Video Transcript for RV Patio Upgrade: Lippert Breaks Down Their Heavy-Duty Awnings

Hello, neighbors. It's Brad here, and today I'm in Elkhart, Indiana, which is the RV capital of the world. And if you have a camper, the name Lippert probably is somewhere on your camper. And today we're at the corporate headquarters, and we're gonna be talking to some of their product experts to take a closer look at their products. So let's hop inside and get to chatting. I'm here with Dymon, and today we're gonna be talking about the Solera awnings.

And you know, if you've been to the campsite and maybe your camper wasn't originally prepped with one, you see people under the shade and enjoying the outdoors without sun cooking down on 'em. You're not stuck. You can add those on with no problem. A lot of times even prepped, correct Correct, correct. What I'd like to talk about today is our 3000 Series awning, and that's the one you're gonna see on 95, 99% majority of the trailers out there.

It's a 12 volt power awning. So when it comes to putting on an awning, I mentioned a lot of 'em are prepped. So what, I guess, you know, you have your extrusion rail, but what else comes into play when getting one of these installed if it wasn't ever previously installed Well, if you don't have one, you would need a backer in the trailer itself for the arm's belt to attach into. Most manufacturers already have those backers in there. I don't know of anybody who doesn't this point, 'cause awnings are so popular.

Sure. So you'll have that in there. You just have to have the awning rail up there. And then possibly, if it was not a power awning in the beginning, they'll have to run a 12 volt line, or pull from a 12 volt line. That'll give you power to run this 12 volt awning.

And then as far as sizes, you guys cover. The whole gamut, yeah. You go to 21 feet before you start having to add in the center support. We do build them past 21 feet, but it's a special order, and you will leave the center support to help support the roll itself up there. We've added those on, I mean, but once those are fully extended, the amount of real estate that you're covering with shade is is pretty impressive. Yeah, it gives you a big living area for sure. Now, as far as making sure that you get the proper one for yours, how do you go about measuring to make sure it's the right application Well, the majority of them, if you're replacing an awning, which you're more likely you're going to be doing, you'll measure from the center of awning arm to center of awning arm. And that'll give you the size that you need. Brad You know, as far as UV, potentially weather, they hold up really well. Yeah, 13 and a half vinyl ounces. So it's very, very heavy, durable vinyl. We heat weld seam, all the edges. We do not sew. So there's no place for possible rain or water to get through. It's a special process that we actually brought over from Europe to be able to incorporate it here in the United States, which we do make these right here in Elkhart itself. So they're right here locally to us. But yeah, UV resistant. Mold, mildew resistant. Very heavy duty, made to last. And we actually got to see those being made here, which was really cool. I've installed tons of them, but you can see the quality that goes into 'em. And along with that, you know, after plenty of years of keeping the same camper, if that fabric wears out, you can still replace the fabric and keep the arms and motor assembly, right Yeah, absolutely. If everything else is still working fine in the vinyls, just for whatever reason, or maybe a limb went through it, fell down and came through it, you can replace just the fabric itself, in a multitude of colors even, if you'd like to. Brad And as far as like extension, does it stop at any point, or does it roll back when you go full out Dymon It will start to roll back, it will start to roll back. So have eight foot. It'll shut off for a minute, and that's made by resistance. But if you keep holding the button, it will start coming back in itself. Well, I talked to Brian at the manufacturing facility and he said that's a feature. And I said, "Okay, how" And if you get stuff on the bottom side or the top side cleaning it, you can make it a lot easier. You know, you can unroll it instead of being under there with the brush, scrubbing. You can kind of roll that back, get to those spots and clean it, and I thought that was pretty ingenious. Yep, yep. It absolutely does. So I mean, an awning, if you don't have one already, or if you're gonna be replacing the fabric on yours, Lippert has you covered. It's definitely something you want to add. I mean, to hang outside is part of camping, but when you're being cooked in the sun or a light drizzle, whatever, it takes away that fun. The awning allows you to do that. Yep, it absolutely does.