pop top canopy lifters

terrola · Veteran Member

pop top canopy lifters

madaboutled · Guru

I met a guy on the road who added a 12 volt actuator to each of his scissor lifts, now he just presses a button for up & down, easy!.

C00P · Senior Member

Hi madaboutled,

Can you give me any leads to these actuators? My brother has trouble lifting his pop-top because of an old shoulder injury that now plagues his old age (he's 5 years older then me smile ) and I'd like to be able to help him. His pop-top lifts about 18" (450mm) and has the standard scissors with springs on the sides. He was thinking of adding gas struts, but they don't add much lifting force until they have extended a bit, and they will also make pulling it down more difficult.

Cheers

C00P

-- Edited by C00P on Tuesday 16th of May 2017 02:49:06 PM

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

Might these be them ??

http://www.rvairlifters.com.au/air_lifters.htm

Cheers - John

C00P · Senior Member

Brilliant! Thanks John, much appreciated. That's an even better idea than what I was thinking of.
And it gives my brother the opportunity to fit them himself- he loves tinkering.

Thanks heaps,

C00P

madaboutled · Guru

rockylizard wrote:
Gday...
Might these be them ??
http://www.rvairlifters.com.au/air_lifters.htm
Cheers - John

That would work too but not what I've seen. The van I saw he modified the sissors and added the actuator which expanded/compressed the sissor mechanism.

Try https://www.motiondynamics.com.au/linear-actuators/

Alternatively, I think you could mount the actuators much like you would Gas Struts, the difference being that the Acutators will work both ways (lift and pull down) whereas gas struts generally only assist with lifting.

Sparkster · Senior Member

The RV Airlifters are great definitely work and with some planning are not hard to fit.

Any difficulties can easily be worked out with the makers.

No modifications are needed to your existing setup so if you want to take them with you you can.

We had a Coromal Pop Top.

Coromal don't (or didn't at the time) provide a lever action to make lifting the roof easier and I had a crook shoulder too.

A flick of a well located switch and bingo roof up minimum of fuss in about 10 to 15 seconds.

Definitely would not modify the existing hardware.

Tony Bev · Guru

I have not used any of the below products, and am posting only to thank the OP's for letting us all know what newer stuff is available

The Jayco Canopy Easy Lifter, (from what I can see), should make the top pop roof easier to lift, as there is some leverage to assist

The RV Airlifters, (from what I can see), would be very good for anyone considering adding weight, such as solar or aircon, to their pop top roof

The electric acuators, (from what I can see), would be the ants pants, but perhaps fairly expensive

C00P · Senior Member

Thanks all for your suggestions and advice. Much appreciated.
The electric actuators would be great, but one that I looked at in more detail has limit switches that are not adjustable. So fitting them would involve some careful planning to get the stroke just right so the actuator stopped just at the limits of the pop-top travel. Fitting would also involve a greater level of "engineering". THe air bags look to be the simplest idea, but their disadvantage is that they don't assist with retraction- a valid point.
Plenty to think about.
Thanks again,
Cheers

C00P

terrola · Veteran Member

great to see you all carry on between your selves, but my question was about jayco rv roof lifters .

seems i wasted my time asking on this forum.

Hylife · Guru

Seems being rude is not going to get you help either.
A range of perhaps more modern and easier alternatives were offered.
Jayco lifters are pretty ancient tech having been used as the standard means of lifting Jayco poptops for nearly 30 years.
They don't work on their own, you also need some gas struts which do most of the lifting.

rockylizard · Guru

terrola wrote:
great to see you all carry on between your selves, but my question was about jayco rv roof lifters .
seems i wasted my time asking on this forum.

Gday...

cry OK ... accept the chastisement cry

I have a full-size van .. don't know much at all about pop-tops .. and only know what a "jayco RV roof lifter' is from googling it.

Jayco Lifter.jpg I assume these are them?

My father-in-law has them fitted to his Jayco Westport pop-top ... he is in the process of having them removed and air-lifters installed because he is having too much difficulty easily raising the top ... and in lowering it.

Cheers - John

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

Terrola, my Jayco Discovery has the lifters as described by John (rockylizard). They also have four gas stuts.

Inititially I had no troubles lifting the top so we bought the van. Now, I reckon if I was about a foot shorter, they'd be the bees knees but I'm not (& scrape my head on the LED light just inside the door). However, I do manage to get them up. From what I've seen of the scissor lifts, they appear to be hard(er) yacka!

Other members (above) have suggested the RV Airlifters - they seem to take all the effort out of the job but I hear they are expensive.

If you're looking at the lifters fitted to the Jayco camper-trailers, don't! They are complicated & can only lift the weight of the campers' roof. People adding air conditioners to the rooves are finding that the lifters are not suitable for the extra weight.

Regarding the forum's members - we try to get along with each other (we all have our moments & pet likes, dislikes) BUT we do offer good ideas & free assistance. I have been helped numerous times! A forum such as this one is only as good as the members & their experiences. If you feel you need professional help, I guess you can go to the advertisers in the magazines, etc.

Warren

Jason F · Veteran Member

My no-name camper (4m x 2,2m pop top roof with 2 solar panels) has 4 scissor lifts with springs and 4 gas struts. The scissor lifts provide stability, so it goes up and down, not sideways, and the springs help the raising very slightly to ensure the scissor slides in the channel easily (but are not going to contribute much, so can be ignored). I cannot lift the roof by myself. I needed a very strong bloke to help me do it. I then looked at the gas struts and they are marked 20N (I kid you not), thats ~2kg lift force. I need new struts. I lifted one end of the aluminium roof, and got ~50kg. This implies that the overall weight is ~100kg (sounds a little on the light side to me). This suggests I need 250N gas struts. Does this sound like its in the right ball park?

BarneyBDB · Senior Member

Don't forget they work both ways, you may have trouble getting the roof down......