Broken Cable / Removing Motorized Winch

[maccve]

Hello all, last night I got my Palomino Traverse Sequoia out for the first time this year and was going to set it up and let it air out and get ready for a camping trip next weekend. Anyway, as I raising the roof with the motorized winch, it was just about to the maximum height when the winch made a loud pop and and the cable snapped sending it crashing down. I had to hook up the end of the cable to my vehicle winch to raise it up enough to stuff everything back in, which I was able to do.

I have only owned this camper for a little over a year and have never felt comfortable with the motorized winch...after numerous calls and emails this morning to my dealer and the lift system manufacturer (Goshen)...I think I have decided to remove the motorized lift and install a hand crank sometime in the near future.

My dealer is 6 hours away and any local dealers will not work on it under warranty since I did not buy from them, so I have decided to fix the cable myself. A very nice lady from Goshen was very helpful in getting the part ordered and talking me through the process of replacement. She indicated that they will not warranty the lift system if a motorized winch is used as it is the reason for 90% of broken cables...

Has anyone else removed their motorized winch and installed a hand crank winch and if so, what kind of winch did you install? I don't mean to scare anyone, but just wanted to share....

[f5moab]

I was told that regardless of a motorized lift or not, the warranty is still viable on the lift system. The motorized winch assembly only carries a one-year warranty if I remember correctly. But the lift system is lifetime and that is from Forest River. Whether or not Forest River receives reimbursement from Goshen is their problem; not mine. If I have to ever pay first and get reimbursed that is also ok.

My second time using the unit, my winch motor's main gear destroyed itself. MY dealer was in Denver, I was in Moab UT. A dealer in Grand Junction CO did the repair and I received a check from Forest River about a week after submitting the paid in full bill via email.

I have been warned by the dealer and it is even in the owner's manual, that general maintenance (lubricating the cables with grease at the two zerk lube fittings under the trailer, and adding oil to the spring tube) MUST be done to keep the warranty valid and it is easy to note if this maintenance is not performed.

From the manual:

Crank-up Lift system
To help protect your Limited Warranty, you must perform general maintenance
and regular inspections. Failure to provide proper service maintenance is easily
recognized, as it is reflected in the condition of your camper.

inspect and Service yearly

1. Clean and recoat lifter posts externally, with a rust prohibitive, non-drying lubricant.
2. Annually grease zerks on front, bottom and top of master tube.
3. Lubricate springs annually by raising the roof to the UP position. At each segment of the telescoping post, lubricate with 30 weight oil, taking care to inject the oil into the opening between the posts. To help avoid tent damage, immediately remove any excess oil on the external portion of the post.

As for installing a hand crank, I have wondered about that, since if the motor fails it is now out of warranty, but I have talked to people who have over 5 years on their winches and still going. But if (or should I say when) it fails, I will seriously consider a hand crank method. I have seen many use it and it does not appear to be hard to do.

Can't you just install the standard hand winch that comes with some units from the plant? Since dealers add the power winch onto trailers all the time, they must have a supply of hand winch assemblies laying around somewhere.

In fact...first item under FRAME in the parts area for Roberts Sales in Denver. Manual winch is $112.00
Commonly Used Parts for Flagstaff Pop-up Trailers | Roberts Sales

And if you convert to a manual winch....PLEASE take plenty of photos and some good instructions for us, who may follow in your footsteps someday.

[cabranch47]

I have seen post concerning the three zerk fittings but have only found two (too and bottom) on the master tube. Have I missed one somehow?

[f5moab]

No. I called the dealer about this and he confirmed there are two. I guess years ago, there were three, but three were not needed so they dropped it down to two.

[vinmaker]

I do not understand this.

Lubricate springs annually by raising the roof to the UP position. At each segment of the telescoping post, lubricate with 30 weight oil, taking care to inject the oil into the opening between the posts. To help avoid tent damage, immediately remove any excess oil on the external portion of the post.

Can someone explain? If the roof is up, where are the holes in the telescoping post to lubricate? Are they saying to keep the post lubricated or are they suggesting you try to oil the springs within the telescoping poles? I remember the poles being solid so as to keep little fingers out of the working parts and keep the oily spring contained.

