Awning Fever

  I think the biggest stress would not be from the weight of the awning but the wind hitting the awning when opened up. I am a sailor and there is a lot of pull on even a small sail. And should never have a awning extended during a windy day or storm.

Reading through, I’m struck by how little is made of the keder rail that model year had, equipped from the factory. It is how the R-Dome is attached and used by many to attach awnings. There were a number of ytubers posting afterwards how to make and install one.

We purchased a new 2019 / 179 in July of 2018.  It was my understanding then that the trailers from the factory came with either a "Keder" rail for the Rdome application or a Thule awning.  If the purchaser wanted a Thule awning it would have to be manufactured that way in the building process because there was more supports built into the area where the awning attaches to the trailer.  If the trailer was built for the awning application then the "Keder" rail was not installed on the trailer.  Which I can attest to because my 179 does not have a Keder rail but we have a Thule awning.  My guess is that your trailer was not producted for the awning application and had a Keder rail installed a the time of production.  Sometime after the trailer was delivered to the dealer the Thule awning was added to the unit either by dealer or owner.  Which explains why the Thule awning is no longer there.  In answer to your question of if there are many applications that can use the Keder rail for attaching an awning to your unit.  Some will be manufactured for that application or you can make up your own version of an awning using the existing Keder rail.  For ideas search this forum for old posts there is a lot of ideas and information out there.  I would not suggest trying to re-install another Thule awning or something similar to that.  The trailer just does not have enough "beef" in the walls to attach an awning too.  Hope this helps.

The 2017 Rpods did NOT have the reinforcement for an awning. If yours had the awning, it was added after manufacture by a dealer or owner.