Monday, August 11, 2014

Goshen System Cable Replacement

Replacing the main lift cable
(Goshen Lift System) on my 97 Dutchmen 1203 Pop Up Camper
 
I didn't find many photo guides on how to do this so I decided to make on in hopes of helping others
Below are some links that I've found that might help. 
 
 
Its really pretty easy to do.  I only had to remove the tubes on the same side as the pulley.  In my case it was the front, because Dutchmen put their wench in the rear of the camper.  Others with a tongue mounted wench would be working with the rear tubes. 
 
Remove these two bolts (above the tubes)  
Remove these two bolts underneath the main tube.
Free the lift tubes from the frame supports.
Remove the 2 bolts holding the tubes to the frame corners.

The tubes should be free of the camper now.
Inside the tubes are the lift springs.   Fish them out of the lifting arms / camper. 
Tubes and Springs free from the camper.
The two ends of the springs are connected together with a slot for the cable to run between
Once the springs are out of the main tube, you can fish the old cable out.
Below is the new cable ordered from Goshen Stamping,  I also decided to order a replacement pulley since it was cheap (8 bucks) and this one has bearings inside... my old one was squeaking, I probably could have gotten along just fine with the old pulley, but what the hey....  The only bad thing about ordering the cable from the factory is that they charge a UPS COD fee....   Not happy about that, but they got it to me in a couple of days and offered phone assistance if I got into trouble replacing it. Very nice customer service.... just give them the year and model and they know exactly what cable to send you.   they also have other parts to the system... lift arms, springs, tubes....etc...
The pulley is how you adjust the cable so that both ends of the camper come up at the same time, so since I was changing it out it was important that I make sure the new one was the exact same distance from the frame as the old one....   
Both New and old Pulleys.
Looks close enough for amateur work
The winch I had was a Dutton-Lainson DLB-800A.  Below is a link if you ever needed to replace it.

This is how my winch looked when I was getting ready to replace the cable.  Who ever attached the cable last had it all screwed up.  The cables crossed under and through each other as if they were tying it to the spool and then they had the cable end going through a hole that it was not supposed to be, which was probably causing it not to spool correctly.  My cable wasn't busted, but seeing this mess was what made me want to change it out.
 Dutton-Lainson winch Repair parts can be found here if you notice any problems with it while you've got the cable off.    http://www.dutton-lainson.com/products.php?cat=74
So here is the new and old cables together.  (Just making sure that they are the same length and have the crimps in the same location.   Goshen was spot on. 
Here I'm using the old cable to pull the new one through towards the wench end.
Pull the old cable through so you have only what you need to grab on to in order to pull the new one through.   Remember you still have springs on one side so you have to make sure you can still get the new cable though the main tube before the old cable makes contact with the springs that are still in the tubes. 
I greased the springs as I started pushing them back into the tubes, sure makes pushing them through a lot easier at the bends in the tubes.
Next Fish the cable through the pulley. 
 
I greased the end of the cable before starting it in the main tube. 
Once you have the end in the main tube, you can start fishing the springs back in

Once you've got the springs in and the tubes close enough to the main tube, you can start lining up  the spring ends back up into the lifting arms in the corners,  Wipe off the excess grease from the springs as not to make a mess.  This much of the spring only needs a very light coat as just keep the rust down. 

Ok, at this point your good to go for reconnecting the spring tubes to the frame. 
There is cut out areas between the tubes for the cable to move freely.  Make sure that the cable is not caught up or bound somehow ... make sure it moves free before tightening the spring tubes to the main tube. 
Ok... I followed the video the best I could on attaching the cable to the wench.  this is what I came up with according to them.   This took up most of time believe it or not.  The main gear is just too darn small and the one they use in their video I believe is a larger one so it looks easy in the video.  See video below.
 Video on winch cable install http://www.dutton-lainson.com/czzSN1c17FI.php
 
Looks a whole lot better than it did before I started.
"Do not grease the wench"   there is a clutch in it and grease can cause it to fail.
Not to mention that grease will only collect dirt and sand....
 
Don't forget to fill these two zerks with grease.  Till it starts to come out the ends of the main tube.  Your supposed to do this at the beginning of every season anyway.
That about does it.   Just looking at the diagrams you find on the web, it looks a lot more confusing than it really is.   That's one of the reasons I took the time to make this blog entry to show how easy it really is.   I hope this How To helps someone.  Leave me a comment and tell me how it went.   



24 comments:

  1. Do you do this with the top propped up or do you close up the tent trailer? My cable is snapped and the front lifters close but the rear lifters won't lower. The rear is stuck in the raised position. Thanks so much for your blog!

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  2. Thanks for your post. I have the same camper and this post really help me out. In my case my cable snapped. I ended taking all four corners off to get the cable through. Got it done and it works great. Thanks, Andrew

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  3. Dude! With the instructions I read and the picture you have... It looks straight forward. A project to do this weekend.

