How to lift that roof with a broken Goshen Lift System...

[Nandy]

First of all, I would like to meet the engineer that decided to put the cranking system inside of the camper so when the winch breaks you need an army of people to raise that camper so you can get to the winch that needs replacement... How smart, I bet he thought he engineered that winch so good it would never break...

Ok, there are some other things to mention before we continue... If you raise your roof using this method be sure to have supports for the roof before getting inside the camper to work. This method could fail at any time dropping the 300 plus roof on you, even if it dont squeeze you to death or suffocate you to death it could break your neck.. Just saying...

Material:
10 feet 1/4 inch steel wire rope $7.00
3 Wire Rope Clamp $4.00 (maybe)

Choke your camper, big chokes, not the small crap here...

Get under the camper, making sure it is secured. Locate the main cable and secured to the cable you got with at least 2 clamps. I made a loop on the further away clamp to make it more secure or at least it felt that way to me.

Get out from under the camper and get the other end and make a loop with the remaining clamp or if you like use a second clamp as well. Put that loop around the hitch.

Make sure all the latches are off then slowly start driving forward, inch by inch, paying attention to the roof, the camper and listening for any alarming sounds... after you see the roof starts to raise a few inches and the camper has not moved put the car in parking and check the steel rope. It it is too close to the camper frame like mine was you might have to go slowly as the clamps can catch on the frame:

I used a 2x4 to create clearance but a lower hitch would have make it.

Once you reach enough high to work on the winch place supports on all 4 corners of the roof, let a bit of the rope tension go slack so the roof rest in the supports. I would leave the cable connected to the TV just in case... Do whatever work you need to do, then raise the roof an inch again with the TV, remove the supports then slowly let the rope pull the TV towards the camper as the roof comes down. Stop a few times to fix the canvas, use a plastic tube or something, remember, that cable could snap any time or come loose trapping your hands. The last few inches of the roof you might have to engage the reverse in your TV to let the rope slack.

Good luck, be careful...

 

[Dubbya]

Seems easy enough, there's more than one way to skin a cat and I'm glad it worked out for ya but I can't imagine any scenario that would prompt me to try that.

My thinking is that if the the winch broke or there's some other issue somewhere else in the lift system that led to the lift system failure, how would you know? Pulling it with the tow vehicle might get the roof up but there seems to be a greater chance of incurring more damage to parts that might be expensive, hard to come by or that simply require a ton of work to repair/replace. The truck just doesn't sense resistance the same way an operator does while cranking or lifting the roof manually.

I'd really recommend that you lift the roof manually, one corner at a time, a few inches at a time and brace it using 1-1/2" sequentially longer sections of ABS or PVC pipe between the roof edge and the tops of the sidewalls until all four corners of the roof are at full height. You can this in about 5-10 minutes and it'll be more than steady enough to camp in all summer. Ask me how I know.

More info and pics here:
http://www.popupportal.com/index.php?topic=56892#msg562143

 

[Nandy]

More info and pics here:
http://www.popupportal.com/index.php?topic=56892#msg562143

Nah, not interested on that specially when I know the problem is the winch AND I have no one else to help raising a heavy roof.... But glad it works for you.

 

[Ryan Davidson]

First of all, I would like to meet the engineer that decided to put the cranking system inside of the camper so when the winch breaks you need an army of people to raise that camper so you can get to the winch that needs replacement... How smart, I bet he thought he engineered that winch so good it would never break...

Ok, there are some other things to mention before we continue... If you raise your roof using this method be sure to have supports for the roof before getting inside the camper to work. This method could fail at any time dropping the 300 plus roof on you, even if it dont squeeze you to death or suffocate you to death it could break your neck.. Just saying...

Material:
10 feet 1/4 inch steel wire rope $7.00
3 Wire Rope Clamp $4.00 (maybe)

Choke your camper, big chokes, not the small crap here...

Get under the camper, making sure it is secured. Locate the main cable and secured to the cable you got with at least 2 clamps. I made a loop on the further away clamp to make it more secure or at least it felt that way to me.

Get out from under the camper and get the other end and make a loop with the remaining clamp or if you like use a second clamp as well. Put that loop around the hitch.

Make sure all the latches are off then slowly start driving forward, inch by inch, paying attention to the roof, the camper and listening for any alarming sounds... after you see the roof starts to raise a few inches and the camper has not moved put the car in parking and check the steel rope. It it is too close to the camper frame like mine was you might have to go slowly as the clamps can catch on the frame:

I used a 2x4 to create clearance but a lower hitch would have make it.

Once you reach enough high to work on the winch place supports on all 4 corners of the roof, let a bit of the rope tension go slack so the roof rest in the supports. I would leave the cable connected to the TV just in case... Do whatever work you need to do, then raise the roof an inch again with the TV, remove the supports then slowly let the rope pull the TV towards the camper as the roof comes down. Stop a few times to fix the canvas, use a plastic tube or something, remember, that cable could snap any time or come loose trapping your hands. The last few inches of the roof you might have to engage the reverse in your TV to let the rope slack.

Good luck, be careful...

I am in this exact situation with 2021 HW277. Winch cable snapped and the top fell closed with the canvas on the outside. I just need to lift the top enough to stuff the canvas back in. Thanks for the tip.

 

[geoffm3]

Any idea why the cable snapped and where?

 

[dp4616]

I am in this situation now. I already replaced the cable, and just went to harbor frieght and got the $30 1000lbs winch. I am going to try and attach it to the campers a frame, and attach the wire - and winch it up. Might keep it that way for future, but I will look into the winch system inside the camper as well. I cannot believe that someone would engineer a camper this way. Its completely absurd and should never have been made this way, ever. Truly unbelievable.

 

[BillOh]

I am in this exact situation with 2021 HW277. Winch cable snapped and the top fell closed with the canvas on the outside. I just need to lift the top enough to stuff the canvas back in. Thanks for the tip.

This has me a little concerned. We have had our 2022 HW277 model for awhile. I became concerned about a sound the winch was making every time I raised it. Several people told me this is normal, but I'm a little nervous. I've never posted a video here, so I hope this works, but if not I'll attach the file. As mentioned this happens every time, but I can just continue on and it raises fine.