm style" awnings sometimes can).   I think a vintage awning really dresses up a vintage trailer and adds something special!

 

A technical description of the awning:

First, there is a horizontal outer bar.  Second, there are 3 vertical poles that clamp to this outer bar to hold it up.  Lastly, there are 3 expandable spring loaded spreader  bars that that go between the horizontal bar and the awning rail.  These spreader bars have a small flat tab on one end that slips into the trailer awning rail (tucking in under the rope and fabric that is slipped through the rail).  The other end has a threaded rod that fits into a square hole in the top of the vertical pole clamp fitting.  You twist a short tube in the end of the spreader bar to lengthen the bar and increase tension.  All of the bars fit through pockets that are sewn into the awning.

The awning sets up easily with two people (one who knows what he's doing, and one to help)!

Step by step, it goes like this:
  1. Thread  and pull the rope at the edge of the awning through the awning rail of the trailer.
  2. Assemble the outer bar and thread it through the outer pocket of the awning.
  3. Clamp the center pole to the horizontal bar and raise the pole up to about 3/4 height. (Have your helper hold it up.)
  4. Insert the center spreader bar through the center pocket and insert the flat tab into the awning rail. (Have your helper push it in the last couple feet while you guide the tab into the rail.)
  5. Slip the outer end of the spreader bar into the square hole in the pole fitting.   (It often helps to swing the center pole outward to position the square hole lower and easier to insert.)  Raise the center leg to about the height you want the awning to be.  Tension the spreader pole by twisting the end.
  6. Repeat steps 3-5 with the end bars and poles.
  7. Adjust the 3 poles to the desired height. (It needs to be high enough so that the door clears as it opens.)
  8. Stake (or weight down) the pole ends to keep the wind from lifting the awning.

The corner of the frame showing the relationship of the parts

This part slips into the awning rail under the rope and canvas

The front and center pole pockets

 

The picture to the left is a picture from the 1969 Wally Byam Stores catalog.  This is a simpler style of awning, but it has the disadvantage of having stakes and ropes to trip over and clutter things up.  You also have to have decent ground to drive the stakes into.  Sometimes this style of awning has frame poles (like this one shown) and sometimes they do not. 

Basically, your choices of awnings for a vintage trailer are the self supporting type (like ours above), the simpler style that is supported by ropes and stakes, and the arm type such as the ZipDee.  Arm style awnings are the simplest to use (and are also rather expensive), but as they are permanently attached to the trailer they rarely look "right" on most vintage trailers.

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