Cable adjustment on roof lift system

[Martorious]

Is there a way to adjust the cables on the Roof lift system?  My problem is that when I crank until the primary cable is tight, the roof is still about an inch from being fully raised (I have to manually push the roof up to get the door frame into position.)  And the canvas is not completely taut (but it is after I pushed the roof up and set the door frame, at least the canvas is taut on the door side.)
 
I know that the primary cable attaches to the 4 smaller cables that go to each corner for the lift, yet the primary cable is stopping (bottoming out?) before the 4 cables have lifted the roof all the way up.
 
Any help/advice is appreciated before I crawl under and look at it.

[birol]

You should be able to adjust each and every cable going to the four corners. You can also adjust the main cable, Peeked on mine, looks like very do-able (Main cable)!

Good luck with it.

[Gone-Camping]

When I read your post I had to take a quick look at your sig line, and your camper confirmed my thoughts on this immediately. I know EXACTLY what is going on with your camper, and it's not the cables that need adjusting. Having 2 mid 70's Starcrafts (78 Starmaster-8 and 74 Stardust Swinger) and both of them did the exact same thing. The problem with them (as I suspect with yours) is that the lifter arms are starting to protrude through the floor boards. Both of mine did that, and I've seen numerous other Starcrafts with the exact same problem!
 
You see, in Starcrafts wisdom of the era, they placed the lifter arms flat against the floor, which is basically particle board. Over the years, the lifter arms pressure combined with moisture and cheap particle board gives way. Since the cable had to pass through there too, they have a hole in the floor roughly 1/2 inch in diameter, and this allows water & moisture (especially when towing in the rain) to enter into the holes and slowly eat away at the material. Given enough time, the lifter arms start popping out through the floor boards, and the canvas won't pull tight because the arms are not reaching as high. It's likely you haven't noticed this yet, as the lifters drop through the floorboards seems to get halted by the pulleys and cable system. However, given enough time even those will pull loose.
 
Get down and look under the edge of the trailer directly under the lifter arms, I think you'll see what's going on! Trust me on this one, I spent months tinkering with the cable adjustments, and every time I thought I had it figured out, but it never really took care of the problem. Then one day I noticed the bottom of the trailer directly under those arms, and the answer to the problem hit me like a frieght train!
 
The fix isn't that hard either. Some strong flat metal plates that can be screwed into the floor boards on the inside. You'll have to raise the roof about 2/3's way up, and brace it with some 2x4's on each corner. You'll have to manually/physically push or pull the lifter arms up until you can get enough clearance to slip one end of the plates in underneath the lifter arm, then screw them into place. Note: a lot of pressure pushing down on those lifter arm bottoms, and it will tend to push the plate down through the floor too. I recommend putting bolts all the way through the floor, with another plate or extremely wide washer underneath the trailer, you'll need something really strong to counter act the pressure applied by the lifter arms.
 
I have another fix if this won't work, but it's not as good as the one above but will work just as well....
 
Good luck and let me know what you find under there!!!

[Martorious]

Thanks, I'll check that as soon as I get home.  The one time I looked under the trailer, though, it looked like plywood instead of particle board, but I'll take a close look at it tonight.

[Gone-Camping]

Yep, the place to look is right under the outside edge of the camper, the very bottom looking up, on the outside of the frame...the lifters are right inside the skin of the unit.

[Martorious]

I checked it out yesterday.  The floor material is plywood instead of particleboard (thank goodness!) unlike the table, which has seen better days.  However it did appear as though that area was sagging slightly, but I'm not sure if it is enough to have caused the problem.  The floor itself (on the bottom side) looked fairly sturdy and rot free.  Actually I think I have more sag where the lifter arms connect to the roof.  The plywood on the roof sides is completely rotted in several places due to water exposure, and I think the only thing supporting the roof in a couple of the corners is the bolt through the aluminum skin.  Next month I plan on taking the roof off and doing a complete makeover, that will (hopefully) solve at least one problem, then I can start worrying about the rest.

[birol]

Do the roof first, as it is the easy thing to do  Might be the cables misaligned after all as well. Unless the aluminum skin is torn, I can't see how the poles would not hold the roof up though. I bet it is either the cables or the floor sagging like Cliff stated. Or maybe  something is wrong with the lifters. I know I have a problem with one, which refused to come down when we were coming back from our lsat trip, what a nightmare that was.

[Gone-Camping]

Hey Birol...did you have the stabilizers up or down when you were lowering the roof? Reason I ask, is my Coleman used to give me fits comeing down, and all I had to have was the tongue too low...if it wasn't level front to back, or if the stabilizers were down and putting pressure on the frame, the right rear lifter arm would bind up every time!! Took me a while to figure that one out too! (Yeah, sometimes I'm a slow learner...)

[birol]

Stabilizers were up as I had to jack them up real good to stop the frame from bowing out so that the door would close