Richard's Pop Up Mods

I have lost heart for my camper. I haven't even aired it out since the last trip. Probably mold growing inside. Every day that I'm home and have time to work on it, there is either lots of wind or rain. I'm wondering if I'm just putting it off.

Richard said:
I have lost heart for my camper. I haven't even aired it out since the last trip. Probably mold growing inside. Every day that I'm home and have time to work on it, there is either lots of wind or rain. I'm wondering if I'm just putting it off. ----------------

Sound like your just putting it of Richard. I understand your feeling after all of the work your have put into it. Maybe it's time to start thinking of an up-grade....like Dave & Darlene. Just my 2 cents

Coolbreeze1

Richard,, most important of all.. keep camping. I think you enjoy (to a certain extent) working on and modifying your rig.. but if it's becoming more of a headache.. maybe you do need to move on.

We want you to camp with us no matter what..

Richard, There have been times that we went camping with the pop up and sleep in tents behind the camper. As long as no rain in the forecast. We just could not pass up a good deal..
Dar

Richard...
Remember this:camping is a life of peace from the everyday work and life, we all need a break.
When camping I pay more attention to the sounds of birds and await for a wild animal even if it is a squirrel or a four leaf clover. My mind stay on what is happen at that very minute and not on what I have to do at home or work...This is why I love camping even if it is under a cliff just like we did as kids or in a tent in the back yard. Feel free to do what you love, but the camper can't fix it's self. It will work out....
Dar

Richard:

If you want to go camping your more than welcome to join me in my palace I have more than enough room for you and your kids. Just let me know.

Coolbreeze1

Coolbreeze1 said: Richard, If you want to go camping your more than welcome to join me in my palace I have more than enough room for you and your kids. Just let me know. -------------

That is such a nice gesture Tim.. you are a good man!

Thanks Tim, but I really just need to get back on that horse and ride again. I can fix the lift system again. I've got to just quit with the excuses and get busy on the repairs. Cool weather is my favorite time to camp, and it's on the way.

Coolbreeze is COOL, that is very thoughtful..

Richard...your motivation should be , being able to go camping and not have to worry if your 2x4's are treated lumber or not or if that "twine" connected to the elecrical post is going to hold.

Just think being abble to go on a trip and just crank and decorate CB's 5ver with "do dads"

Lets not talk about Do-Dads

Coolbreeze1

I've got to take pix of my setup for repairs. I finally put the top up today. My wife helped me. This made it considerablyharder, but I just kept running out of hands trying to do it myself. I used a strong ladder and a 2x4 to lever up the top in stages.

It's up, but it's not pretty. There's more damage than I thought. Tears in the canvas, etc. I've got three lift arms that will need repair, one of them may have to be replaced. To keep it from falling, I have my pre-cut boards you are all familiar with, plus 2x4's at an angle wedged between the top and the ground. Additionally, I have ratchet straps running from the top to trees and stakes in the ground. I'm taking no chances after having it fall TWICE! on one trip. The kids aren't allowed within 10 feet of it at this point.

My plan is to start taking out the cabinets tomorrow, again! and re-do the lift system. I suspect that the slightly larger cable I used for the longest run must have gotten stuck in some tight passage, oh what a joy finding and unsticking that will be.

There is good news though. I finally decided to try my bizarre theory on fixing the front door that kept getting wider. I leveled everything out, then raised the front another two and a half inches or so. I extended the front stabalizer to the ground, and then put the jack back down. Then I stood in the doorway and jumped. The doorway narrowed at the top just a bit. I did it again and again until the door frame is sitting nice and straight now. Lesson learned, these things really are made of kleenex and spit, instead of steel and wood.

I'll post what I learn when I get the cabinets opened up and taken apart.

Hey Dave and others.

I removed the dinette bench this morning to get a look at the first pully. The larger cable I used instead of the original will easily go all the way up and down by hand, so it wasn't jammed, which is a great thing.

It was the main cable, the one that wraps around the winch. Funny thing is that it didn't break at the end crimp, but about a foot up from that. I also know why things got bound up. It was that first pully that is attached to the channel for the spring on the (passenger rear) corner. It bent again. I should have known that it would, since it did before. When it bends, it binds the spring.

I have no idea why the main cable broke instead of the much smaller 3/16 cable that goes to the spring that was in a bind. I may buy cable for the winch that is one size larger, but that really seems to be a bad idea for some reason. After all, the pully system isn't mounted as strongly as the cable is now. It may have simply been a weak spot in the main cable. it's the one that came with the winch, so it may not be the best steel wire. Any ideas?

My question now is whether to get a new one, and wonder when it will happen again, or go to my buddy's shop and over engineer the part with additional steel so the pully is mounted on it's own right instead of dependent on the spring channel. I could bame a brace that would screw to the back wall (which would also get some steel) and a brace to the floor that would bolt to the frame.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29891611@N03/sets/72157622727812180/

These are the photos of the repairs in progress. Thee are notes on the photos.

