2012 Rockwood Freedom winch problem

[kaustk61]

I have a tent trailer I purchased in march. it has a motorized winch which always made a catching sound going up or down. this weekend the winch stopped about 3/4 the way down. it goes up sorta but makes no noise when switched to down. I have been using it since I bought it and its been fine except for the big clunk noise. Any ideas on its problem before I fork out $$$$ for repairs or shoot it?

[Trevor43]

The clunking sound could be the cable finding it's place on the reel. Has any maintenance been done on the winch and/or lift system? Those still use the old worm drive style winch.

[kaustk61]

there has been none done by me and only a checkover at the dealers

[Trevor43]

Search on this site for lift and winch maintenance........it's been gone over hundreds of times.

[f5moab]

If top is going down, the cable is unrolling from the drum. If I'm understanding correctly, the top won't go down? Need to pull a cover and see if the lower limit switch is ok.

[kaustk61]

it stopped 3/4 way down and died. We did remove cover and found one of the screws on the lower limit switch side had been sheared off and the plate? did not appear in correct position, at least compared to picture in owner manual. I was finally able to manually lower roof so that I can take it to service next week and hope for the best. I wonder if it would be better to see if it can be changed to a manual lift only. do you know if that might be possible or practical?

[f5moab]

I'm changing mine from a power to a manual, probably next month. And I've taken great care of the unit. Cleaned every year, packed in fresh grease every year and added when necessary. But it had troubles from the first camping trip and has started to make some very disturbing noises when being raised.
So, before it happens, I plan on pulling it off, and installing a manual winch.