Powder coated awning track

[Pinto]

The opening on our awning track for the skirt is too narrow to get the skirt cord into. I know you can get awning track spreaders but a friend of ours made a right mess of his powder coated awning track using one. Hubby thinks he can spread it using a piece of wood or protecting it first with some cloth and using some small grips to bend the lower edge. Before he has a go, I thought I'd ask on here if anyone else has managed this job successfully without any damage.

 

[SimonB73]

If it's powder coated it might be an issue. I've never had to do anything with an awning before last week but i used to get Motorcycle parts powder coated quite a lot.

Powder coat isn't very flexible in my experience. Even heat expansion caused it to crack a couple of times on things i had done.

It might have just been the quality of the powder coat i had done but it did tend to crack on anything that was prone to getting bent (Brake levers, gear shifters, bars ect)

Are you sure it's powder coat? Seems like an odd choice for an awning rail.

 

[Pinto]

Yes, it is powder coated. It's a new van and just been back for its first service. We mentioned it to the dealer who said it was an issue with Coachman and we may have to bring it back in 3 months. He said Coachman had changed their awning rail supplier due to this problem. The rest of the track is fine, just the skirt in front of the wheel arch. Of course until it's sorted we can't use the skirt. Thanks for your reply anyway.