[f5moab]

Again, I believe it might have been an old design. When the roof raised, I squirt some dry lubricant on the segments of the corner posts, making sure to get it inside the posts. Usually enough play to move them slightly to shoot the lube into and down the segments.
I also use a large piece of cardboard between the posts and the tent fabric.

I also drop the spring conduits down at each corner and, with a small oil can, squirt 30W oil into the conduit to help lubricate the internal spring on each corner.

[vinmaker]

"I also drop the spring conduits down at each corner and, with a small oil can, squirt 30W oil into the conduit to help lubricate the internal spring on each corner."

Yes. I will need to do this also. It is also how I understand to lubricate the springs. Never heard of the telescoping post method (if it is even still valid).

I noticed on my new unit that 30W oil leaches out of the conduit. So it was filled up by the factory nicely.

Vin.

[f5moab]

Don't you have flat telescoping poles at each corner, that raise the Roof?

[vinmaker]

Yes. They are rectangular in shape. I think all the FR pop up's use the same one. Ours should be the same.

[maccve]

For those that are faced with a broken lift cable like I had and need an emergency fix, here is what I ended up doing...these are wire rope clips with thimbles. I had just enough cable left on the winch to install these. I had to remove the front bracket and roller as they would not fit though it... and then I had to grab the cable as it passed the front frame and pull it down to keep it from snagging. However, it lifted the top perfectly! It just barely rolled onto the winch based upon the break location. THIS IS NOT A PERMANENT SOLUTION!

FYI...I should receive my new cable tomorrow from Goshen. I also ended up ordering a hand crank winch and handle and another spare cable from them after ordering the cable initially. I will post pictures when I install them.

The only reason I installed the temporary fix is because my youngest daughter and I were going out of town for a soccer tournament and we were going to camp for the weekend, but it looks like those plans are nixed as a big storm is moving in for the weekend...now I can do the permanent fix next week!

[vinmaker]

Great idea. Thank you for posting that.

I am sure to remember that in case I ever have a broken cable.

This of course will only work if the break is further away from the winch or there is enough line on the winch to back off so you can get the repair far from the winch. Once you start pulling, it can only travel so far until it hits the spool. that the spool will not like the repair at all. lol.

Vin.

[f5moab]

Good info. Keep us up to date on the manual lift install.

[maccve]

I received my shipments from Goshen today. I originally ordered just the cable and it shipped first. FYI, Goshen just started accepting credit cards a few weeks ago, so if it is a smaller order and they can ship by parcel post, they will accept a credit card. It was $27 to get the cable by itself which includes shipping.

I then, the next day decided to order the winch and handle. The winch appears to be basically a Dutton Lainson 1200 winch which has been modified by Goshen to accept the big square tube handle. Because the winch and handle were so big they had to ship via UPS which means on top of the shipping costs, you have to pay something like $12.50 for Cash on Delivery service and then give the UPS guy (or gal) a check when they make the delivery, which I did today. I also thought since I was paying for shipping anyway, why not have them send another cable to have a spare on hand! Anyway, it was $103.94 for the winch, handle and cable shipped to me....not bad considering the winch by itself goes for about $80 plus on ebay!

I will not be able to install until next week as I have to leave early in the morning for a 2.5 hour drive for a soccer tournament...we cancelled camping for the tournament, though, due to the threat of heavy storms and the fact the games may be cancelled....Here are some pictures!

[maccve]

After my daughters' soccer tournament got rained out Saturday, I spent Saturday afternoon replacing the lift cable on my Palomino Traverse Sequoia. I took lots of pictures, but there are so many other threads on how to replace these cables if you google search, I will not take the time to show a lot of detail. The worst part of the process on mine was having to remove the water tank...it really needs to be removed before dropping the rear springs. Then, there is a LOT of grease to make a mess if you are not careful, but the whole process went pretty good!

Basically you just remove the rear spring tubes and pull the rear spring completely out, then they tell you to cut the cable so you can attach the new one to it and pull it to the front....this is very difficult if you do not have the right tools...I did not have the right tools...anyway, I found that the new cable is stiff enough to push it though to the front...especially with all the lubrication inside the main tube, but if you can easily cut the cable, do it and tape the new one to the end of the old one and pull the new one through.

