2 crank handles?

[diane]

I'm taking a friend to see an older Coleman camper with 2 crank handles (hoping to have another camping buddy). What is the function of the second handle :confused: ?  Thanks in advance.

[flyfisherman]

I'm taking a friend to see an older Coleman camper with 2 crank handles (hoping to have another camping buddy). What is the function of the second handle :confused: ?  Thanks in advance.

Maybe like me ... one day forgot where I placed the thing and had to order another one out FAST in order to make a planned camping trip. Came back home and there that orginal handle was ... hanging on the fence right where I had placed it and forgot where.  So now I have two.



Fly

[diane]

Well actuall there are 2 different "holes" for different cranks. I think I remember someone telling me that one was to crank up the roof and the other was a lever to lock it in place so it does not come crashing down but I'm not sure. I have never actually seen this done.

[Recumbentman]

I had a 1977 Coleman and it had 2 areas that looked like crank handles. the top one was for your crank handle to go into. and the lower one had a heavy gauge bent wire next to it, that once you had the top all the way up you would slide the wire on to it to hold the top up. to take down, you would put the handle back in place and give the top a slight turn up to release the wire hook and then lower away.
hope this helps

[diane]

Thanks

[dthurk]

Our PUP had two crank handles, but that only happened when we got to a campground 150 miles away from home and tried to set up.  Oops!  We borrowed one from a fellow camper, then found a dealer so we didn't have to borrow one to go home.  One became the "normal use" crank.  The other was permanantly stored in a compartment as a "just in case" crank.  IIRC, this was about an $18 SPUT.

[lwbfl]

At our most recent campground, some campers came in with an older Coleman who had forgotten their crank handle.  As we were the only other PUP in the park, they waited hours for us to come back from fishing to borrow ours.  They could not understand that we didn't need one for our PUP, but  let them borrow a jack handle and vice grips to raise the roof.  As the owner was cranking up the roof, I noticed the end of a "rod" just protruding through the front of the camper, about 6" from the top of the box, and it was rotating with the bottom "crank".  What was this for?