Hi, I posted this in the caravan repairs section first so apologies if you're reading the for the second time! I have a coleman dakota PPP up trailer tent and the cable has snapped and needs replacing. Lots of info on Internet on how to replace but I really do t think I'd be able to do it. I can't find anywhere that do it, am wondering if anyone knows anyone or anywhere that have done this before and who can do this. I'm in bristol but can deliver her wherever. Thanks.
Well, it *can* be done - but, as a former Coleman owner, I wonder if it's worth it?
Almost certainly, the cost of getting it dome for you would be out of proportion to the value of the camper - so that leaves you with the option of fixing it yourself.
You will need to hire (or buy) a swaging tool & crimps, plus the cable itself.
If one cable has gone, the the others are not far behind it - so, if you're thinking of keeping the camper, you'd need to do all the cables.
That leads on to the pulleys. The Coleman system uses a series of pulleys mounted beneath the floor. If you're lucky, you'll be able to remove them and soak them in white spirit to clean them.
If you're unlucky the bearings will have broken up and you'll be looking at replacements - no easy task, as Coleman went bust about five years ago and spares (even for the newer models) are like hen's teeth.
The basic mechanics of the fix are, raise the roof and prop with suitable timbers. The remove the plate at the rear of the camper that covers the 'wiffle tree' asembly. The 'wiffle tree' is basically a bar pulled by a central steel cable via the crank, to which are attached the four lifter cables.
DO NOT remove the wiffle tree cover plate until the roof is raised and braced (the plate is structural, and prevents frame distortion that will occur if it is removed under load)
You will see the eye bolts, (which is where the swaging tool comes in - the new cables have to be swaged after passing them through the eye bolt)
The cables will then run under the camper via the aforementioned pulleys, and finally go up inside the lifter arms.
The bottom lifter arm section has to be removed - which involves drilling out the rivets securing it to the body.
After all that, it's a racing certainly that the small stud & nut to which the other end of the cable is attached via a loop (more swaging required) will be badly rusted. The lifter arms are stainless steel - but not those studs & bolts.
Detailed help (including manuals) is available at popupportal.com
Question is, why did it fail in the first place? It's *extremely* common for the roofs to be saturated with damp and water, thus making them very heavy. If it has the ABS roof then it will have cracked and delaminated- no question about it.
If it's the aluminium roof it will have leaked via the centre seam.
I don't want to be pessimistic - but you should know what you're taking on, which could be a very big and thankless job indeed.
We had a fairly late (imported) Coleman camper) and although I was anal about lubricating the entire lift system, I was always concious that it could fail, and that if it did it would be a pig to repair.
All of the lift systems are suspect - the Jayco type (used by Conway) are internal, but have their own problems caused by water ingress via the tubes which rots the floor corners and causes the internal lift brackets to rip out when placed under load.
Bottom line?, they're now all just too old and worn out , and are barely worth fixing now, given the age of the trailers
Thank for the replies, she's not leaky at all and in lovely condition inside so I am going to have to ( with the help of some men folk!) get some cable and try it myself! As my engineering friend just told me if it can be manufactured it can be fixed.....will update on how I get on 😁
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Topic: Pop up trailer tent cable replacement