ARrrrrrgh! I put it all back together. Wend halfway down and then back up. The last inch or two was a real strain on the winch. I figured the battery was getting low. I went inside, and the same part was all twisted again, though still firmly bolted to the floor. It seems that one of the long cables that go to the front was getting off the pully, and jamming. No wonder things pulled and broke. The winch is a 2000 Lb model. I'm working to reduce the gap to near nothing between the pully bracket and the pully. Oddly enough, it's the small (correct size) cable tha jams, not the larger one I used as a replacement. Alas, back to the workbench.

I think I may have found what the underlying problem has been with my lift system. I did my beefingup of the parts, went halfway down and back up, and things came to a screeching halt. This has happened before, but this time I left the cabinets out so I could see what was happening. One of the cables going to the fartherest lift arms came out of the pully and slid between the pully and the pully frame. I've re-engineered the pully (vice, hammer, spacers, and bolts) so that there is almost no clearance between the edge of the pully and the frame. There was a considerable gap before. I'm betting that the part bent early in the camper's life, and the cable has been riding incorrectly through this particular pully ever sense. That would certainly explain why the same cable has had to be replaced twice, once with extreem fraying that locked one lift arm up. The same lift arm was locked up when this cable jumped out of the pully this time. I freed the cable, and the lift arm works like a charm.

A couple of other things, I'm planning to put some steel renforcements under the camper to bolster the frame piece and the wooden floor this all bolts into. I figure that if it is all attached to frame by steel, it can't move much. Still, if I can keep the cable in the pully, all of this may be unnecessary. Still, while I have it out and open, why not.

Since it's raining, and part of my repair involves lying on the ground to access theunderside of the PUP, I couldn't finish the current version of the repair. I was going to thread everything back together so I'd be ready when the rain stops. With the pully repair, The eye-bolts won't go through the pully housing anymore, so I had to cut them off. Those cables were a couple of inches long anyway, so I had plenty of cable without replacing them. I cut the ferrels and stops off the cable, fed one through, and reattached the eyebolt with new crimp connectors. I then re attached the other one, but for got to feed the cable through the pully first. I didn't feel really smart.

I cut it off and fed it through and re-attached it. It was the longer of the two, so I hope I can adjust the difference when the final tension is applied. Geezh.

Richard,

I hope that your get "Danger" repaired before our campouts start again If, we should be camping and the same thing happens again, you and your family are more than welcome to come over and stay with me. Just remember to bring all your linens and pillows with you, being single, I don't carry extra

Coolbreeze1

Thanks Tim, that's a generous offer that I may need to take you up on.

As for the ongong repairs, I put in additional steel plates to really keep anything from moving, and the bolts stayed in place. The pully and track that it is mounted to didn't stay in place and now are shaped like this "&". It's not pretty. I've got part of the front cabinets out to figure out what is whrong up there. I can move each part with my hands, and nothing sticks. The push-spring and slug don't move quite a freely where I put the larger cable on, but they do move with little effort. Nothing that would break a cable.

I did find one pully under the front "sink" cabinet that may not be original. In fact I'm strongly suspecting that the lift system issues are why the original owner ditched this camper and got a smaller one. I'm going to continue to take things apart until I find something that binds. the cabinets may have to come out completely, but I hope not.

Hope you get all your repairs done before our first trip

Coolbreeze1

I have really enjoyed the play by play on the camper repair, very interesting. You will be the club's resident pop-up expert.

abivens wrote:I have really enjoyed the play by play on the camper repair, very interesting. You will be the club's resident pop-up expert.

Isn't expert just pushing things a little bit

Coolbreeze1

coolbreeze1 wrote:

abivens wrote:I have really enjoyed the play by play on the camper repair, very interesting. You will be the club's resident pop-up expert.

Isn't expert just pushing things a little bit

Coolbreeze1

He will reach "expert" status if his repairs will be good enough to camp 3 consecutive camp-outs without needing further repairs.

Good Luck Richard!!!

Dave

KralCamper wrote:

coolbreeze1 wrote:

abivens wrote:I have really enjoyed the play by play on the camper repair, very interesting. You will be the club's resident pop-up expert.

Isn't expert just pushing things a little bit

Coolbreeze1

He will reach "expert" status if his repairs will be good enough to camp 3 consecutive camp-outs without needing further repairs.

Good Luck Richard!!!

Dave

Hmmmm, Dave, I don't think I've ever gone three trips in a row without a repair or a mod of some type.

Richard wrote:]He will reach "expert" status if his repairs will be good enough to camp 3 consecutive camp-outs without needing further repairs.

Good Luck Richard!!!

Dave

Hmmmm, Dave, I don't think I've ever gone three trips in a row without a repair or a mod of some type.

Try it Richard, you may find you will enjoy some time off from repairs/mods for a while. Just having fun camping.

I have faith that you can do it!

Dave