Once you get it pulled though, you then wrap it around the rear pulley and then insert the rear spring plate and cable and then put it all back together..then get out the grease gun and refill the zerk fittings full of grease. Unfortunately, after this step, my fun ended as I went to the front to get ready to connect it to the winch and found that my cable was too short...

After cleaning the red grease off of the old cable, I found that it had purple paint on it (all of the Goshen cables are color coded)...the cable they sent me was black and white...Claudia at Goshen took good care of me this morning and promptly sent me the proper cables, they should be here tomorrow so I can re-do the installation and maybe use the camper this weekend for another soccer tournament! In her defense, I have a Palomino Traverse Sequoia...this "Traverse" line of pop ups were only a couple year run and are kind of a limited edition, so there is not a lot of information on them...she did call Palomino to verify everything though and updated their database...

At this point, I decided to remove the electric winch...I will tell about that in another post.... If anyone has questions about this replacement feel free to ask and I will try to better explain or add more pictures...

[maccve]

I finally had a couple of free hours this evening before I leave in the morning for another out of town soccer tournament. I had received the replacement cables for the replacement cables earlier in the week and decided to take it all apart again and smother myself in grease to do another cable replacement. If you have never done this you will find that Dawn dish washing soap is you best friend as you will be smothered in grease....

I am happy to report that this cable was the correct size! It got dark on me before I could hook it up to the winch and raise the top plus I had lots of packing to do for the rest of the weekend so I stopped the install for now.

I borrowed some ramps this time from a buddy to get the camper up a little higher off the ground. Made working underneath it much more comfortable!

I cannot wait to get the manual winch hooked up and see how it lifts the top...if it is too tough I may be hooking up the electric one again...we will see....

[maccve]

Finally found time to finish the installation of the manual winch last night. It was a little tricky to hook the cable to the winch just because the cable is so thick and is hard to bend. I basically made a 2.5" loop and taped it with electrical tape to hold it. Then I took some vice grips and squeezed the end to put a bend in it that would stay and was finally able to attach the nut and holder and then torque it down good.

After that it was just put on the handle and start cranking! I was amazed at how easy it was to crank up. As a matter of fact, I was watching the cable wind onto the reel to make sure it was not binding or anything and thought I better check my green wire and was surprised to see it was already at the top! Going down is even easier and it does not make the clicking noise.

The manual winch is very good at holding the roof. You can stop cranking...either up or down and it holds the roof in place at that spot. I honestly do not see why a motorized winch is needed other than a marketing gimmick. I feel so much more comfortable with this set-up than I ever did with the motorized winch. I have another soccer tournament next weekend and the plan it so camp so hopefully I will get to try it out again...unfortunately they are calling for rain again... I don't mind camping in the rain, just don't want to drive there hauling the camper if the tournament is getting rained out....we shall see.

I finished up by taking the plastic cover from the old electric winch and used a hole saw to drill a hole in the side for the handle...I could probably buy one made for it, but this will work for now. The bottom cover that protected the electric winch will not fit as this winch hangs lower.

[f5moab]

As I just finished adjusting the max height adjustment on my electric winch, I agree with you. When it goes, it will be replaced with a manual winch. Just too darn much maintenance for something that, like you said, is probably a gimmick.

[Buffalo2VA]

I replaced the entire lift system on my old coachman it was also a Goshen. I don't think they have changed this system much since the early 70s. As far as the temp repair be very careful I have used that once in a pinch when cable snapped on a trip to the OBX if you going to use that temp repair make sure you have you hurricane bars or a brace in place because that cable could slip at anytime and cause serious injury to anyone inside. My suggestion is always carry extra cable you can order it directly from Goshen it's really not that hard to do just make sure have some tools. A little preplanning and a few spare parts go a long way especially with a popup. Good luck !

[OutOfTheTent]

Thank you!!! Amazingly helpful. Ordered our manual winch, handle, and spare cable today, though have to wait for tomorrow to pay, as shipping must be calculated.

[f5moab]

How long is the crank handle? I'm getting ready to order a hand crank winch; however, want to make sure the crank handle extends out past the propane tanks, or else I might not be able to use it. Not sure, so does anyone have a size on the handle?