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  4. This helped me so much with my 99 Dutchmen 747! I even contacted Goshen and got the parts straight from them which was so much cheaper than anywhere else. Thanks for this how to blog!

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  5. This is awesome, I work on campers for a living but nothing we work on has the goshen lift system, and I just purchased a palomino that has it, for $50! Can't go wrong! But the back two corners don't go up, and seeing this blog with these pictures had my pop up diagnosed in 15 minutes, I've got a front with with cables that run into the main frame underneath and NO cable coming out the back and wrapping around the pulley, now the hard part is gonna be finding enough room to get underneath the damn thing to work on it, these palomino's ride low low and I'm a big guy... lol

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  6. Do i replace the cable with the popup closed or open??

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. Hello there, I work for Hanna Trailer Supply (HannaRV.com) in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. One of our customers mentioned your tutorial here - we sell a bunch of pop up parts and accessories through our store and website. Do you mind if we make a few links on our website to this page? Thanks in advance - Matt

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  9. I have a 2007 palomino and the back portion of the roof won't come down. Any ideas or suggestions ?
    I've got the cable out thinking maybe the alum clamp and lifter pad may have slipped on the cable, but it doesn't seem to have.
    Anyone know what the distance between the two lifter plates is supposed to be ?
    Thanks
    Ron

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  10. Hey Matt, I see you work for Hanna. Do you know the distances between the plates on the cable ?
    Thanks
    Ronnie.
    xonknor@yahoo.com

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  11. There are no amount of words that i can string together to tell you how thankful i am that you took the time to make this blog!!! My husband and i bought a camper the other day for $400 and when we were lifting it all of a sudden it slammed down on one end.... he was ready to burn it to the ground.... he hates buying other peoples problems and i like saving money and this camper over all is in great shape!! I'm in tears now (happy ones) because now he sees that its not going to be too hard and there will be an "end" in sight. Thank you again for all you've done for this stranger!!!

    Thankful Stranger

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  12. I own a 2001 Forest River Flagstaff with the winch up front. These instructions were great, however I had to drop the rear springs too in order to finish replacing and threading the new winch cable down and around the pulley. Wasn't as difficult as I thought- even for me to do considering I am a chick with very few tools and help! Using the instructions from the box, this blog post, and a video from YouTube on threading the wire onto the winch I think I was pretty successful. I just hope I have the springs even enough to push the top up evenly. Can't wait to see!

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  13. I am glad to find amazing information from the blog.
    Thanks for sharing the information.
    Pop Up System

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  14. Dude, thanks SO much! Just finished doing this lift cable replacement on my Dutchmen 1205 and your how-to was invaluable. Thank you. Couple things I learned doing mine:
    1. Goshen directions show front set of pusher springs going to bottom of master tube/rear set going to top of master tube. Mine were opposite. Checked with Goshen, they said it didn't really matter, I could keep them like that or reverse them. Worked fine for 20 yrs the way it was, so I kept that.
    2. Dutton winch video at their website describes the cable as being routed "over the top" of the spool. Goshen directions show a picture of cable being routed "under the spool". It's confusing, but they're both right. In the Dutton video, the reason the cable is routed "over the top" is because the spool is removed from the winch (for demo purposes) and they're holding it upside down. When the spool is flipped around for reinstall, the cable will be exactly like in the Goshen diagram. Just go with the Goshen diagram, it's simple to understand and it's correct.
    3. Respectfully disagree with you on one point. You said: "Don't forget to fill these two zerks with grease. Till it starts to come out the ends of the main tube." While that won't harm anything, that's A LOT of grease if you fill the master tube until it comes out each end. Probably a full size cartridge or two worth of grease. Here's the downside of that. Most of that grease will be pulled out each end of the master tube the next time you raise the camper roof. It'll make a giant mess on the tubes, cable and garage floor and just be wasted. I would recommend and dozen or so squirts at the beginning of each camping season and leave it at that.

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    Replies
    1. In reference to point #1. If the tubes are opposite of what instructions say does this mean the cable needs to be placed opposite on the pulley. Under vs. over the pulley? Thank you.

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  15. Hey I used your info to replace my cable last year on our 1994 Dutchmen 1002XS. It was pretty easy, and your step by step really helped. I've shared your blog site with many, and have it linked on my site. Thanks.

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  16. Thanks for the info! used it to replace the cable on my 2002 flagstaff.

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  17. aw your blog on changing main lifter cable thought it was great. easy to follow. and the pictures very detailed.thanks

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  18. I really appreciate sharing this great post. Keep up your work. Thanks for sharing this great article.Great information thanks a lot for the detailed article.
    벨덴

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  19. At a total cost of $69.12 for replacement cable and shipping charges, this was an easy repair. On 06/01/2019 the cable snapped and a replacement will take 2 weeks to get. I wouldn't mind having to replace it again.

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  20. Thank you! I now have a much better idea how this works....

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  21. Do you happen to know the measurements of the stoppers my crimp sheared off in the middle where the stopper should be and I can not find the the manual anywhere.

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