Awning winder failure

Managed to snap the spring on the Aussie Traveller awning winder a few weeks ago. Fortunately I had some all-problem-solving gaffer tape to get me out of trouble - you realise how dependent you are on the winder when it fails. For those of you not familiar with the Aussie Traveller awning, the canvas is wound back into the box by using a long handled winder which has a spring on the end so that it can be wound up from the ground (or in the case of a BT from a small ladder). As my BT is only four months old and the failure happened where the spring had been partly drilled for the holding pin (which stops the spring from spinning around) I thought the failure would be fixed as part of a warranty. How naive I am! With Aussie Traveller in Brisbane and me in Canberra it was not going to be easy to show the fault. To cut a long story short I was sent a new spring and appropriate pins and parted with $20. The winder is now fixed after some mucking around and couple of blunt drills. I was given some advice on the use of the winder to prevent the same thing happening again. Apparently the winder is not supposed to be used at more than 45 degrees out of straight. Now this vital bit of information is supposed to be imparted on delivery. Unfortunately it didn't come through to me - not to say we weren't told but that there is so much information to absorb on the day that it would be easy to miss. So fellow boggers, if you missed it as well, be warned, don't go over 45 degrees.......and keep some gaffer tape handy! Mick