Difference Between RV Awnings and Awnings for Your Home

Many Americans love their RVs – and for good reason. It’s great to get away from home and be able to stop in nearly any city or town across the United States without needing to rent a room. RVs provide families with a lot of flexibility when they’re on vacation, and there’s a growing cohort or retirees and empty nesters who have transitioned entirely to RV living.

One of the biggest appeals of RV living is the proximity to nature, which is why awnings and RVs combine so well. Without an awning, RVs offer little to no shade protection. Depending on the time or day or position of the sun it can be uncomfortable to sit outside your RV and enjoy the view.

Awnings on RVs, much like awnings on homes, increase the usable square footage of livable space. RV travelers aren’t confined solely to their RV’s interior when they have dozens of extra square feet of shade right outside their door.

It’s no surprise that RV awning installation has become its own cottage industry. There are several different types of RV awnings with different benefits and drawbacks. Some of those RV awning styles, like retractable awnings, are similar to their home awning counterparts. Where the track is placed and how the arms extend out might vary, but the principal is essentially the same.

In fact, if there’s one major difference between home awnings and RV awnings it’s that RVs essentially require some kind of retractability. It’s not really feasible to get on the highway or drive into town with an awning sticking eight feet out on the side of your RV.

The way these awnings retract and whether they can be entirely removed and stored is the biggest differentiator. There aren’t many home awning styles where you can easily pop them off the side of your house and bring them inside.

Types of RV Awnings

·       Fixed Awnings

·       Slide-Out Awnings

·       Automatic Awnings

Fixed awnings are essentially like fixed awnings on your home, but they generally have some kind of mechanism by which they can be removed and stored. They’re not as easy to put away as slide out or automatic awnings but they can provide consistent shade and are great if you’ll be parking your RV for an extended period of time.

Slide-out RV awnings are generally mounted on support arms that are anchored near the RV’s wheel wells. The closed, rolled up awning is permanently stored on the side of your RV near the roof. When you pull that rolled awning outward, the arms on the sides pull out from the RV and can lock into place.

Some of these slide-out awnings can be locked with the arms still attached to the base of the RV to give the awning a downward slope, but the legs can also be entirely detached from the RV and act as posts to anchor the awning and make a flat patio roof.

Retractable awnings attached to homes generally don’t have vertical arms like a slide out RV awning. They most often have jointed horizontal arms near where the awning retracts that allow it to push the edge of the awning out to its maximum length. In most cases a retractable awning doesn’t require posts for support, and the angle of the awning can’t be adjusted.

There are also motorized variations of the slide out awnings that slide along vertical tracks that are installed on the side of an RV. They don’t look or function all that differently from manual slide-out RV awnings, but the arms generally can’t detach from the track and be used as free-standing posts.

These motorized awnings tend to have jointed arms that bend outwards as the awning is slid out. Motorized slide-out awnings work similarly to home retractable awnings with the main difference being the vertical arms are mounted on either end of the awning.

You Don’t Need an RV to Get a Great Awning in Phoenix

If you have an RV or are thinking about getting one, an awning can be a great addition. They’re also a great addition for your home. You generally have a lot more flexibility with home or business awning customization than you have with RV awnings.

Arizona Awnings can custom fabricate nearly any type of permanent awning or shade sail you can dream up. We can also install retractable awnings and a variety of patio awning or shade structures to meet your specifications.



Call us at 602-252-3430 to schedule a free awning installation estimate.