DIY Converting a manual penthouse to electric (A possible solution?)

[Flakwagon]

Oh and to address the earlier questions of how Im working this thing now, Im doing a combination of a shoulder press and a leg press. Im in really good shape and this is still pretty hard to do. But if I ever have a day where my back is bothering me, it wont be going anywhere.

Check out the hi Lift jack set up I rigged up real quick. It would look alot cleaner If I decided to make this a more permanent solution.

[Nrobert10]

Ok so I did the same experiment lifting my top this weekend with both my weight and a jack. I have an EB pop top with no racks or anything on top. Springs have full length chains and not blocks behind the springs.

With the jack I had a total lifting weight that never exceeded 150#'s. That weight is including the jack and lumber that weighted 46#'s. So total lifting weight of 104#'s.

When I tried it with my house scale and my body weight it was much harder to watch it very detailed but I came up with 94#'s after removing my weight.

[berns378]

I bought a assit lift from sportsmobile 12 years ago for under 400 dollars.had to replace fuse twice. takes less then 30 seconds to lift top. I have two solar panels aluminess light bar with four lites and a go light. also a sky box loaded. very heavy but no problem with the lift.

[boywonder]

Nrobert: I briefly met with Flakwagon yesterday and did some bathroom scale lifting...he has an EB with three links out of the chain and we got readings a little higher than yours.

His top will stay in place where you put it and it will move near the top of it's travel with about 60 lbs. To start lifting it from full down took at bit more than what you are showing above....I think around 140-160 lbs.

He needs more preload on his helper springs.....and the more I think about it longer springs would help greatly as well.

His top is a mid 90's and the helper springs are shorter than the springs in my early 2000's RB top. Any chance both you and Flakwagon can measure the length of your helper springs? I will measure mine when I get back to So Cal next weekend hopefully.

[Nrobert10]

I will measure my helper springs but wont be able to get to it until this weekend as my van is in a barn where I'm doing my 4wd conversion.

[Nrobert10]

So my helper springs are 12" long.

I remeasured the weight again this weekend two different ways. One without the helper springs and one with them.

Helper springs removed jack and wood was 35#'s. The max weight of the lift was 185# total including the jack and lumber. This was about 4 clicks up on the high jack.

With the helper springs in it was 148# including the jack and lumber.

My top will also sit still and not raise also if you are above the first 10-12" of lift.

[rob_gendreau]

Has anyone ever used a trailer jack? like the stabilizer/leveling jacks on campers? They have electric versions as low as $150 or so, Electric Jack w/ Footplate - Drop Leg - A-Frame - 25-1/8" Lift - 3,500 lbs - Black etrailer Camper Jack EJ-3520-BBX. Kinda bulky, but might have a use elsewhere in the van which would make it worthwhile to have.

[boywonder]

...Just measured my helper springs.... 23.5" long

[Flakwagon]

Sorry I've been offline, I've been busy trying to get my build finished! About a week out from completion! But yes I did meet with boywonder and I added 1.5" wood blocks behind my lift assist springs. That has taken my initial lift weight of 170 down to 130. This has made it Much nicer getting up and the top almost pops up on its own after the initial lift. Solar panels are going on this week so we will see how that affects it. Me and Katie have been doing a team lift effort lately where we each push up on one of the vinyl pads at the same time. This takes minimal effort and makes me think we have plenty of room left for solar and cargo on top.