Mid 90's(?) Viking pop-up Rebuild

[GJGoltz]

Hello everyone! I'm new to this forum-- and new to truck campers in general. This is my first one! Just drove it home, and starting to come up with a game plan on my rebuild. I have been a carpenter for many years, and I've renovated quite a few old houses, so I'm not new to the world of renovation. I'm CERTAINLY willing to get my hands dirty and put in the hard work. I want this thing to be tailor made for my specific needs, as it will be taking me into the back-country of my Colorado mountains so I can go mountain biking.

Seeing as this is my first camper though, I'm going to probably have a million and one questions as I go. First of which-- I'm finding it impossible to find any info on this pop-up. Does anyone have any kind of info or can you link me to a site that might have an owners manual pdf?

Thanks for checking out my build thread, I'm more than excited to get underway!

 

[GJGoltz]

So my first problem has already popped up-- the crank arm for the HECO lift system is stripped. Plus, the plastic guides that hold the tracks in place are brittle and broken in places. After having priced replacement parts to rebuild the HECO system, I've decided to do a new D.I.Y. system. I'll probably do something with conduit push bars and gas struts, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

 

[schmugboy]

Had a coworker who was going to sell me his old Pop-up that also had a malfunctioning HECO. When I didn't buy, he started researching the 12V electric jacks, making a system similar to Alaskan (Hydraulic) or what you can get on a Hallmark. It wasn't cheap, nor unobtrusive, but maybe it would be worth consideration. How much could the parts be for some plastic and a new crank arm?

 

[GJGoltz]

Had a coworker who was going to sell me his old Pop-up that also had a malfunctioning HECO. When I didn't buy, he started researching the 12V electric jacks, making a system similar to Alaskan (Hydraulic) or what you can get on a Hallmark. It wasn't cheap, nor unobtrusive, but maybe it would be worth consideration. How much could the parts be for some plastic and a new crank arm?

It looks like abput $75 for each track, then $35 for the crank. My other problem with the HECO system is just how dangerous the thing feels. I really just want to replace it with something with less breakable/hard to find parts. Something more manual.

 

[kerry]

I've got the Heco system and like it. I don't think it's dangerous at all and I've been using it for 11 years. I often raise the roof on our TS1000 with two canoes on top of it. Those gears tend to strip out so I keep a spare around Also the original Heco handle is too short for good leverage when there's a load on the roof so I converted an old sailboat winch handle into a crank handle. You can buy the geared portion without the handle. I think I got mine on Ebay. The Heco system has a spring inside the tubing to help the lift. That's probably why the right corner of your roof is broken as there's a fair amount of torsion on the bars in the down position causing the attachments at the back of the roof to sometime fail once the wood starts rotting.