raising manual Penthouse when loaded - tips??

[smb4me]

does the electric lift run off the house battery? or chassis battery? do you need to run engine to run the electric lift?

[Scalf77]

The electric lift runs off of the house battery. You would only need to run the vehicle if the house was very low. I would ask SMB on the weight lifting capabilities of each option. I believe I was told that they could adjust the manual top to no more then 75 to 80 lbs. And that the Electric would handle up to 300 lbs. That was back in 2003 when I was visiting the factory. Obviously things could change, (and my memory gets worse every year). If you plan on putting a cargo box/or hauling other gear on top and don’t want to unload, I see this as I must have option.


Greg E350 EB V10

[jage]

I don't know about the electric lifting evenly, I've never loaded my top. However it does seem to go up and down unevenly when not level. The one nice thing about the electric is I can put it up and inch or so and push it into alignment by climbing on the bumpers.

I've never had the top not lift, but I've seen it visibly slower (hard to imagine with the top).

At SMB Texas Lonnie hopped in my van, threw off the clips and hucked the top "up" twice before I could stammer out "It's power!" Both times the top popped about 8" off the van and then back down. If you ran out of juice you could probably push up on the top to take the pressure off the mechanism and have enough juice to move the mechanism up- but you can't just push the electric up.

[Greg In Austin]

Thanks for that answer before I asked.... I was wondering last night if you could manually lift an electric penthouse...

So if the answer is no, is there a quick or easy way to unhook it so it can be done manually?

Does anyone have photos of the mechanism and switching for the electric version?

I had seen the tensioning instruction page way back when and forgotten it, now with more understanding I have a greater appreciation for the significance that exercise might have.

[LoneStarJR]

For the manual top, could you (safely) add a turnbuckle so you could more easily adjust the tension for varying weight loads?

[Scalf77]

Some Pictures of the Electric Top Actuators











Link to actuator web page
http://www.techline.linak.com/Products/?id2=592

Greg