I believe most of us have these powered awnings on our coaches; some of us only have one but a lot have two identical awnings. I had an occasion to take my basement wall down that disturbed the wiring on the basement wall awning switches which caused our slide awning (not a topper) to not work at all. After some troubleshooting, I had the awnings partially open when a high wind came up in AZ. There are two buttons on the back side of the awning motor enclosure (forward arm on both awnings) that will accept 12 v to retract the awnings to prevent damage in high winds. I have the Dewalt 20V drill package, and used a couple of electrical spade connectors to connect to the emergency power cord furnished in the briefcase of manuals and such during delivery to power the awnings closed. Just want to make all of you aware in case you're in the same situation as I was to bypass the wiring and close your awnings to prevent wind damage

Good Morning Jim ,

you stated -
" I have the Dewalt 20V drill package, and used a couple of electrical spade connector to connect to the emergency power cord furnished in the briefcase"

All that was in my case other than papers was the drill extension... Could you post a pic of the wire connector ?

Joe

If you have the older Carefree - the connections are here:

If you have the newer Carefree (~2013), the connections are spades inside the arm:

The little jumper wire I got with my first Carefree was just a 12" long lamp cord with alligator clips on one end and soldered wire tips on the other. The alligator clips work on both styles. The soldered wire tips have to be held to the terminals of your auxiliary battery such as your drill battery.

Thanks Brad..

I will make up a small jumper wire over the winter with alligator clips.. sounds easy.. I did see the quick connects on mine , just did not put 2 and 2 together.

Joe, just a hint. Make the wire about 4-5 feet long. It's real tricky trying to retract the awning with a battery while up on a ladder! I should just replace my wire someday and make a new one.

already thought of that... figured I could use my portable battery pack with long wire to connect to the awning... But I will take my measurements off the front awning as that one is much farther off the ground .