difficulty with raising Aliner van

happy traveller · Member

difficulty with raising Aliner van

Dougwe · Chief one feather

How, Kathie,

As a ex Avan owner try standing near the middle and close to front of the inside, make sure the sides are already down and push up on the front section roof. It should release and start to come down for you. Go outside and finish the job off. You have to do a little ducking and weaving though so careful of the dogen.

Hope that is easier and works for you.

happy traveller · Member

Thanks for input, yes I do as you say, but have to stand on 3 step ladder. A bit dangerous. Have you seen anyone with a winch or Gas Struts. Lady 5ft 1 and slight build

Dougwe · Chief one feather

Kathie, there are gas struts available but not sure where from, maybe speak to a Avan dealer or caravan repair place. They might be able to help out.

If all fails maybe join the Avan Club and there will be help there for sure.

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

Welcome 01.jpg

Firstly, welcome to the forum Kathie.

I haven't owned, or erected, an A-Van .. but perhaps this would be of assistance ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl0V6ex6wSs

Cheers - John

happy traveller · Member

Thanks Doug we I am awaiting membership which will allow me into their site. Hopefully more suggestions or photos. A Van dealership unwilling. bye

happy traveller · Member

Thanks John. A new adventure beginning for me

Vicks · Veteran Member

Hi Kathy, There is a club, which is called Avan Club of Australia and there are a couple of people who have invented lifters. Look up the Avan club website and contact them. It's a great club by the way and only people with pointy heads are eligible . Vickie

Glenelg · Guru

Vulcan his here.

hako · Guru

You can buy airbags that will lift the roof at the touch of a button...costs about $745 and was featured in the last Avan Club magazine.
See the link below...last page.
Good Luck.
EDIT club link removed - PM me if you want me to email you a copy of the advert.

-- Edited by hako on Thursday 15th of January 2015 12:47:09 PM

Weevil · Guru

Hi Happy Traveller,

If you look at this A'Lite A'van, you will see where it has had gas struts fitted to help raise the roof.

Although smaller than bigger A'van models I can't see why it would not work with them.

Perhaps take your van to a strut fitter and see what they recommend.

Vic's.jpg

elliemike · Guru

happy traveller wrote:
Can anybody help me with suggestions on making the A liner roof easy to raise. I am only small and have great difficulty.

Hi Happy Traveller. We have the Avan Cruiseliner which probably as you know is the big A framed van.

There are various Roof Lifters available a previous posters have mentioned. From winch types, Gas Struts, Air bags. The Australian AVAN CLUB is a great organisation with clubs in each state. You would get a lot of help on their Members Only Website when you become a member. Then your local club will probably have people to advise you.

How old is your van!

Does it have solar panels on the roof

It could be that your roof springs (one in each corner) have become weak. They are easily changed. They cost about $50 each maybe. We had a Avan WA club workshop over this weekend and changed the springs on one of our solo members Aliner. Easy job. Or get the Avan agent near you to replace them, they have to replace the Bungee Cord as well when doing this job. I am going to change the springs sometime this year on ours but there is no rush.

Have a look at this below. The Avan Club USA.

http://alinerownersclub.org/diy/roof-springs-and-bungees/

Also something I wrote a while back. Below.

http://www.avanclubaust.org.au/images/DL_477_.pdf

There are similar winch type systems that people have made. I never use my system as I have no problems with the roof but my wife does. In case I am indisposed while away in the van, Ellie can put the roof up with ease.

Regards

Mike Stanley

-- Edited by elliemike on Thursday 15th of January 2015 03:23:05 PM

Recoup · Guru

Happy Traveller,
facing the front of your van into strong wind will make it very hard to lift the roof, also be VERY care full when strong wind is coming from behind the van,
it can ( will ) lift the roof and could cause a lot of damage.Cheers

happy traveller · Member

Thankyou to all who helped with my question re raising the roof. I am going to try the gas struts. Kathie

Brian Hovander · Newbie

Hi Kathie,

Thanks to David Hall (of Australia) the solution has been invented to raise roof panels with the supplemental assistance of gas springs. Several US A-frame manufacturers have carried his technique forward. I have carried the method devised by Rockwood/Flagstaff engineers a step forward. Now all older A-Frame owners can have the most efficient method of installing these gas springs installed on their A-frame trailers on any location no matter what the obstacle. The walls have styrofoam cores but the forces can be now transferred to stronger locations inside the trailer (see article below). You can see how this is done in pictures for the problematic refrigerator vent area of my trailer. It took the combined effort of many engineers, etc. to figure out how to deal with this situation.

I have placed the instructions I put together (that also includes those of the founder of the concept) with very detailed procedures and lots of photos for those who want to see instead of just read words on how to do it. I added these instructions on several each Yahoo and Facebook A-Frame groups in the US. In case you can't find it anywhere you are free to join the open yahoo group I put together to post this file at:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/A-FrameTeam/info

or go to: http://www.aframeteam.com

Here is a link to the grand roof raising ceremony to the most recent US older A-Frame trailer that had these installed a week ago: ttps://youtu.be/izTm3Y7bzqI

The roof panels of this unit were reconstructed with heavier material due to the replaced 4 huge original springs destroying the original roof panels. Then gas springs were installed sideways that blew out the ends--not a good design. So this method was the last resort and it does work and very well as you can see at the above link.

So just replacing the factory springs could destroy your roof panels. This trailer may have the two lower panel gas springs reduced to 50 pounds so a bit of lift is required by the owner. Due to the crushing weight of the new panels (with new strong factory-metal springs) the owner wanted to start with four each 75 pound force springs because the (bathroom scale) measured weight of 30 pounds at the end indicated that 100 pounds of force was needed at the point of application. What was missed is that the force when compressed is not 75 pounds. It raised based on the design characteristics of the gas spring to as much as 50% higher. So where she needed 200 pounds to raise the roof panels--she was seeing 225 pounds with the initial installation. That is why you see these panels rise on their own!

This most recent modification was accomplished by a lady who enjoys such projects. The attached article is on my 2005 Aliner that was desperately needing a simple method of raising the roof panels. My panels raise up to 15" when the latches are released. Then I need to add a minor effort to raise them up to the fully up location. I used 40 pound springs on the first three. Today I would have used 30 pound springs (fully extended rating) on all four springs. Hope this helps. Be sure to keep the steel rod facing down so that the inner oil lubes the seals and the pressure is not lost. Information on this is included in my attached article.

I hope this post helps you overcome the problem facing all A-frame trailer owners with ever deforming roof springs as they age and bend. There is little resale value to a trailer when the panels cannot be easily lifted.

http://www.aframeteam.com

So no matter what the obstacle you can put a gas spring at each corner. You may just need to find one that has the correct parameters to do the job. Most trailers should need about 30 pound force springs (give or take).

I hope that there is somebody out there who could benefit from the experimenting we are doing down under in the United States! You have more ways to consider mounting your gas springs. And please keep others informed of future breakthroughs in this developing technology. For years I looked for a method to deal with this aging spring issue. Now the issue is resolved.

Brian Hovander/Northern California

-- Edited by Brian Hovander on Monday 8th of May 2017 12:32:28 PM

-- Edited by Brian Hovander on Monday 8th of May 2017 12:40:53 PM

Brian Hovander · Newbie

Hi Kathie,

I hope you were successful installing the gas springs. I added an article above on how some of us over here are doing this to older Aliners. Oh, I am a licensed professional civil engineer so I looked for the method that takes the lowest force spring and provides the highest torque to raise my personal roof panels.

Best wishes,

Brian

-- Edited by Brian Hovander on Monday 8th of May 2017 12:29:47 PM