Soooo.... I bought a fixer-upper over the weekend on the cheap. They didn't have it popped up, but they showed me pictures and were very honest with the problems. The exterior body and the trailer frame and wheels are in good shape, but there are some issues with the interior systems and mechanisms (good thing I am handy, and my dad lives close by who has 20 years popup ownership & DIY repairs for advise)
My Background: as a kid we had a Jayco popup (1970's version) that we camped in 3-4x a year until I went off to college in 1999. Since then my parents have steadily upgraded campers until now they have a bad@ce 5th wheel glamper (of course!)
Anyhow, we popped up the new/old Jayco I bought to observe first-hand some of the issues we knew it had when we bought it and to try and work through how to repair some of the systems:
1. L&W System - back left (looking forward) corner won't lift so we propped it up with a 2x4 and pulled out the beds, and started digging into winch, tracks, pulleys and springs. I found a great description and official looking diagram here:
https://www.cunninghamcampers.com/fc...eplacement.pdf
and a more colloquial diagram and description here (that was even better for my understanding)
https://www.caravansplus.com.au/guid...ents-a-55.html
Anyhow we discovered several issues with the
L&W System:
1. After cranking up, the trailer would NOT crank back down - fiddled with the winch ratchet and used a screw driver to move the ratchet selector on the winch to the open position (roof start falling in and we wedged the gears to prevent total collapse - pretty dang funny with 3 of us inside, my brother jammed the screw driver into the gear teeth). So the clip spring to the ratchet selector on the winch is disengaged and will need to be fixed.
2. The spring rod that pushes up the back left corner is completely out of the track
3. The track for the back left corner has 2 welded on pulleys, the first pulley in line (straight up and down / perpendicular to the floor) appears to have been pulled & over-stressed so that the seam weld where it connects to the track lifted and caused a "crinkle" or bend in the track - we haven't pulled it yet to test if the spring push rod will go back in the track, but that will be one of the first things we do. The plan for repair is to pull the track, straighten it with a vice to see if we can get a smooth bore for the spring push rod to slide through, as well as the slug. Then we'll weld a strongback or angle iron to it to reinforce the strength of the track square tubing.
4. Cable for rear left does not appear to be attached to the slug that I could see. So I'll have to fish or push the slug out and see how the cable is supposed to attach, and re-install the cable, slug, and spring rod inside the track once it's fixed...
5. The rear telescopic extension arms (4-stage) to lift the roof are curved to the right (looking forward) when full extended. I can push to roof back to square and brace it and it's fine. I am trying to figure out of this is due to missing one of the spring push rods (from #2 above) in the back left corner and the other rod is over-extending causing the bend, or maybe these two telescopic arms are missing some internal bushing to hold them straight up and down... boo.
(I'll try to come back and attach pictures after this)
Moving on to the beds:
1. Beds are in decent shape, but they're missing a few small components to make them great. On the front pullout track / slide there is a standoff brack that attaches the slide to the bed frame missing. The previous owner appears to have tried to use wood screws through the track into the bed frame directly, and these are all sheared off. I need to find this part to replace.
(will insert picture later)
2. The slide stop bolts that are installed on the interior track and are supposed to catch the slide and hold it to prevent the bed from sliding out too far are mostly missing. We actually damaged the canvas a little before we notice this (dammit). Since we pulled out the beds, and installed the bed support rods underneath to hold it up, and didn't realize the beds were "sagging" and almost coming out of the popup completely. This sag due to over extension of the beds, stretched the canvas and it split in the top right corner a little (repair needed); oh well.
I think once I can get the track bolts in place to prevent over-extension of the beds, and get the bracket(s) for the slide to bed connection, then regrease the track and slides - these will be smooth as butter.
Canvas:
1. Has some issues and I busted a corner of one of the beds on accident before I discovered the root-cause. I can patch alot of the issues to get it in campable shape for our first trip, but.........
2. I will be buying a completely new replacement canvas. Any advice here? I see they are about $1000 from some online vendors, but I had read / heard that if you contact Jayco directly they may be able to get one ordered a little less pricy.
Other items I'll need to fix-replace:
1. Jacking Legs
2. Side-step under door
3. find new sink / burner and build a box for them on hinges.
4. New flooring
I am not worried at all about the interior cabinetry, I have experience building several custom built-ins for my own home that turned out pretty darn great (my wife's opinion) so any re-work on the interior woodwork should be a piece of cake, judging from the cheap materials and joinery used by the OEM to assemble these originally.
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