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Old 07-21-2024, 07:33 PM   #1
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Slow pop top…

Looking at a 2013 Sportsmobile sprinter with a pop top.

Owner reports that the pop top will sometimes slow and he needs to provide just a little bit of upward pressure to get it to go all the way up.

Is this the start of a bad motor? More of a lubrication thing?

Are there any known defects?

Can you raise a Sportsmobile pop top manually without the motor?

Any experience or knowledge would be very helpful.

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Old 07-21-2024, 11:17 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vndlfsn View Post
Are there any known defects?

Is a frog's ass watertight?



....Could be many things.....are there solar panels/rack on the roof? Many penthouse roofs can benefit from increased spring preload...powered or manual, especially those with stuff added to the roof.
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Old 08-05-2024, 11:35 AM   #3
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B.W.,

Just a few notes from the "peanut gallery":

Your advice regarding SMBs has been uniformly excellent, and I have benefitted from it more than once. Thank you!

However, according to a certain wildlife biologist whom I'm very close to (she sleeps next to me), the answer to your frog question is a resounding "no".

Being amphibians, a frog's entire body is semi-permeable to water, as these species lack a watertight skin. This is a defining characteristic of amphibians, and is what makes frogs and other similar critters so vulnerable to contaminants in their environment. Trace amounts of fertilizers, pesticides, you-name-it, EVERYTHING dissolved in the water around them soaks in, at least to some degree. Conversely, water leaks out, too (keeping their skin moist), which is why these species require an environment with frequent access to water.

In the end, a frog's grommet isn't any more watertight than the rest of its body.

(Sorry . . . I just couldn't resist the pun.)

And just in case the above information now has you thinking about substituting another humorous rhetorical question about the defecation habits of ursines - you might want to re-think that one too. Around these parts, the bears frequently seem to drop their loads in the middle of roads (both dirt and paved) - seemingly as some form of territorial marking (usually after raiding our neighbors' fruit trees).

But with regard to the existence of known defects in SMB pop-top power-lift systems, I believe that you are absolutely correct!

Please keep up your flow of good information!

Timerider

P.S. We're sticking with our properly-adjusted manual-lift-only pop-top for now . . .
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Old 08-05-2024, 12:09 PM   #4
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I had a manual pop-top that I later had converted to motorized.
A motorized top cannot be manually operated.
The mechanical advantage the lift units have is worst at the start of deployment - that is, when the top is all the way down. As the top is lifted, the mechanical advantage improves and the motors are better able to lift - hence the top may need a bit of help at the beginning. My van's top, for example, has the tendency to have the driver's side start up, but the passenger side lags a bit, so to keep it from getting crooked, I push on the passenger side for the first inch or so.
I had the electric top added because the springs were getting weak, and the top had the distressing tendency to suddenly and violently lower without warning. Adding the electric drive prevents that, as well as allowing me to almost close the top, then run around tucking the top in before the final lowering.
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Old 08-05-2024, 07:44 PM   #5
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[QUOTE=Wowbagger;333811]
The mechanical advantage the lift units have is worst at the start of deployment - that is, when the top is all the way down. As the top is lifted, the mechanical advantage improves and the motors are better able to lift - hence the top may need a bit of help at the beginning.

Agree,

To understand this, you have to look at the angle of the linear actuators that push the top up. If the actuators are horizontal or 90 degrees to the vertical then all their force is doing near nothing to push up or lift the roof.

As the actuators can make a small amount of progress, then the actuators become more vertical and have a much better mechanical advantage and the lifting occurs faster.

There probably is no pop top lift that starts horizontally with the linear actuators, however, the closer they are to horizontal the more problem they will have lifting.

With a manual roof, you can push straight up at the start which is the most efficient mechanical advantage short of having some lever arm.
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