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Old 05-21-2019, 04:51 AM   #1
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Waterproof spray for awning?

Does anyone have any experience with any of the waterproofing sprays? Are the more expensive brands worth the money?
We had a very rainy weekend of camping and some dripping... any suggestions?
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Old 05-21-2019, 06:12 AM   #2
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H'mm, need a little more info.

Is the awning material, vinyl or cloth?

Is the leak coming at the seam stitches at the gutter rail?

On our last vinyl awning, the awning was getting older and it started to drip through the stitching at the gutter rail cord that holds the awning to the camper. I used some tenting seam sealer I had left over from the tenting days and while it seemed to help the leaking for a short while, the brand I used turned black, hard and crusty over time. It became worse as time went on. Eventually the whole first 6" of the awning by the roof died from sun exposure and I totally replaced the issue with a new awning.

If the issue is at that seam, an investigation into what brand seam sealer will work, not be UV degraded, turn black and yucky over time and then crack off.

I do not recall the brand I used. Seam sealing a tent that is packed up most of its life is different then a camper awning exposed to the elements most it's life.

Hope this helps

John
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Old 05-21-2019, 09:13 AM   #3
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It isn't canvas for sure but a vinyl cloth I'd say.
Does not appear to coming from the seam but I'm wondering if that is the case?
Seems to be coming through in the body of the fabric so looking more for a high quality 'scotchguard' type of spray or liquid.
Just thinking...if it is that top seam would an application of dicor tape be able to slow the aging process as well?
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Old 05-21-2019, 12:04 PM   #4
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The question:

Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnB View Post
H'mm, need a little more info.

Is the awning material, vinyl or cloth?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Draughty View Post
It isn't canvas for sure but a vinyl cloth I'd say.
OK, ah I can tell by the answer I didn't explain the awning material question enough.

There are 2 basic materials camper awnings are made from. There may be other choices now too but these are the 2 most common.

1. Vinyl, think of a vinyl plastic sheet. Many have 2 layers of thin solid vinyl plastic sheet, a top and bottom bonded together to make it thicker.

2. Cloth, this is not a plastic sheet. It is more like a woven fabric of Acrylic something. It is not really canvas, like in a canvas wall tent or a truck canvas. But it is a cloth looking material that is woven very fine and tight.

The 2 materials are very different, they also clean and repair different.

From your leaking description, it might be a seam leak up at the gutter rail cord stitching that the water then is wicking between the 2 layers of maybe vinyl that are separated. You may be able to see separated vinyl, an air bubble etc. And it finds a pin hole in the bottom layer, it might drip out. Don't know, but armed with this info, have a look and see it is even fits.

If the awning is vinyl, I have used awning repair tape over the stitching thread holes at the gutter rail after the bad brand of tent seam sealer died. It helped, if that is the problem.

There are 2 brands of awning repair tape out there I know of for vinyl.

This one is the one I would suggest. INCOM Life Safe awning repair tape in the green package. They sell it sort of all over, Amazon, Camping World, etc. https://www.lifesafedirect.com/produ...ng-repair-tape

A number of years back Camco came out with an awning repair tape. It was made in China at first and the quality was not great. They may have fixed the quality issues, I do not know but I have bought a lot of the Life Safe tape and had positive results every time. I cannot say the same for the 1 roll of Camco I bought as it was cheaper and it did not hold up well at all.

The Dicor roof tape, in this case I would say no. Not a good application of it. I tried Eternabond on a popup vinyl roof on one of the bed ends and it did not work like we wanted it too. BUT, BenB just took that E bond off and used a new vinyl roof repair product that he said worked great. He may be along soon and can shed some light on that product.

If your awning is the cloth woven fabric, I do not have any experience with that to suggest. You mentioned Scotchgard type of spray, I do not think that would work well on the vinyl as it is a plastic sheet but it may help on the cloth fabric woven material. Sort of back to, what awning material do you have?

Hope this helps

John
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Old 05-21-2019, 12:30 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Draughty View Post
It isn't canvas for sure but a vinyl cloth I'd say.
Does not appear to coming from the seam but I'm wondering if that is the case?
Seems to be coming through in the body of the fabric so looking more for a high quality 'scotchguard' type of spray or liquid.
Just thinking...if it is that top seam would an application of dicor tape be able to slow the aging process as well?
If the leak is coming from the seams of your awning - try putting VLP Liquid Vinyl Repair over the seams.
We were getting leaks from the seams of our awning. I ran a bead of VLP Liquid Vinyl Repair over the seems and it stopped the leaking.

Hope this helps.
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Old 05-24-2019, 04:32 AM   #6
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Thanks guys that helps a lot..back out this weekend and supposed to rain again tonight and some tomorrow. Should be able to finish diagnosis!
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Old 06-01-2019, 05:55 PM   #7
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Appears it was mostly humidity from inside ...we did use a UV Scotchgard and some repair tape on the one damaged spot at the top on one end..
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