79 HiLo Not Fully Lifting
 

We have a 1979 and the top no longer fully raises. The seals are about 1-2 inches apart. We have attempted to tighten the nuts, but one appears to be fully extended. Any ideas what else we can try?

tinatot
Did you increase the nut tension on the one that is fully extended? Or did you purchase that way?
If you added tension to increase the lift distance I would suggest returning that to the the original position.
Is the top lowered on all four corners equally when trying to raise?
Have you checked the fluid level when in the down position?

If there is not enough fluid, it will not raise fully! But most likely will be lowered on all four corners equally.

Hard to diagnose a one sentence problem!

hth
steve

Lifting problem
 

Sorry for the short message. We were driving down the road and I was frustrated with my phone.

Personally I think the problem started when one of the cables broke. Rather than replacing them, my husband (Extremely handy) fixed the one cable that broke. To my knowledge, it went up fine before that, but we are just using it a LOT more now, so it might just be that I didn't notice it before that.

We didn't purchase it this way... we've had the camper in the family for over 30 years (his dad owned it, passed away, and we've had it for about 10 years now).

It does seat fine when it's lowered, but it appears to be just not going all the way up. To my eyes, it appears that the back side is a bit lower, but I'm going to measure it right now to be positive. It could just 'look' that way.

He has filled the fluid. Actually put too much in before our trip last week.

I think that perhaps we need to replace the cable instead of just having it fixed, but my husband said that if it were too short it'd have been a problem when he lowered it, not when it was raised. Something along those lines anyways. But again, he's not sure that was the issue - so I thought I'd see if you guys had any recommendations.

Again sorry I didn't post a longer problem.

Hi Steve, I just checked the camper. Bottom lower to the bottom of the lid, when lifted, is 2" lower in the back. However, I should note that the front is still not 'up' all the way - the seals are not lined up.

Hope that helps!

tinatot
Did the cable break before this problem? Has the top ever lifted to the proper extension since the cable was repaired?
When lifting the top now, does the pump squeal when lifted to the highest point, which is too low?

"but we are just using it a LOT more now, so it might just be that I didn't notice it before that."
The top wouldn't have gotten to the "UP" lock position if not fully extended. So I would think you would have noticed.

You did not answer one question. Was the adjustment made to the one tension bolt after the cable break/repair?

In the down position, the cables have minimal tension, and will appear to not be equally tensioned while viewed from under the trlr. That is because the cables are all different lengths.
Equalizing the height of the top should be done with the top UP and preferably in the locked position. How did you determine that the one cable needed to be tensioned if you indeed did adjust/tension it?

Your answer to these questions should get us much closer to the problem!

steve

It did used to lift all the way. We noticed a couple things when we realized it wasn't going 'up' fully: the door where the rubber from the top meets the bottom has a 'rub' mark and it's a good 2" lower now. My husband seems to hit his head on the bunk bed more now - again probably because the top is just a bit lower. It has always locked in the 'up' position (the motor squeals letting us know it's up as far as it'll go) - even when it's too low. I just can't say for sure if it happened after the cable broke and we fixed it or not. We use it more now, so we seem to notice it a lot more now.

He did make an adjustment to the one cable after it broke. I think at the time he 'leveled' it to the other back corner (just to make sure they were even).

We just came from outside where my husband worked to adjust the top "up" as far as he could. We, of course, did this while the camper was up. We now have the front corners at 30" from bottom of the camper to bottom of the top, and the two back corners are 28 1/4". Still a good 1 3/4" difference front-to-back, and even if they were all at 30", it still needs to come up more for the seals to line up and the door to show it's closing like it used to.

Do you think replacing all 4 cables will fix this? I have a call into J&R Trailer I got from this forum to see what that would run us. Lord knows there's a lot of things deteriorating under this old camper, but we love it and want to keep it as long as we possibly can.

I don't believe you need to replace all 4 cables.
Has it lifted to correct ht since repair?
I, maybe incorrectly, believe that the repaired cable may be too short, causing the top to stop short of full height and be hitting limits of the hydraulic lift pressure release.
Have you examined the lift from below while raising. Not dangerous as long as you keep away and just observe.
You will then see if the lift makes it to the locking bar. The hydra-lift can hold up the top without being locked, but not correct.

The "one cable" that you adjusted, was it the one repaired or one to the same end of trlr but other side?? This is an important question.

When doing measurements always measure using the rest points on the frame for the top(one each side and front and back, not the bottom of skirt).

we are getting closer.

https://www.hilotrailerforum.com/f61/...1998-24td-125/