Winch plate "fail" on Rockwood Freedom 1980

[timmytinut]

Rockwood Freedom 1980

Hello all,

Sorry, long post...

We have had our winch plate "collapse" twice now and we bought our PUP new in early March. On the initial fail, what happened was that the switch stopped working and upon further review I saw that the plate have given way and the lug nut to manually crank the top was not accessible. I would guess that the plate collapsed at least 4-5". The dealership was able to cover under warranty and I swore up and down that I never attempted to open the top with a clamp still closed. We had only taken it out on one trip at that point. I did explain that once the top had seemed to be fully lifted that the winch continued to crank and make some awful noises and I expect that this was the reason for the issue and we never noticed. On our initial walk through the person at the dealership lifted the roof and we heard the noise then as well and we were told that was normal. The dealership did an amazing job of getting us in and fixed in 2.5 hours which saved out weekend vacation plans over Memorial Day.
Well, wouldn't you know it that when we left the dealership for the camp site I left one clamp closed, I flipped the switch and immediately, I mean within a half a second, I noticed resistance and stopped. I looked down to see that the plate gave away once again, but this time not nearly as bad as the previous occurrence but it dropped about 1.5"-2". I called the dealership, I owned up to the fact that this one was likely on me. This time the warranty will not cover so we are going to be out around $450 for the repair.

My question, is there any chance that there is an issue with the winch itself? The mechanic that fixed it the first time showed my wife that when he flipped the switched with the clamps closed that the motor stopped, that did not happen for me. He mentioned adjusting the tension. I was not there for that conversation with my wife so I have to trust what she told me. The roof would not raise the entire way any longer so we have had some issues with our door properly fitting and I sometimes have to lift the roof by pushing up the brackets to get them to fit in. By the mechanic mentioning that he adjusted the tension I wonder if that was truly a manufacturer's defect that continues.

I understand that this "fail" is very much in place to keep us safe but it seemed to give away quite quickly the second time and it was never noticed the first time.

TIA for your opinions.

[Mike91]

I've heard that creaking noise as well right at the limit where the lift height inspection wire is tight enough to fit the front door inbetween the camper and the roof.

It's not healthy sounding for sure, but no issues yet. Not reassuring to hear yet another story of these things crumpling. I've read a few on here and I honestly don't know what the outcome was.

Try doing a search.

Good luck.

[Amartin453]

Originally Posted by timmytinut

Rockwood Freedom 1980



Hello all,



Sorry, long post...



We have had our winch plate "collapse" twice now and we bought our PUP new in early March. On the initial fail, what happened was that the switch stopped working and upon further review I saw that the plate have given way and the lug nut to manually crank the top was not accessible. I would guess that the plate collapsed at least 4-5". The dealership was able to cover under warranty and I swore up and down that I never attempted to open the top with a clamp still closed. We had only taken it out on one trip at that point. I did explain that once the top had seemed to be fully lifted that the winch continued to crank and make some awful noises and I expect that this was the reason for the issue and we never noticed. On our initial walk through the person at the dealership lifted the roof and we heard the noise then as well and we were told that was normal. The dealership did an amazing job of getting us in and fixed in 2.5 hours which saved out weekend vacation plans over Memorial Day.

Well, wouldn't you know it that when we left the dealership for the camp site I left one clamp closed, I flipped the switch and immediately, I mean within a half a second, I noticed resistance and stopped. I looked down to see that the plate gave away once again, but this time not nearly as bad as the previous occurrence but it dropped about 1.5"-2". I called the dealership, I owned up to the fact that this one was likely on me. This time the warranty will not cover so we are going to be out around $450 for the repair.



My question, is there any chance that there is an issue with the winch itself? The mechanic that fixed it the first time showed my wife that when he flipped the switched with the clamps closed that the motor stopped, that did not happen for me. He mentioned adjusting the tension. I was not there for that conversation with my wife so I have to trust what she told me. The roof would not raise the entire way any longer so we have had some issues with our door properly fitting and I sometimes have to lift the roof by pushing up the brackets to get them to fit in. By the mechanic mentioning that he adjusted the tension I wonder if that was truly a manufacturer's defect that continues.



I understand that this "fail" is very much in place to keep us safe but it seemed to give away quite quickly the second time and it was never noticed the first time.



TIA for your opinions.

I’ve seen and replied to a couple similar post, all dealing with the winch system that operates lowering and raising the roof.

First, the cranking and loud banging sounds you hear as you raise and lower the roof is normal. You can grease/silicone the roof rails it may decrease the noise a little, it did for me.

Regarding the Carefree Winch System that came with my 2016 Rockwood 2516g. It’s not made very well. The following are the issues I had:

The roof began to slip down after it was raised all the way up (clutch gear paper gasket went bad).

The winch systems randomly stopped raising and lowering (bad switch, replaced twice)

The winch systems randomly stopped raising and lowering AGAIN, (this time bad relays).

The roof not going up enough to set and lock in the door (limit switch needed to be adjusted).

The CareFree winch manual will explain exactly how to adjust it.


Hope this helps,
AM

[cupsz71]

Originally Posted by Amartin453

I’ve seen and replied to a couple similar post, all dealing with the winch system that operates lowering and raising the roof.

First, the cranking and loud banging sounds you hear as you raise and lower the roof is normal. You can grease/silicone the roof rails it may decrease the noise a little, it did for me.

Regarding the Carefree Winch System that came with my 2016 Rockwood 2516g. It’s not made very well. The following are the issues I had:

The roof began to slip down after it was raised all the way up (clutch gear paper gasket went bad).

The winch systems randomly stopped raising and lowering (bad switch, replaced twice)

The winch systems randomly stopped raising and lowering AGAIN, (this time bad relays).

The roof not going up enough to set and lock in the door (limit switch needed to be adjusted).

The CareFree winch manual will explain exactly how to adjust it.


Hope this helps,
AM

X2!!!!

Mine "sneaks" back a bit when I release the UP switch after I tweaked the limit settings and replaced the main switch
I also just replaced the missing 40amp fuse in-line to the battery
Re-crimped/soldered a bad ground on the winch solenoid block
Tightened all the connections
AND added di-electric grease to all connections.

Fingers crossed my roof goes UP/DOWN now without further issues.

[BamaPopup]

We have also had our winch plate fail twice. We purchased our pop-up used a few months ago. We own a 2018 Forest River Flagstaff 228BHSE. Prior to purchasing it from the previous owners, we noticed that the winch made a god awful sound when it was the roof was being raised and lowered. After we had purchased the pop-up, the very first time we attempted to raise the roof, the winch stopped working. We removed the winch cover and discovered that the winch plate was bent and had lowered itself by almost 4 inches due to the torque of the winch. We were forced to pay a welder almost $600.00 to repair the broken winch plate. I feel like the design of the winch plate is clearly a flaw on behalf of Forest River and that plate wasn’t designed to hold up under the torque of the winch cable.

[timmytinut]

Frustrating update:

We made it through the season and watched as the plate continued to lower more and more. I took the PUP into the dealer on Sept 11 and we got it back Oct 13th. Sure enough, the first time that I raised the top the winch plate failed by about an inch. I took a picture, sent it to the dealership along with a video of me lifting the top 2 more times. Each time as the top neared being all the way up the plate again bent and now I have about a 1.5" gap between the plate and the plastic cover.

Their response: "I'm not seeing any issues with the winch in this video, the bolts on the plate aren't moving at all, the winch sounds good. Seems to be operating as designed."

I feel like this is going to drag on, time to go KAREN on them.