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Old 07-10-2020, 03:58 PM   #51
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Pete: do you have a manual top or a powered top?


You can only work on the mech with the top up.....for several reasons.....


..not sure what let loose looking at your pictures...


Where are you located?

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Old 07-10-2020, 03:59 PM   #52
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Originally Posted by snomad View Post
Pete, sorry for your trouble. These are images of the driver's side front-end bar connection point on my electric top looking back towards front & front to back. I replaced the original bolts with shoulder bolts with the top up working with Larrie video as a guide. < https://www.sportsmobileforum.com/fo...ideo-9838.html >

Post 2 & 5 of this thread sound feasible in raising the penthouse.
Hmmm, that isn't the area that I think is broken, although I guess that is possible as well. What has let go is the mechanism in the actual roof. The part I showed photos of is attached to the fiberglass portion of the roof, and is covered with white vinyl.
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Old 07-10-2020, 04:03 PM   #53
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Originally Posted by boywonder View Post
Pete: do you have a manual top or a powered top?


You can only work on the mech with the top up.....for several reasons.....


..not sure what let loose looking at your pictures...


Where are you located?
It is a manual top.

Ok so noted.

This is the area I’m talking about.

I am in Irvine
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Old 07-10-2020, 05:46 PM   #54
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under my vinyl there is a plywood containment to position the U end of the bar covered with a metal plate. maybe the side blocks of ply shifted and/or the bar "dropped" out of alignment & jammed. there is a gap between metal plate & wood as shown in side view.

not sure about a bolt

again, this is an electric top but probably similar on a manual
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Old 07-10-2020, 06:17 PM   #55
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under my vinyl there is a plywood containment to position the U end of the bar covered with a metal plate. maybe the side blocks of ply shifted and/or the bar "dropped" out of alignment & jammed. there is a gap between metal plate & wood as shown in side view.

not sure about a bolt

again, this is an electric top but probably similar on a manual
This is really helpful and I believe allows me to understand what happened. The bolt on the scissor mechanism that joins the two bars together came undone, so the bar moved in that space where you showed the pictures. I thought this was where the problem was. So, I am pretty clear that I likely don't have any problem to solve in that area, like I had originally thought. Not ever seeing what was in there, I thought that some of the spring mechanism was located there. I realize now that is not the case.

I simply need to put the bolt back in the location that it came out of. I think the spring must have let go on that side (drivers side), so I guess I need to somehow compress that spring to put it back together?

I just tried opening the top, and obviously, one side is still working fine, and the other side is not, so when I try to open it, there is binding and wood cracking sounds. Any suggestions how to safely open the top without damaging anything, and repair the side where the bolt came out?
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Old 07-10-2020, 06:28 PM   #56
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Thanks for all the info guys that was really helpful!
Well after installing the front legs today I realized that the penthouse top is 1/2" higher when closed, looks like the roof actually rests on the legs . So I decided not to go with a permanent fold down leg install. Instead i used the same legs SMB provided and added rubber caps on one end and felt on the other. I can still store the legs with clips to the roof so they are out of the way when not used. IMHO free standing legs just make more sense, or maybe I just didn't get how they were supposed to be installed




Yes u can order them from SMB west for ~35$, i ordered them when they shipped me a new PH bed 6month ago. Having said that in hindsight I shouldn't have bothered since the fold down legs did not work for me (See above), could have just gone with dowels from home depot.
SMB also sells fold down gaucho legs for ~15$, gotta cut them to length as well.


On another note, I found that one of the scissor bolts had a loose nut and the other one was missing completely . Thats scary. I was planning on removing 2 links anyway, so I might see if its worth changing the bolts to shoulder bolts while I'm at it.
Bad Photo of the screw with the nut missing

This is the bolt that came loose in my situation. A big impact to my rig when that little bolt came out!
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Old 07-10-2020, 07:40 PM   #57
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Pete: I'm in South OC (Coto De Caza)....


If you want to drive down I'd be happy to help.....bring a mask.


The pivot bolt failure is a common problem...I highly recommend replacing with a shoulder screw...


Looks like that failure blasted your top lifting/slider block apart....it's a pretty feeble glue joint up there.....all fixable ..just a PITA.
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Old 07-11-2020, 05:16 PM   #58
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Pete: I'm in South OC (Coto De Caza)....


If you want to drive down I'd be happy to help.....bring a mask.


The pivot bolt failure is a common problem...I highly recommend replacing with a shoulder screw...


Looks like that failure blasted your top lifting/slider block apart....it's a pretty feeble glue joint up there.....all fixable ..just a PITA.
I will definitely take you up on your offer! DM me a day and time that would be good for you!
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Old 07-11-2020, 10:51 PM   #59
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A stand up move there Boywonder... a big part of what makes this forum special.
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Old 07-14-2020, 10:34 AM   #60
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A stand up move there Boywonder... a big part of what makes this forum special.
Agreed!
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