what goes up..... must come down? not this time...

[01YZF6]

When I lower it, the top comes down real slow, and there is almost no resistance from cranking down...

the street side front lift arm wont lower down evenly with the other 3, it stays UP, and I have to wiggle it with applied pressure for it to lower on its own....

 Earlier today, before I reinstalled the roof, I cranked the arms up, lubricated the cables and pullies, sprayed down the lift arms slots, and underneath the camper as well....

so what is going on?  I cant find my pdf version of the liftarm system manual, and all the cables are in tact, no frays, all pullies are seated and fine....

Help?!

thanks !

[rccs]

What brand of camper would help with a reply to your question. Different brands have different lift systems.

[01YZF6]

sorry, it is a 87' Coleman Newport.....

so I popped it up this morning, no problem, setup nice and smooth.......  went to close it down, and same thing.  the street side front lift arm does not come down freely......  had to crank a bit, wiggle and lower the corner manually.  every few cranks, do the same thing, until the roof was closed...... I even crawled underneath in between to see if a cable was hooking on something or off track... looked just like the other 3 corners....

I am lost as to the cause of the problem.....

[SpeakEasy]

I would check the offending post to see if it is perfectly vertical. It seems to me that if it were "off" by just a bit, it could lead to what you're describing. I don't know what I'd do if I found it to be "off" vertical, but that is the next place I would explore if I were in your shoes.

-Speak

[01YZF6]

well I just went out and tried again to figure out what the problem is..... this time the roof came down 3/4 of the way easily, then that corner hung up again.  raising it up and down a few more times, same results.  I cant see where it is binding up, and the cables seem to be traveling normally....

all the lift posts are level, I even tried moving the PuP to a completely different spot, releveled, and setup again...... same results...3/4 of the way down it hangs up on that one corner....

[waterdoctor]

well I just went out and tried again to figure out what the problem is..... this time the roof came down 3/4 of the way easily, then that corner hung up again. raising it up and down a few more times, same results. I cant see where it is binding up, and the cables seem to be traveling normally....
 
all the lift posts are level, I even tried moving the PuP to a completely different spot, releveled, and setup again...... same results...3/4 of the way down it hangs up on that one corner....

Seeing that you have a Coleman (I have one also) I had a similar type of thing happen a couple of times: I got in too much of a hurry breaking camp and didn't pull the stabilizers up before popping down. Other postings here have discussed the procedure of when to drop and retract the stabilizers in the course of raising and lowering the roof. I'm convinced that with the Coleman PUP's, at least, you have to make sure to level the PUP but don't drop the stabilizers until the roof is up when opening up. For take down, make sure to retract the stabilizers before popping the roof down. I found that the frame was twisting just the slightest bit when the stabilizers were down and that caused one of the posts to bind a bit. I hope this helps.
 
Happy Camping:-()
 
Steve

[01YZF6]

thanks Doc....

I am religious about setup/breakdown procedures, but can not for thelife of me figure out why this is happening....  oh well, back to try and figure this out before it storms today....

[coach]

Coleman Lift System Repair Manual

[01YZF6]

awesome !  thanks Coach for the manual !

still having the same issue.... I am going to take the lift arm nuts of the top of the posts and replace them with nylon nuts ( to reduce vibrating off during travel) and keep them 1/4 inch from snug....

[coach]

Glad to share a link that has been shared with me.

Ya think it is that lift post acting up or the cabling?

Does pushing down on that corner lower it?

[01YZF6]

yes when I wiggle and pressure the corner it comes down....

gt something else in mind? I am thinking the nuts being too tight is keeping the roof from floating a bit.  maybe causing the arms to bind?  even though I barely snugged them and backed off a 1/4 turn

[4Campers]

Here's a link to try too.

http://www.customcylindersintinc.com/camper_trailer_roof_lift_system.htm

[01YZF6]

awesome link!  thanks 4campers !