You can pay someone to do this!

A few weeks ago, we had just finished dinner, and were about to settle in, to what I thought, was going to be a quiet evening.  I had some plans in my head to work on a few things on the computer in the recliner, as the kids played outside for a little bit longer, before time to get ready for bed.  All was going as I had planned, until my husband walked in and announced he needed my help.


Being the Godly wife I am :), I quickly hopped up from my chair, and headed down to the barn.


He was on the last step of a project that he had been working on, for literally, months.  He was replacing the awning on the trailer.  You see, when we got this trailer, it was a hand-me-down from his brother.  A great little trailer, but the awning was in great need of repair, better to say, replacement.


We had taken it down to a repair place, here in Cleburne, a few months ago to see what they could do, and as soon as they quoted Ray the price, out we pulled.  No way was Ray going to pay that!!


So, he started looking on line, googling "How to replace your awning on your trailer."


There are youtube videos for EVERYTHING!!  


Anyway, all of these sites that gave instruction on "How to"... all had a warning that said..."This is very dangerous!!! Do not attempt alone, and must have at least 3 to 4 adults helping." The tension that is wound up inside the tube of the awning, is appearantly very strong, and can take a finger or hand off!! 


This is what ALL the websites said.  Yikes!! After reading that, I thought we would surely take it back to the RV place, but NO Way!!! Not Ray Ford.


After we very carefully took the awning off of the trailer, and took it apart, Ray found the part numbers and ordered what he needed to replace. Several weeks went by, and I kinda forgot about it, until he came in to get me the other night.


After briefly instructing me, and reminding me of the danger (He didn't have to do that, I hadn't forgotten!!) , we started the process.  We actually didn't have too much problem getting it threaded onto the tube, and then actually winding the tension.  It was a little nerveracking, thinking that this thing could spin, and take off one of Ray's fingers, but we did it!! The funny thing was, I was so nervous, that I lost count of the turns on the spring a couple of times, so we had to start over 3 different times!!! 


The worst part was yet to come.  After getting the thing wound onto the tube, we then had to pick up this huge tube, with the awning hanging off of it, and thread the other end onto the side of the trailer.  No problem, except the thing weighed a ton, and it was just the 2 of us. Remember the warning, "This is a job for no less than 3 to 4 adults!!"


All I can say is, it was a total disaster!!  Ray was trying to balance one end on his head, while I was holding the majority of it on my shoulders, and then needing to pull the end of the material, so it wouldn't bunch up as Ray was pulling it through the track!! It was windy to boot, so the tarp part was flapping in the wind, and eventually blew us over as well as the ladder we were standing on to reach the side of the trailer where the track was to attach the awning.


We just stopped, looked at each other feeling completely defeated, (I did), but not Ray.  He said, "Hey, let's get Joshua to help us!!!" 


"He is FIVE!" I said.  Not exactly another adult to help us.


"Ok" he said, "we'll wait until the big kids get home from youth."


When the kids got home, my sister,, Joy was with them, she had brought them home.  Oh, thank the Lord for another adult!!


We quickly recruited her and Jesse, our 14 year old son, to be the other 2 adults!!  As I was explaining to her about what we needed her to help us with, I said, "You know you can pay to have someone do this, but......" Joy interrupted, "Hey, another blog post, right!?"

Anyway, after recruiting a few extra abled bodies, things went alot better.  it was still rough, but we did it!!! Yeah, success, or so we thought.

We all waited in anticipation as we watched Ray pull the switch, which should have caused the awning to roll up all by itself, with ease, into a nice tight roll to travel down the highway.  Much to our dismay, nothing happened...well something happened, we heard a whizzing sound inside the tube for a moment, but no movement of the awning rolling up. Nothing. What??? What was wrong?

Much to our dismay, we had wound the tension in the wrong direction!!  So, it was going to roll out like a champ, but rolling back up was a different story!!
I asked, "Can we just leave it, it is sooo late?" No, we couldn't, a storm was coming in that night, so we all had to use our strength, to roll it up, as tight as we could get it, but it was very heard, as we were all rolling against the tension, the super tight tension, that we were warned about on the websites!!


It took all four of us, but we finally get it rolled up enough for it to not catch the wind, but I was done.  The thought of having to take that thing down, and start over was a little too much for me.  Needless to say, I think Ray knew that, and actually he and Jesse were able to reverse the tension and get if fixed, working perfectly, without me at all.  They both felt a huge amount of accomplishment, and what a great feeling to get it done, and save us all that money.


Anyone need any RV repairs, check with Ray first!


Have a blessed week, and remember, He is Risen!
JJ