The power awning recall that first arose in late 2022 / early 2023 certainly caught our attention. By the time we got the recall paperwork, we had been operating our View heavily for a year and a half. An awning that self extends while cruising down the highway, would, well, spoil your day.

After looking at our awning closely and determining that there was no way for that awning motor to operate without electrical power, we elected to remove power to the awning circuit by interupting the power at the 12 volt circuit breaker in the circuit breaker panel - on the outboard side of the passenger seat pedestal. No power, no eroneous command to the awning motor to do its thing. (The mod described below does not cover a mechanical failure that removes the motor drive from the awning gearing.)

Here is a photo of the circuit breaker panel on the outboard side of the passenger seat pedestal. You can see that the 15 amp awning breaker is in the centre of the bottom row, and there is no breaker above it. It was very easy to reach in under the dust cover protecting the wiring under the seat, and remove the spade connector on the awning circuit breaker - during the times when we did not want the awning circuit to be powered:

To prove to myself that this concept was going to be bulletproof, I located the awning control module in the trim panel above the coach entry door, and used the module power light as confirmation that the power to the controller is severed when the circuit breaker wiring is interupted. (The Carefree awning operator’s supplement that Winnebago supplies confirms that this light is the indication that power is being fed to the control module.) Here is a photo of the module power light with power to the breaker / power removed from the breaker:

With power removed from the control module, manual operation of the awning using the in coach switch was not possible. (A couple of good news interesting sidenotes - on our 2021 View on a 2020 Sprinter chassis the ignition lockout for the awning worked just fine. If the Sprinter was running, the awning would not extend when the control module was powered, or if the ignition was switched on with the awning already extended, the awning would auto retract.)

This mod adds a switch upstream of the 12 volt 15 amp awning circuit breaker, to allow a more convenient method of controlling power flow through the breaker to the awning control circuit and module.

The switch we chose is the same type of switch that locks the coach steps in the ‘auto retract” position when the coach door is closed. We wanted a locking switch, so it would take an intentional decision to provide power to the awning circuit. We were used to this type of switch controlling the steps, so it was an easy choice to make:

This switch is rated for 20 amps, so it is plenty capable for the current that will be seen in the feed to the 15 amp awning circuit breaker.

The only snag with this switch from Winnebago (purchased from Lichtsinn in Forest City) was the switch logic was backward to what we wanted. We wanted the switch to break the power when selected to OFF, unlike the step’s logic that OFF actually closes the contacts and allows some inhibit logic in the “auto retract” step control. At any rate, I had to take apart the switch and reverse the internal poles to make it behave the way we wanted it to: the switch locked to interrupt power to the awning circuit breaker and control circuit.

Winnebago’s first attempt to fix the problem was rumoured to involve a mechanical fix to provide some assurance that the motor could not separate from the awning gearing , and then their second recall got significantly more complicated – utilizing the park brake module, and a second power supply from the chassis, to force the owner to set the parking brake before the awning will extend. Also, the second recall involved some firmware updates to the awning control circuit. Have a look at Recall 179 from Winnebago:

Winnebago Awning Recall 179

Folks have been having some significant problems with both recalls, with unintended consequences causing them serious grief. We like to keep things simple, and not wanting to trust our Winnebago dealer, or Winnebago engineering, with getting things right without losing our coach for weeks and months, we’ve gone back to the basics. With no power at the awning control module, there will be no command, or power, to drive the motor unintenionally – whatever the cause.

The Switch Installation

I started by isolating the coach batteries from the coach using our handy coach battery isolation switch, and then isolating the Sprinter chassis battery by using the ground wire disconnect in the cubby down by the accelerator pedal. I probably should have disconnected the auxillary battery under the driver’s seat as well, as opening and closing the driver’s door resulted in a small motor hum, somewhere, that must be associated with the auxillary battery. Since the auxillary battery is responsible for a control function in the transmission during times of a dead chassis battery, maybe that is what I was hearing. Don’t know, but I didn’t worry about it.

Removing the passenger seat was easily done with the removal of four Torx 12 head bolts, and sliding it inboard to rest on a makeshift support provided the necessary elbow room. There is only one cable bundle attached to the seat, and there is plenty of cable for the seat to be repositioned without having to remove the connector.

The location for the switch we chose was right beside the circuit breaker panel, within easy reach of the awning wiring from Winnebago. It literaly took me a couple of years to firm up this decision, as I knew that cutting into the pedestal was not going to be a walk in the park. I mean, there is a reason why they build a seat pedestal out of this gauge of steel. But, with a test hole drilled, there was no turning back …

Using a combination of ever increasing drill bit sizes, hand size hack saw, oscillating saw, and then a Dremel tool with a metal shaping bit, I was able to create the necessary hole size. (I covered up the circuity under the seat, and added some makeshift trays, inside and out, to catch the swarf from the cutting that I needed to do. I didn’t want loose metal filings in the pedestal circuitry.)

With the cutting done, and the pedestal area thoroughly vacummed, I moved on to the easy part of wiring up the switch. The yellow power wire from Winnebago to the awning circuit breaker was of very generous length, so that allowed me to cut it in the middle, add a spade connector to each cut, and easily connect the spade connectors to the switch. Here is a photo of the wiring temporarily mocked up – one half of the cut wire attaches to one pole of the switch, and the other half of the cut wire attaches to the other pole of the switch. All this switch does is break the continuity of the Winnebago power wire that attaches to the circuit breaker. The awning circuit breaker can be seen in the photo in the middle of the bottom row:

My chosen location for the switch did not take into account mounting the switch faceplate – Doh. It was going to be very difficult to get a drill bit into the area of the two left hand faceplate holes, so I chose to mount the face plate using some 3M 4950 VHB tape. Also, I put a piece of tape over the misworded “Step” on the switch body.

Here is how things ended up looking from the inside - after this photo I wrapped the switch contacts with electrical tape:

And, from the outside:

We’re going to be looking at this switch everytime we jump in the motorhome to drive away, so I was determined to have it looking presentable. I painted over some scratches I made while cutting, and added a label in that same area to make it look finished. I called the switch the “Awning Circuit Power” switch, to make it clear that it is power to the entire awning system, including the awning controller and drive motor.

Before we wrap this one up, I’d like to point out that in no way is this modification to our 2021 View supposed to be as carefree as the Winnebago Recall 179. In our case, after using the awning, if we forget to turn the “Awning Circuit Power” switch back to the OFF locked postion, we’ll be driving around with the original factory awning configuration that Winnebago is trying to correct with their recall. (I’ll add the new switch to my departure walk-around as part of the process to ensure the awning is electrically disabled.) We don’t know if our View is one of the coaches where this failure is lurking, but, in our case, we’re making the intentional decision that we’d rather drive around with the awning system disabled than have a complicated and intricate recall done to both the Sprinter chassis and the coach. We really don’t use the awning very much, so having it disabled for most of its life is not a hardship to us.

So, having said all of that, our mod is working as intended. No awning deployments to ruin the day, and we got to keep our View on the driveway - away from the darkness of the dealership, where time has no meaning …


Back to Our RV Modifications