Cable cutting through floor track

[MaccaMagic]

Hi, hoping for some advice please.

Have a 1981 Jayco Swan (bought secondhand). Noticed eye bolts stretched open and located floor pulley in backhand corner (third corner) was broken. So replaced pulley and replaced eye bolts. Have tested a few times raising and dropping lid and one bolt has started to open again so will look into that more. My question though is the floor track near the floor pulley I replaced, the cable was cutting through the floor track. Less so now with the new pulley, but I can’t see how I could straighten the line of the cable any further, maybe a guide missing? Thoughts?

Attached is a sketch and photo of what I’m seeing

Cheers
Macca

[GraftonGuns]

Hi MM welcome to the Forum. I am assuming this is a wall slide? And, being a 1981 vintage the slide out guides appear to be worn. How much does the slide out tilt/tip when extending. I would need more info for a logical reply. However that being said, I had a customer with an older Jayco, mid '80's that had a similar problem. I replaced the rotted tin channel with new U-channel and a Nylon shim. This outer slide was dropping about 3" causing the cable to fray and cut into the channel. I replaced the frayed cable with new coated 3/16" cable from Tractor Supply. It's still working fine for the Gentleman.

[bankr63]

@GraftonGuns, this is the popup forum, and those are the lift cables for the roof.

@MaccaMagic, to take care of the eyebolts opening, you can have them welded closed, however the reason for them opening in the first place would usually be too much strain on the cables. Does the roof open easily? If not make sure that all of the pulleys are turning well, and any friction points are lubricated. If you have added accessories to the roof, (AC, roof racks) you may be overloading the lift mechanism.

Note that the eyebolts opening may be the lesser of two evils however. Welding them closed will increase the chance that the cable will snap if overloaded. Replacing the eyebolt would be a lot easier.

As to the cutting of the lift conduit, the only thing I could suggest is relocating the pulley closer to the lift spring, or even to the other side of the lift spring. You might need to lengthen the lift cable to do this though; hopefully there is enough slack in the eyebolt thread or you could replace with an eyebolt with more thread to get the length you need.

Good luck.

ETA: looking at the picture again, and working a bit from memory, I think that the pulley in corner 3 actually has 2 wires running through it, including the corner 4 pulley, so relocating may not be practical. Can't actually see the pulley in your photo, but based on the cable angles, it looks like they pivot at the same point.

I would suggest trying to fortify the area where the abrasion is occurring. Perhaps wrap some strap stock around it and tack or bolt in place. My concern would be that eventually it could cut far enough back that the lift spring end might come free. That cable is directly attached to the far end of the spring; as the cable pulls out, the spring also pulls out forcing up the roof post. If that far end pulls free from the guide channel, the corner would likely let go completely.

I'm trying to suggest simple fixes as this is an older trailer. If you think it is worth the investment, you could also buy a new lift mechanism for the corner and replace with new.

[MaccaMagic]

Originally Posted by GraftonGuns

Hi MM welcome to the Forum. I am assuming this is a wall slide? And, being a 1981 vintage the slide out guides appear to be worn. How much does the slide out tilt/tip when extending. I would need more info for a logical reply. However that being said, I had a customer with an older Jayco, mid '80's that had a similar problem. I replaced the rotted tin channel with new U-channel and a Nylon shim. This outer slide was dropping about 3" causing the cable to fray and cut into the channel. I replaced the frayed cable with new coated 3/16" cable from Tractor Supply. It's still working fine for the Gentleman.

Thanks for the reply! Sorry I should have been clearer, this is a camper trailer (pop up), so what you are looking at here is part of the lift mechanism for the back corner.

[MaccaMagic]

@bankr63 thanks for the detailed reply. Funny how much you learn about something once it becomes a part of your life! Feels like I’ve researched so much on camper trailers this last month, and wish I had that knowledge before I purchased lol. Anyhow, we bought the camper as a project and it’s ticking that box. It seems replacing the pulley has actually solved for the back corner. While the cable is still slicing through the floor track it’s actually not running anymore because of the improved angle, and the eye bolt (fuse as I’ve seen other people refer to them) has not shown any further strain. Plan is to just monitor from here on in.

Seems only one eye bolt is under duress now (number 2). From what I can see it appears previous owners have had issues in that corner at the corner bend has been reinforced and I can see the bend has slightly bent. Will monitor. Also I may need to attend to the winch as it is also bent and wobbles a little. Also read last night that the eye bolt plate should have the front and back cables diagonally opposite one another on the eye bolt configuration to avoid cables becoming twisted, but currently they are side by side, so will test that too.

I also need a telescopic mirror to check the pulley attached to the corner bend at corner 2 to make sure it is not worn.

Thanks for your comments though, it gives me more things to test and think about. One thing I know is I’ll constantly do spot checks on the system in future ��

Macca