Pop Up Lift Issues

[Lifespalette]

2013 Jay Series M-1206: 10 years old, garage stored, excellent condition and meticulously maintained.

August I go to raise the roof, raised up fine. About half way up I hear a "thump" and it continues rising like normal. Front end reaches full height and trips the limiter switch. The back end is still 6" from full height. Change out the RidX canisters and lower it back down. It lowers without problem and close it back up after treating all the bushings on the lift rod sections with silicone.

First week of September I pull it out again to air it out some. Potential buyer is coming over the next evening to inspect. Start raising the roof up, this time no "thump". Motor isn't laboring, sections of lifting rods extend as normal and the front end reaches full height again tripping the limiter switch and stopping the motor. The back end is still down 6" from full height.
Close it back up, call the potential buyer with the news....they are no longer interested. Understandable. Call local dealership I bought it new from in 2013 only to be told they, the still local dealership for Jayco, "no longer accepts any popup campers regardless of make, model or year for repairs, that they loose too much money on them." Across town Camping World, basically same story... "they don't accept any campers 10 years or older for reair work."....think I'm seeing a trend here.

Found an old posting on here about getting schematics and such from Jayco and sent a request in last Friday afternoon. Got response back that request had been forwarded to appropriate individual. Tuesday got second email with half a dozen attachments. Opened them up and basically they're useless. I had requested schematics, diagrams, shop drawings, fabrication drawings for floor framing support members, power lift system, 110V and 12V electrical and plumbing (water supply and drains for gray and black water. What I got looked like a first year cadd drafting student created them without any discipline knowledge or basic drafting standards knowledge. 30+ year career in Architectural design, 10 years a GC, Senior Designer, Senior Project Manager and Senior Project Construction Administrator and I can honestly say I've never seen fabrication shop drawings this poorly done.

Conclusions:

1. Jayco design and engineering documentation is basically an after thought.
2. Design and fabrication decisions are most likely made on the fly on the assembly line floor, leading to inconsistences and simple errors, leading to quality control issues.
3. If I'm going to remedy this situation, I'm going to have to dust off my destructive forensic investigation skills and fix the problem or improve it.....or turn this carriage frame into one heck of a landscape utility trailer that will probably fetch a better sales price than a 10 year old popup camper.
4. Obsolescence is built into these RV's from product lifelines to repair/maintenance support to point of use. I actually was told during an online reservation process app for a campground in eastern TN, that campers 10 years or old were not allowed. Designed obsolescence keeps the industry alive.....plain and simple.

Another thing I've learned.....when my wife retires in 2 years, we're really going to have to discuss this idea of full timing in a Class Super C or Class A for awhile before settling where we want to set up permanent retirement. It won't be a Jayco that's for sure.

[Grumpy]

Not sure what you received, but Jayco and Starcraft were always rated as the best and most reliable pop-ups and also sold the most. Unfortunately they stopped production in 2019 due to low demand.

With that said, "Pop-up parts" may have the info you're looking for.

http://www.popupparts.com/

[TaftCoach]

The popupportal.com may also be of more help.

The ten year rule is objective and can be equally applied. A we're trying to keep the park nice looking and your trailer doesn't meet our standards is subjective and opens the owners up to discrimination charges.

Most manufacturers don't control what campground owners do.

Thor owns Jayco and half the industry. Forest River owns the other half. You may wish to read the Forest River forums to compare products.

[bankr63]

You might also want to contact Jayco for warranty assistance if you are the original owner. The lift system on Jayco pop-ups has a lifetime warranty (for the original owner). See if they will stand behind it.