What hold the roof skin to the frame on my Northstar Pop Up

[cuttyy]

Torsion bars

Inside the lift there are steel rods with hex cut ends that go into the rear brackets . they are relaxed when fully extended I'm told. They aid in the lifting capabilities. I took mine out My roof goes up with ease without them. I also have a Skamper 080s (for sale) and it goes up a little stiffer but no big deal. I was a little gun shy at first with the Skamper when my handle slipped ,now I just stay low when raising either roof.

My North stars roof frame is Lap jointed 1/2 " marine ply ( marine has more layers of ply) 1/2" ply doubled= 1" x 3 1/2" rips with staggered joints on roof edge and top there is a space between plywood on roofs flat surface and side surface to allow Aluminum to roll over ( Am I making sense). this 1 to 1 1/2 space was filled with foam.. There is very little wood in the field . the field is filled with 1" foam board glued to the Aluminum skin . the inside ceiling luan is glued to the foam.

Scraping the old broken foam of the aluminum was not difficult, but it was on there. The manufactures' glue had a green tint . I went with vinyl flooring glue I had lying around to glue foam to aluminum skin. The ply frame I used Liquid nail and stapled.

My rear brackets took a beating I managed to straighten them into working order . they also pulled on one side I went with new plywood on inside . cut my lifts an 1/2 " shorter and used 5200 marine caulk and large washers to seal. Thanks for the pic edit

 

[kerry]

I'm not clear on one point. Is there plywood on the flat surface of the roof in the center or is there a series of 'joists' made from the plywood with the aluminum and foam spanning the joists and nothing else? I've seen people walk on top of their camper roof and I've wondered what is supporting them in the middle? Given my lack of knowledge about the roof construction, I bolted my roof racks to the rim of the roof since I could see that the rim was strong and capable of carrying a lot of weight. I do know other people with a rack mounted on the flat surface of the roof a few feet in from the edge and I've wondered about the load carrying capacity of the roof in that location.

 

[cuttyy]

No joists only foam

No wood in the center (field) only foam. you can see on my previous pics I added doubled ply 3" strips running front to back about 16" in from each edge.
one piece was already partially in place, but this was for my over dinette cabinet, I simply continued it to the front incorporating the new roof vent framing . That is where there was a tear in the aluminum skin. I am toying with the idea of a crowned aluminum tube like emt conduit over upper bunk to add some extra run off to the flat roof.

Skamper just left (sold) down to one again, but what an upgrade she is. more bracket pics...

 

[kerry]

Crowned roof would be a good idea in my view. I'd be inclined to add side to side joists made out of plywood like yours, cut with a crown.

 

[presh223]

Which hinge is broken? My roof raises pretty easily. I raise it with two or three boats on top. I did design a longer handled crank--a sailboat winch handle. The OE crank is way too short.

Thats a good idea to exploit leverage. I may try that. I think the difficulty is primarily due to the broken hinge. Smart thinking about it being an accident, it had to of been.

 

[presh223]

Inside the lift there are steel rods with hex cut ends that go into the rear brackets . they are relaxed when fully extended I'm told. They aid in the lifting capabilities. I took mine out My roof goes up with ease without them. I also have a Skamper 080s (for sale) and it goes up a little stiffer but no big deal. I was a little gun shy at first with the Skamper when my handle slipped ,now I just stay low when raising either roof.

My North stars roof frame is Lap jointed 1/2 " marine ply ( marine has more layers of ply) 1/2" ply doubled= 1" x 3 1/2" rips with staggered joints on roof edge and top there is a space between plywood on roofs flat surface and side surface to allow Aluminum to roll over ( Am I making sense). this 1 to 1 1/2 space was filled with foam.. There is very little wood in the field . the field is filled with 1" foam board glued to the Aluminum skin . the inside ceiling luan is glued to the foam.

Scraping the old broken foam of the aluminum was not difficult, but it was on there. The manufactures' glue had a green tint . I went with vinyl flooring glue I had lying around to glue foam to aluminum skin. The ply frame I used Liquid nail and stapled.

My rear brackets took a beating I managed to straighten them into working order . they also pulled on one side I went with new plywood on inside . cut my lifts an 1/2 " shorter and used 5200 marine caulk and large washers to seal. Thanks for the pic edit

Did you use marine ply when reassembling or regular? Isn't it considerably heavier?

 

[cuttyy]

Did you use marine ply when reassembling or regular? Isn't it considerably heavier?

Used 1/2" marine ply 3 1/2" rips doubled I think I used 1 and a half sheets .( not heavy like pressure treated ply) put roof back on with little effort when rebuilt.

Plywood is only along the edges .