Shock-ing video of lifter thingys (input please)

[camper101]

Hello,

I got my internal lifting struts installed and used them for a few nights recently. I noticed 2 things that concerned me and am wondering what you all see:

1. The wood strip along the ceiling buckles a little when the top is down (it's less noticeable now than when I took the picture, but it's still there)
2. The roof doesn't come down completely straight

This 40-second video shows lowering the roof. The front comes down great (I actually have to help the struts compress). Then, when I release the back, around the 23 second mark, the driver's side jumps up a little and the roof comes down crooked. To me it seems like that's a bad thing -- I don't think the piano hinges holding the lifting panels want to move that way. But maybe I'm being nitpicky.

Do you all have roofs that lower that way, would you worry about it if you did?

FYI, I think all the mounts are evenly spaced: the brackets on the driver's side are within 1/4 inch front/back and side/side of where they are on the passenger side. The passenger mount, I confess, is a tiny bit crooked, but I think with the play in the eyelet on the pin (there is a lot of freedom to move there) it doesn't affect how the rod pushes. In other words, I don't think the strut is pushing anywhere except straight up to the roof bracket.

Bonus question: do you think the bracket is crooked enough to matter?

Thanks for any ideas.

Buckling below


The metal backing is straight, the bracket is a little off


Let's get the lighting to really accentuate the imperfection...

 

[jha6av8r]

I noticed your struts aren't mounted on balls but pinned. Do the end points bind at an point during the lowering process?

 

[Taku]

I have external struts on an ATC Ocelot and have not had anything like that happen. Wonder if one of the struts is bad?

 

[camper101]

I noticed your struts aren't mounted on balls but pinned. Do the end points bind at an point during the lowering process?

I must confess I don't know what it means when the pins bind... can you dumb that down a little please? I learn a lot with these projects. Does it mean something like "freeze" more or less on the way down (for a brief moment)? I haven't watched that closely but maybe I should.

I have external struts on an ATC Ocelot and have not had anything like that happen. Wonder if one of the struts is bad?

That's a possibility. Along similar lines maybe, the only thing on the roof is a 7 lb solar panel at the rear passenger corner. But I don't think a 7 lb panel should affect how it lowers.

 

[jha6av8r]

Does it mean something like "freeze" more or less on the way down (for a brief moment)? I haven't watched that closely but maybe I should.

Yes, do the struts catch at some point and then free themselves in the lowering process.

 

[camper101]

Thanks. Now that I think about it I use my hands to help compress the struts (they're strong enough to basically hold the roof up) and I keep things even. So the uneven thing happens after the front has been lowered -- it usually happens as I'm trying to lower the rear.

That said, I should still raise/lower a few times to test and watch closely to see (and feel) if there's any catching.

 

[photohc]

To me, it looks like you have a bad strut. If the pressure is uneven, it will most likely show up during the lowering of the back. During the lowering of the front, the back supports the side to side balance, but once the front is down, no support to keep a level descent except from the struts. Anyway, my 2 cents.

 

[camper101]

I appreciate any cents I can get -- thanks. That sounds reasonable to me. I think I need to test a few times and make sure I switch the struts (pay attention to which one is on which side, and see if that changes anything).

Also going to watch/listen/feel for anything binding.

 

[PaulT]

Swap the struts and see if the problem changes sides. If problem doesn't move, probably not the strut.

Paul