Fiamma RV Awning repair....

2005 Leisure Travel Van, Local RV repair shop said these broken Delrin parts no longer available, but for $1480 they can install a brand new awning. I asked, what company, Fiamma, the same one that won't supply repair parts. No thanks! Broken part shown to the right



So, 3/4" Aluminum spacers seemed logical, but they need to be secured to the mounted awning structure...turns out the delrin backed up to some extruded aluminum that had a clearance slot lengthwise thru it. Managed to get an 8mm bolt thru it and made a spacer to tie the two bolts together, and it's working fine now.



Roy

Re: RV Awning repair....

flemsmith said:

2005 Leisure Travel Van, Local RV repair shop said these broken Delrin parts no longer available, but for $1480 they can install a brand new awning. I asked, what company, Fiamma, the same one that won't supply repair parts. No thanks! Broken part shown to the right

So, 3/4" Aluminum spacers seemed logical, but they need to be secured to the mounted awning structure...turns out the delrin backed up to some extruded aluminum that had a clearance slot lengthwise thru it. Managed to get an 8mm bolt thru it and made a spacer to tie the two bolts together, and it's working fine now.

Roy

Click to expand...

Looks good. Could I bother you for more and bigger photos? You can upload up to 900 pixel photos on this site. This looks very much like my awning, which is fine for now, but I certainly will keep this in mind if things break.

Regards,

Mark

Re: RV Awning repair....

Larger pics.
I believe that my red arrows and text are accurate.





Does the added bolt extend similar to the length of the original bolt that is exposed in pic #1? Is it more of a stud without a hex head or other nut on the opposite (hidden) end?

Moving this to the Conversion Write-ups. Various Fiamma awnings are common across conversions and RV brands. Not all have this part/design.

vic


Added:

Yes, the added bolt goes the full length of the visible one in front. It's a bit tight to insert from behind the arm that carries the weight, so I used a 8mm allen and a long extension to get it in there and hold while I tightened it. It really seems solid. Got no idea if the extrusion slot is common or unique to this particular model awning, but it made this fix the start of a happy day. I did make the clearance hole in the strap for the front bolt a few sizes larger so it could have some movement, just because the delrin parts had an elongated slot rather than a simple clearance hole....which reminds me, I was working on it in my carport, so I only had the awning extended about three feet, and I hung both ends off bicycle hooks and straps to take the weight of the arms But what I haven't done is move it outside and extend it completely to make sure I am still happy with the way it feels and retracts. I need to do that before I get too proud of myself. BTW, you can see the arms weight bent the sheet metal after the delrin broke. I sorta bent it back, but I'm no precise body repair person. Roy

Thanks, Vic for the larger pix and the explanatory edits. Will advise if I have to make a larger slot for the outermost bolt in the strap, athough it may take me a little while. If it's not obvious, the new bolt in the back is tightened pretty well, the one in the front not quite so much in case it needs to move a bit during deployment.

What is the model number of your awning?

Is this the part which broke?



https://pantherrvproducts.com/fiamma-98655-550-oem-f45s-right-hand-swivel-leg-holder/

vic

Added:

Number painted on front side is F45i. No, that is not the part. Actually two parts broke, I only showed the front one in my first pix. They are symmetrical and opposite if that makes sense, and I've not found a part number for either of them. In that parts diagram, the best I can tell is that they are a part of both arms labelled L and R, and make up the part of the inboard assembly that mounts against the stationary backside of the awning. Believe the piece you highlight makes up part of the pivot for the front support leg.

I did move the rig outside the carport and opened the awning fully to make sure it would work ok fully extended. Although it worked fine, and held both arms up off the bottom of the sheet metal, the rear 3/4" spacers moved out a bit on the end that does not have a strap, which makes sense as the strap really just acts as a cantilever holding one end. I suspect if I wanted to deploy the awning with very short support poles, I would not have enough pivot to do that. As is, they want to be held up by their support poles somewhere around six feet tall. I prefer that anyway, otherwise I tend to bang my head with some regularity. I'll try to post a pix of the spacer movement I'm talking about. Roy

This pix shows the opened awning and how the strap can only hold one end of the spacers parallel.


