RE: Stupid Popup Camping Trick - (Long Post)

[Bearnkat]

 Hi All,
 
 DW handled this very well, but I did one of those " major"  stupid popup camping tricks this morning. She doesn t read these forum and doesn t know the whole story yet, but she soon will when the bill from Home Deopt comes in and she sees the 1/2"  drill on it.
 
 Here s the story. I pulled the camper out this morning to do some general maintenance on it. I had bought one of the " Socket Jeanies"  from the PUT store and really wanted it to work. A couple of weeks ago, I had bought a 1/2"  B&D drill but and tried to use it to crank the top up on our Santa Fe, but it didn t have enough power. DW said to just stop and " cut our losses" , it wasn t that big a deal to crank the top up. We, I guess my " guy pride"  was in the way and, in the back of my mind, I still wanted to get a drill that had enough power to crank the top up.
 
 Yesterday I was at Home Deopt and they had a model that I was sure had enough power, and it was on sale, so I bought it. It was double the price of the previous drill that we had returned. It was one of those " Tim the Toolman"  models from " Home Improvement."  It was a man s drill and felt like it when you held it.
 
 DW left to run some errands and I mentioned to her that I was going to pull the popup out to work on it. SO I pulled the camper out of the garage, chocked the wheels and went around unlatching the 4 latches (or at least I thought I had gotten all of them.) I put the " Socket Jenie"  into the drill, thinking how proud I was going to be when it did work. I tightened the chuck, and proceeded to crank the top up. It strained a little bit and then went to work and then I heard a very loud POP. []
 
 I had forgotten to unlatch one of the corners and ended up breaking a cable since the drill had so much torque and was able to lift the top. I was crushed when I heard the sound and realized what had happened.
 
 I attacked the situation like I normally do, like a bull in a china closet, and didn t double-check to make sure that all the latches were undone BEFORE cranking.
 
 Tomorrow, the popup gets to to over to our dealer to fix my screwup!
 
 Moral of the story, double check and then check again when you re working on your popup. []
 
 Chuck

[tlhdoc]

 Bearnkat
Sorry to hear about your SPUT.  What drill did you end up getting.

[Red neff Barchetta]

 Bearnkat
Chuck - That seriously hurts to read!
 Sorry that happened.  My Socket-Jeanie (from the PUT store) arrived on Thursday and I ll be trying it out on Tuesday to work inside of the PU and then again on Friday when we are camping.
 It doesn t help with the cost of your drill or broken roof latch, but know that I will now be checking the latches 4 or 5 times (used to be 3 or 4, lol) before squeezing the trigger on the drill because of your warning and unfortunate SPUT.

[Bearnkat]

 tlhdoc
Hi Tracy,
 
 Thanks for the reply!
 
 I bought a Milwaukee model 0299-20. Its rated at 8 amps and it will do the job! Unfortunately too well . [>:]
 
 C & T

[Bearnkat]

 Red neff Barchetta
Hi Jeff,
 
 Thanks! And yes I will be doing some serious checking about the latches. I just got in too much of a hurry and overly anxious to see if the drill was going to do the job. Oh well, I learned my lesson, the hard way. Hopefully I didn t screw up or stretch the rest of the cabling underneath. I might have, but I ll just have to wait to hear what the dealer has to say.
 
 Chuck

[Red neff Barchetta]

 Bearnkat
I ll keep my fingers crossed that you didn t do too much damage.

[JemJen24]

 Bearnkat
(trying not to laugh)
 
 Ohhhh, CHUCK!!!  That is sooooooooooooo bad!  It really DID hurt to read that! Guess you re taking it to Western Campers huh?  Well , maybe we ll see ya there.  Our wires for the internal cabin lights ripped out this weekend and it looks like whoever installed the cables/wires didn t leave enough " slack"  for them so they ripped out when we expand and contract the PU.  
 
 Willard, being the TIM THE TOOLMAN kinda guy, jiggled them and squished them in tight enough, then propped them against the cabin tenting, to make the lights work just long enough before we can take the trailer in.  Ofcoure, I ll probably wind up doing it since he ll be working this week.  GREAT!
 
 See ya there! ha!!!! []

[Bearnkat]

 Red neff Barchetta
Hi Jeff,
 
 Thanks. I just hope it didn t mess up the gear box in the back. If its only replacing a cable, I can live with that. I may have stretched out some of the other cables as well. Oh well, what needes to be done, will have to be done and I ll have to take it out of some of my mad money that I have stashed.
 
 Chuck

[Bearnkat]

 JemJen24
Hi Jennifer,
 
 Thanks for the sympathy! I do appreciate it, but I don t deserve it.
 
 I won t take the camper in quite yet until we re ready to paint the inside of the house and we need the space in the garage where the camper is stored, so it ll probably be a couple of weeks.
 
 I m not even going to call Western Campers to ask them about the cost of repair because they ll have to look at it first to see how much damage I did.
 
 Sorry to hear about the problems with your lights.
 
 C & T

[notrailends]

 Bearnkat
I just ordered the socket jenie today,and I have the Dewalt 24 volt drill
 just waiting to be used.I knew these type of drills have power but thats
 crazy-power. I always double check the latches before I pop-up, now I
 will triple check.

[Gone-Camping]

 Bearnkat
Sorry to hear about the busted cable, but I ll bet you never make that mistake again!!! I ve feared doing exactly that, so when every I pop-up, I tell the kids NOT to help (basically tell them to get lost for a while), and I do a second walk around to check on the latches each and every time! That second walk around has caught a couple of sput s so far!

[Bearnkat]

 Gone-Camping
Hi Cliff,
 
 I always do a second walk-around, except for this time, when I was overly anixious! Live and learn! But, I WILL NEVER make that sput again.
 
 Chuck

[Starryart]

 Bearnkat
So sorry to hear about your popped cable. As one who has been there and done that, I can sympathize. It cost us about a $100 to fix our busted cable.[] so I am paranoid now whenever we popup, and I triple check. A little obsessive/compulsive is cheaper in the long run.
 Hope you get it fixed soon..

[Bearnkat]

 Starryart
I figured it was going to cost around $100. The Santa Fe is getting ready to go in for its annual checkup in a couple of weeks anyway, so I figured I d just wait till then. I was thinking about taking it in tomorrow, but I ll wait. We don t have a trip planned until the middle of May. Thanks for the kind words of warning. I will most definitely heed them.
 
 C & T