Popup Camper Lift Emergency Repair

What do you do when you start cranking up your pop-up camper out in the woods, or at the camp site, and the lift cable breaks? Go home and skip camping? That almost happened to us, but it broke two days before leaving on our camping vacation last year (2008). I couldn't find any local place that sold lift cables. I located one online, but it wouldn't arrive in time to go camping in two days. After a few tries, I came up with this temporary "lift kit" to raise the top of the camper.













First, I cut 2" X 2" wood pieces in various lengths: 2 @ 4" long, 2 @ 8" long, 2 @ 12" long, 2 @ 16" long, 2 @ 20" long, 2 @ 24" long, 2 @ 28 " long, 2 @ 32 " long, 2 @ 36" long, and 2 @ 40" long. Unlatch the four corners, then raise one corner and place the 4" block in the corner to hold it up. (If you can't raise the corners by yourself, get someone to help, or even use a jack and a long board or stick to jack it up.) Then go to the corner on the same side or end (not opposite corners) and raise that one 4" and block it. Then go to one of the corners on the opposite side and raise it 8" and block it. Do the other corner on the same side and raise it 8" and block it. Go back to the first side and raise it to 12". and continue to raise the top 4" at a time, first on one side, then the other, until the top is fully extended.

Since I was at home when the cable broke, I was able to use a table saw and 2 X 2 boards. If you are at a camp site, you may be able to drive to a local lumber company and have them cut boards for you. Otherwise, you may be able to cut heavy sticks using a camp saw. (You do have a camp saw, don't you? An axe woudn't work nearly as well.)

When you get back home, you should replace the cable with one made for your camper. In case there is no local source for the lift cable, the source I found on line is RV Workshop at http://www.rvworkshop.com where they list cables for many brands of pop-up campers. They even have instructions for changing many types of lift cables. My camper uses the Goshen lift system. This is the link to repair the Goshen system: http://www.rvworkshop.com/Goshen_Change.pdf

I don't know how useful it will be to post this blog, since most people who need an emergency repair for their lift cable will not be near a computer at the time. Although I do have some friends that get onto Facebook when they are camping (right Tammy?) but I think that is the exception. Just maybe someone with a pop-up camper will see this before they need it, then make a copy of it and stash it in their camper for future reference (way too organized for me), or just remember the concept and save a camping trip some day.