I did tighten the OEM nut a bit more, which might help as the front assy did not show this same tilting. I'm planning to leave as is and test it over time in the wild before I decide if it's totally acceptable or not. For now it's clearly better than leaving the original delrin spacers intact. Somewhere I do have a pix of the failed delrin spacers in their original location I could add if needed. Basically, they take the place of the 3/4" spacers I added. Roy

Here's the pix of how it looked with the failed delrin part in its original location.



The functional problems happened as the bolt and washer started slipping out of the delrin, letting the arms bend down too far to properly retract.

Maybe this?

Fiamma 98655-124
https://www.amazon.com/FIAMMA-F45-Plus-Insert-Bracket-98655-124/dp/B00M5AX1LI

Opposite side part number.

Fiamma 98655-123
https://www.amazon.com/FIAMMA-F45-Plus-Insert-Bracket-98655-123/dp/B00M5AX1EA/

They were also listed in Australia, Italy, UK...

vic

Sure looks like them...So I looked on the Fiamma website and sent an email with pix to Fiamma sales, and also tried two different RV dealers. All three told me they were not available. And you found them in one day; impressive!...Thanks, not sure how you did that. I'm gonna try and order them, but I probably won't change what I have unless it causes me trouble, or my to do list gets much lower than it is now. Roy

Not that you asked...

flemsmith said:

... but I probably won't change what I have unless it causes me trouble, or my to do list gets much lower than it is now. Roy

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The picture of your completed repair looks like the parts aren't really in complete alignment. I'd watch to make certain your repair isn't adding any serious stress to the assembly. If you do get the proper parts it might be best to install it.

vic

Understood. I did order them. Will watch closely now that i know what to watch for. No real downside to installing them, except mebbe their long term ability to deal with the weight/stress. Appreciate your feedback and help.

roy

I learned the hard way awnings don’t like wind. My F65 got hammered and a quick google search had parts inbound. I suppose each model is different, but, I’ve had no problems.

To Roy, the original poster, were the replacements successful? I have the same issue and the parts are no longer available from Amazon. I have a 3D printer and could duplicate them if I had dimensions of the unbroken part, assuming a 3D print is strong enough.

Regards,

Mark

I could not find them in the US and none of the places in the UK or Australia that had them on their websites responded. So, having a 3D printer, I modeled it up and printed it in sparkly blue PETG, just cause that was what was loaded on the printer.

I scanned the broken part and traced it in Inkscape for a template, then modeled cubes, cylinders and polygons in OpenScad to match the template, made an stl file and printed it. Took about three trys to get the dimensions exact. Fits like a glove. We will see how long they last.





Regards,

Mark

marklg said:

I could not find them in the US and none of the places in the UK or Australia that had them on their websites responded. So, having a 3D printer, I modeled it up and printed it in sparkly blue PETG, just cause that was what was loaded on the printer.

Click to expand...

Great job. Looks like they should have made them in sparkly blue to begin with!

I gotta get me a 3D printer...

I made spares out of more durable plastic in a higher quality mode that look much like the originals. If the sparkly blue ones fail, I will have replacements with me that should hold up longer.



I think one of the arms got bent though. It hangs up in the housing. I have to crank it out a foot and give the one arm a smack to pop out, then I can wind it all the way out after that. It's a little annoying but still a one person job.

3D printers take a lot of care and feeding for things to come out right. You just can't say go. It takes a lot of experience to know what to change if things don't go right. Luckily I have a friend with lots of expertise. I send pictures of the failures and get advice how to fix them. Once it is dialed in, it's pretty good though.

Regards,

Mark

marklg said:

I made spares out of more durable plastic in a higher quality mode that look much like the originals. If the sparkly blue ones fail, I will have replacements with me that should hold up longer.

View attachment 146073

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For us fellow F45i owners, would you be willing to make replacements we could purchase when needed?

No, they sell them for a reasonable price and I have a small business and don't want to get into any intellectual property disputes by selling something they claim patents on. I just made them myself because I could get it done in a day instead of waiting for a week. I also don't want to be responsible for injury if they break.

I will personally share the CAD files for free if you PM me. They are not based on any proprietary information.

Regards,

Mark