Someone Stop me, Oops, too late!

Had a hiccup with the actuation rams yesterday. The number "2" ram in the right front stopped working. One minute it was lifting as per usual, the next nothing.

After checking the wiring back to the ram, and determining that it was not a power supply problem we assumed it had to be the motor. I called Progressive Automations and they saif that it was likely a problem of too many amps being drawn (the max is 4 amps at full load). Based on the rate of lift and using the manufacturers lift chart I determined that the load was no more than 100 lbs at the most on the ram. Using the amp per load chart it looked like it would only be drawing about 1.0-1.5 amps. Plus the other 3 are working just fine. So I think it was actually a bad motor.

Anyway, Progressive Automations immediately offered to send a new ram out to me via 3-day shipping and I will be replacing the bad one. The fact that they didn't even ask any questions suggests that they may have a bad motor from time to time and just blame it on over amperage. :unsure:

Home Skillet
 
great idea......another $130, the bill is getting bigger.


Always. :LOL: A spare motor at a minimum would be a good thing but having a whole assembly wouldn't hurt. A spare is also good in case a few years down the road a replacement actuator like this isn't available. That is one of the other reasons I had interest in hyrdaulics, they should still be easily serviced in years to come. But I'll likely end up with actuators as well.


Couple other thoughts:
How did you wire the actuators? Definately done in parrallel right? If they are in series you're going to pull too much current through them and have too low of a voltage.

What gauge did you run and how long are the runs (esp. the one that failed)? Too high of a voltage drop will burn out an actuator I've read. Have you (can you?) check the voltage running through the actuator when under load to see what they are seeing?


Or you might have just got a bum motor, I can't imagine the quality control being off the charts with these lower cost (relatively speaking) actuators.
 
Progress looks very good. A quick question though, and excuse me if you've already addressed this, but do you have a manual rise backup plan? It might just be the engineer in me but some type of ability to hand crack or otherwise lift the top in the event of emergency would seem to make sense.
 
Progress looks very good. A quick question though, and excuse me if you've already addressed this, but do you have a manual rise backup plan? It might just be the engineer in me but some type of ability to hand crack or otherwise lift the top in the event of emergency would seem to make sense.


With the actuators you'd have to uncouple them from the top if they weren't working for some reason and you wanted to try lifting it. However they also serve as the supports for holding the roof in the up position. Right off there isn't an ideal "back up" in that type of design. (A jack in the center of the roof to lift it and then some wood pieces to block the roof up so the center jack could be taken out would work if you were really determined to lift it up).

Again one of the reasons I liked the idea of the sync hydraulics (however the vendor wouldn't commit to sell me one so I'll likely be doing actuators as well). Having a spare available would ease a lot of my worries. Chances of having a catastrophic failure of most all of them is rather low. Biggest issue would be lack of power, wiring shouldn't be an issue if done properly so then it's just a battery issue. I personally never use my truck battery in the camper so if I ever did kill my camper battery I could still fire up the truck so start feeding 12V power into the camper to run the actuators.

More than anything I view getting the top down as a bigger priority if something went wrong, if the top is already down then the camper can still function in partial capacity and also be driven away for repairs.

That is how the engineer in me is currently rationalizing it. ;)
 
Progress looks very good. A quick question though, and excuse me if you've already addressed this, but do you have a manual rise backup plan? It might just be the engineer in me but some type of ability to hand crack or otherwise lift the top in the event of emergency would seem to make sense.


I have been giving this a lot of thought. Here is my short term plan for the event that a ram breaks down.

First off, I will be able to open the back door without lifting the roof (I am working on a neat little solution to be revealed later). Once inside I will be able to disconnect the "broken ram" from the roof (I highly doubt that I will have more than one go down at any one time). The roof is only about 175 lbs total, so I should be able to manually lift one corner. Then I can place a pre-cut piece of wood (that I always carry with me) to hold that corner up.
Even if two rams stopped working (some sort of electrical outage) I can lift one whole end of the top without too much difficulty (another advantage to the lightweight carbon fiber).
Not pretty, but simple and simple is best when out in the middle of nowhere!

Home Skillet
 
Update on the interior work of the "Titan Expedition Vehicle".

The framing for the galley, the water/electrical closet, the stove/storage tower, and the sink and counter area is done. The Edgestar 40 quart fridge, the on-demand hot water heater, and the water pump are in place. The electrical wiring is 75% done.
I found a great little wireless remote control for the actuation rams (the new replacement ram is in now) and am wiring it up now too.
I also finished the cab over bed and storage area. It came out great.

I now have a logo/decal for the exterior and wondered what you all thought of it. Take a look and let me know.

The details of all of this are over at Hooked Up Films.
IMG_4237.jpg
IMG_4240.jpg
IMG_4242.jpg
 
Nice logo.
After all this work and design when do you do the IPO and start the assembly line?
 
So you have the under bed storage accessing part of the bed area, what is going on in the front part, is there a hollow space up there too? I can't recall how you built the cabover exactly but if you have a space in the rear part of the bed I'd assume there would be similar space farther up.
 
So you have the under bed storage accessing part of the bed area, what is going on in the front part, is there a hollow space up there too? I can't recall how you built the cabover exactly but if you have a space in the rear part of the bed I'd assume there would be similar space farther up.


I actually put an extra inch of insulation there and so there is only about 2 inches of dead space under the rest of the bed (air insulation). I opted not to make the whole bed raise up mainly because it is hard to reach back there.

Haven't seen much new on your project since the discussion about the access panels. Anything new to report:)

Home Skillet
 
Nice logo.
After all this work and design when do you do the IPO and start the assembly line?


UUUUUhhhhh. No way man. It is way too much work and I want to spend the rest of my life using the one I have! :)
 
I actually put an extra inch of insulation there and so there is only about 2 inches of dead space under the rest of the bed (air insulation). I opted not to make the whole bed raise up mainly because it is hard to reach back there.

Haven't seen much new on your project since the discussion about the access panels. Anything new to report:)

Home Skillet


I figured that father up storage area would work good for extra bedding or other flat odds/ends that didn't need to get accessed too much.


The build thread has been updated more recently than that but it has been 2 weeks since an update there. Haven't had as much available time the last couple weeks and also since I'm working on assembling wall panels there isn't as much to visually report on. I'll probably throw something up soon though.
 
I bet you all thought that I had a nervous breakdown and was in the psych ward someplace twitching every time someone said "camper build" right?
Well.....close, but I pulled through and the Titan Expedition Vehicle is pretty much done! I've actually had it out now on a test trip and plan the true Maiden Voyage this week to Plush, Oregon.

There will be video and write-ups on the final stages of the build and some video of it in action in the next couple of weeks, so keep and eye out.
Hope you are all out getting some exploring in.

Home Skillet
 
the Titan Expedition Vehicle is pretty much done! I've actually had it out now on a test trip and plan the true Maiden Voyage this week to Plush, Oregon.



Pics or it didn't happen, as they say. ;)
 
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