Sometimes when it is hard to release you need to pull down slightly on the pull strap.
Rv awning lock lever broken.
The lever will answered by a verified rv mechanic.
It might take two persons to do this.
See the attached manual for the dometic manual.
The fault of the strap breaking has nothing to do with your method.
The right side forward most arm for the awning comes down in front of this window and instead of unrolling the awning to access the window i just unlatched the arm from the bottom and swung it out.
Dometic awning is in the out position.
Both have that lever on the forward end that you reverse in order to move the awning.
I can still roll up and down ok but the lever does not stay locked in either the up or down positions.
An awning strap in good condition will hold your whole body weight before breaking.
I went to open and use my awning yesterday and found that the direction lever spring has broken.
The lever is stuck on the up position.
This allows enough slack to lift the arms off the catch.
It is important to allows take every safety precaution available when working with an rv awning.
Ok this all started with a broken window from storms.
To replace the cam lock disassemble the awning assembly completely.
The awning will not go up.
Not that your awning will hold that much weight.
Replace the cam locks and reassemble the entire awning.
It should be an a e dometic model or carefree of colorado.