Shadow Cruiser Roof

[popeyemth]

Have a new 1997 pop top I'm repairing and need help/suggestions on how to rotate the torsion bars to reattach the lift to the roof end. Does anyone know where to get a parts breakdown on this ? Unknown model but its an eight foot box 1997 model.
Thanks,Mike
Sorry the pic needs to be rotated clockwise

 

[dfrank]

Assuming those are the same Heco system as in my Skamper, I can tell you what worked for mine: get the roof in the up position with help from others if needed.

When its is up, the torsion spring should be near neutral or no load. Bolt it on level or square or whatever looks right. All the load is "sprung" as it lowers. The inside of that bar is hex shaped and if you can slide it out (to the rear), it is adjustable in 60 degree intervals, but it is unlikely that is ever moved, other than being wrong when at the bottom or closed position.

 

[popeyemth]

In the picture,the roof is raised all the way up. Both sides have the same angle but I'm not sure if its 60 degrees from level or not. It appears to be about 45 degrees from level. The raising system is rated to lift 150lbs and someone has added an AC unit that weighs 100lbs (both figures as per paperwork in the camper) I don't know why but the AC unit is at the very rear of the roof so I'm speculating it might be possible the brackets where turned to give a little more assist from the torsion bars.
Does this seem possible? That still leaves me the problem of installing the brackets.
Thanks,Mike

 

[dfrank]

Have both sides ripped out? From what i see, the flange that looks lower in the picture, should be twisted to our right. The other flange isnt shown, but is it not a 90 degre thing that will park tight to the side if you do that? It shouldn't need more than that. I'm no expert on these, but it would seem adding another 60 degrees would be asking for something to break.

Me rebuilt roof is heavier than the original. I compensated by adding gas shocks like you'd see on a hatchback to help lift the weight. If you are lifting an extra hundred elbows, you should have someone help dead-lift it while you crank the handle. Looks like you need to rebuild the wood perimeter entirely, maybe. Mine was rebuilt with double layers of 1/2" plywood rips that are about 6" tall. Its holding up pretty well.

If you search skamper roof rebuild, you can see what I did.

 

[SLO_F-250]

dfrank is correct. With the roof fully extended those springs should be unloaded. Looks to me like you'll need to patch/repair/rebuild the roof, connect and then crank that bad boy down!

I didnt have a ton of roof work like dfrank, but there might be some info in my skamper thread (in Sig) that would help you out.

Good luck, post picts too!

 

[popeyemth]

The picture is misleading because its rotated. The left side of the picture should be the top. The white expanse is the roof. The bracket did indeed rip out of the rotted edge/ sides of the roof but that wood has been replaced. With the top all the way up,as shown in the picture,the bracket that attaches to the roof edge is not horizontal or level with the plane of the body of the camper. There is no pressure on the torsion bars in the picture, the bracket can be "wiggled" but there is a lot of resistence to turning down toward horizontal. Both sides of the camper are identical. I'm not sure if the AC unit is original to the camper or not. The paperwork in the camper shows the lift system to have a CARGO capacity of 150 and the AC paperwork lists its installed weight as 100 lbs.
When I try to lower the roof from the position shown in the picture the bracket, being still attached to the torsion bar attempts to rotate up-through the roof. I'm nearly certain the plywood "edge" going around the roof is the original wood because it still has the rusted remains of staples in it.
I'm in KY with wind gusts of 55mph tonight so if the camper survives (i cant get it down without rotating the brackets) I guess I'll try to twist/force the bars to make the brackets horizontal to the body of the camper and bolt them down. I haven't tried force yet to twist them.
Any suggestions appreciated.
Thanks,Mike

 

[Bill_G_62439]

I TOTALLY rebuilt the roof on my Skamper this fall, so the procedure is pretty fresh in my mind. When I finished and came to the same point where you are with the torsion bars, I borrowed an idea from someone else and attached angle iron from a discarded bed frame to each torsion bar. Each piece was about 2 feet long. Then I bolted in a center piece to join the two. The leverage allowed me to twist the bars and brackets into position and a big benefit is that the strain is not directly on the roof now, but on the angle iron that connects the two together.

I hope this makes sense. I have some photos, but I think they are on my phone. I'll try to get them posted tomorrow.

 

[popeyemth]

Thanks very much Bill
Please do post your pictures
Thanks again,
Mike

 

[Bill_G_62439]

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. I posted the photos on the thread of my Skamper rebuild thread:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/79870-Yet-Another-Skamper-Build?p=1246792#post1246792

Hopefully it will at least explain how I did it. It sure took all the "twisting" stress off the roof. Good luck and hope you had a Merry Christmas!

 

[popeyemth]

Thanks very much,Bill
We did have a great Christmas visiting our newborn great niece in Iowa.
I have yet another question for you.
Did the angle iron you added cover the screw holes where the canvas attaches to the roof?
Hope you are having a good New Year
Thanks,Mike

 

[Bill_G_62439]

Hi Mike!

Yes, the angle iron did cover the screw holes. I was able to attach mine to the fresh 1/4" OSB sheeting I used when I rebuilt the roof. On a "stock" application, there is a 1 1/2" strip around the edge the screws are mounted to, so there's not much room for error. I believe in the original post I borrowed the idea from a steel strip was used, not angle iron.

I must confess that I have not completely reattached the sides to the roof at this point. Mine has turned into a much longer project than I anticipated.

 

[popeyemth]

"...Mine has turned into a much longer project than I anticipated.."
LOL don't they all! Mine has been put on hold due to winter because its outside and the older I get the less I like winter.
I'll study on a combination of flat stock and angle but I think I'll try the flat stock first.
The threads on adding lift cylinders to the roof look pretty tempting too because of the roof air on mine.
Thanks,Mike

 

[Stereo]

Twist assist

I'm curious if you've found a solution to re-aligning the brackets. I have the same task ahead of me. I've looked at others' projects but they involved complete rebuilds so the roof could be moved out of the way in order to attach extensions to the brackets at an upwards angle and pull the extensions down to load the torsion bar inside the lifter bar. (OK, totally Greek in words. See the latest dialogue with photos in Bill's thread: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/79870-Yet-Another-Skamper-Build/page4?highlight=roof

Your project looks similar to mine in that you might be only replacing the back board so the roof is in the way. If you're a welder, one guy on a different forum suggested spot welding a hex nut onto the bracket plate, then using a torque wrench on the nut to pull down and re-align the bracket. Pictures here: http://s1076.beta.photobucket.com/user/niftypkg/media/Roofrepair009.jpg.html?sort=3&o=6"

If there are extra holes in your brackets, another person suggested using them to attach a piece of flat bar to provide a handle that you can pull down on.

However we figure to get the brackets re-aligned, the key to preventing a recurrence of the problem seems to be to tie the two brackets together with a length of metal so the brackets can't work their way up through the plywood and splay upwards again.

 

[Bill_G_62439]

Even though I was able remove my roof, I've been scratching my head for a solution to avoid removing the roof. I like the idea of welding a nut (I would use a large one) to the bracket. That is the same way idler pulleys on modern serpentine belt systems work on today's engines. Great idea!

An alternative method would be to cut a 1/2" square hole in the bracket so you could insert a 1/2"drive breaker bar directly in the hole instead.

Good luck and keep sharing those good ideas!

 

[Stereo]

Square hole?

An alternative method would be to cut a 1/2" square hole in the bracket so you could insert a 1/2"drive breaker bar directly in the hole instead.

Thanks, Bill. How would a person go about cutting a precise square hole in metal?