Great Upgrade for Manual Awning!

I did not purchase the Solera arms at Camping World as I had the arms installed by an RV dealer and purchased the arms at the dealer. But, there aren't a lot of reviews to be found and thought I would share one that I have written. I purchased the black arm kit. We have a 2012 Newmar Bay Star that we purchased in 2018. It had a manual awning, and I confess, I had been spoiled by having an electric awning on our last travel trailer. However, our awning fabric was "like new", so I was looking for saving on the cost of a new awning. I decided to purchase the Solera arm kit but I had it installed at a RV servRead more about review stating Great Solution for Our Bay Star!ice center last fall. I was really pleased with how it installed and fit on our MH. But, that was at the end of the season, so I didn't really get to use it. We are now out on our first trip of 2022 and I can report that I love these power arms. And, it's easy to reach up and adjust the angle for the sun, rain or whatever and you don't have to do anything when you go to close it. You do have to monitor that when you close the awning, the fabric is rolling in the right direction which is something you don't have to do on factory made electric awnings. But, it is very easy to monitor, and if you do roll it up incorrectly, you just roll it out and correct your mistake. Of course, the switch is on the arm, so you have to exit your RV to open or close the awning and that means you have to deal with any weather conditions. But, if you are the do it yourself type person, I can see where it would be fairly easy to wire the switch into the interior of your rig if you don't mind drilling one small hole. The battery charger has a nice long cable and easily reached one of the outlets in a storage bay. The light on the charger turns green when the battery is fully charged. I haven't completed enough open/close cycles to comment on the number of cycles it will provide on one charge. My game plan is to charge the battery at the end of each camping trip. The battery did discharge during winter storage, so you want to charge the battery if your rig has been stored for a several months. So, I recommend these arms if they meet your needs, whether it be the ability to install it yourself or to be able to use an awning that is still in good shape. I use to be a fan of the weight and stability of manual awnings, but at this point in my RV life, I prefer the joys of an electric awning. And, my wife is much happier as she would not have been able to operate the manual awning if it had to be closed and I wasn't on site!