Awning glide in the rail and I pull and he pushes. That bit is done in a few minutes. Each time we put it up it gets quicker. It would take longer for us to zip the big panels back in than to thread it through the rail.If you are threading it through the rail with the sides in, it must be extremely heavy? Most people would remove the sides on a full size awning before erecting it. We do not have the sides in when we erect our much smaller porch awning. Makes life a lot simpler and easier.