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Old 08-16-2010, 10:27 AM   #4
MisterP
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Trailmanor Pocket Stop Installation Page! (one picture remains)

**** UPDATE, SEE BELOW! ****

Ok, here's the section I've been just waiting to get at. The installation of the pocket stops. To install the rear pockets of the front clam shell, I simply placed a board on the floor to keep the jack from making divits in the floor, put a board between the jack, and another board going crossways across the ceiling. Then I CAREFULLY raised the jack enough to take the pressure off the bolts that connect the travel arms to the roof section, took them out, and raised it up enough to slip a 2x4" under the front shell to hold it up. Mind you, installing the ones in the rear is a lot easier than the front as there's more of a "pivot" point from the front travel arms so it's not so heavy. I could have simply lifted it up, and had a friend do all that including the board, but it's just me to work on it.

As you can see, the TM is lifted in the rear of the front section off the travel arms where I can get to the pocket stops. The sun was back to the rear of the TM, and you can see the small crack of sunlight going across the trailer from where the front roof section was lifted off the rear roof section.

Here's another view with the rear of the front section raised. In this picture, you get to see what the travel arm looks like that goes up in the trailer. I do understand now why TM is so careful about the weight on the torsion bars, I could pull back the travel arm no problem. The whole front section probably doesn't weigh 500lbs. Just one of these torsion bars only has to support 1/4th of that weight.

Here you see the new pocket stop, I changed my mind with the rubber stop as I didn't know how big the original was, and decided to go with what was in there. It turns out it was 3/4" thick, by about 2.5" long, and a half inch wide. I had thought about screwing it in there, having the pocket stop machined, and threaded, but finally decided to just duct tape it in place. Mind you, this is a temp fix just for now. I can't see duct tape holding for years.........Besides, I still have the new bumpers on order as of this writing. I had to cut a peice of wood to go in the other side, as the wood was completely gone out of the other side, as well as the rubber bumper. (To fashion a bumper). I also put some wood up in there to hold the pocket stop. If you look at the picture before this, the wood was completely gone out of the back side of the section just behind the door, but the wood where the door is was ok. (The doorjam side.)

Here is another view of the pocket stop with the rubber bumper in place. There are a couple of interesting side notes here. One, you will notice the bolt cutters.....they were used to cut the old rusty screws in some places, I guess I need to set up a "tools needed" section.........lol I'll work on it.......I just happened to have the set from my Army days we used to "breach" wire obsticals...(why they are camoflaged). But more importantly, in this pic, you can see how taught the line is that was holding the front section up. After just installing the rear pocket stops, I didn't even need the line on the door side of the trailer, it was completely slack, so I took it down. There was however a little slack in this side, so left this one up just as a safety precaution.

Here's another picture of the pocket stop getting ready to be put in place. For the most part, the replacement stops fit PERFECTLY in place.

Finally, one last picture of the trailer up where it can be worked on. As you will note, there is a 55gal drum sitting in front of the trailer. As per the TM notes, this was supposed to be needed, but mine did not need to rest the front on it like the diagram showed.

I will be updating this page on the replacement of the front stops soon. It still has the separation of the front roof to the sides which will have to be repaired first, so stay tuned!

**** UPDATE! ****

IMAGE



Here is the "new and improved" pocket stop. What I did was drill a hole in both the pocket stop, and the rubber bushing, as well as (1) 1/8th inch shim, (to limit forward travel), then I threaded the pocket stop. Then I simply added a #10 x1.5" countersunk stainless steel screw to hold the bumper to the pocket stop. I did however experience a setback though today. I went to raise the back of the front section again to take out the taped old stops, and put in the newer ones, and wouldn't ya know the wall separated on the door side from the ceiling? Drats!!!! LOL, yeah, I kinda had a feeling that was going to happen at some point, but was really hoping it'd hold together long enough to get the stops in. So down the TM went again to completely replace out the wood in both the wall, and roof section on the door side with aluminum.

I tried to jack the rear up, and crack.....lol, wouldn't ya know the ceiling came apart from the wall.....oh well. Luckily I had the aluminum and wood I needed to repair it hastely. Which I did. I simply knocked the old wood out, and replaced it with aluminum, and or aluminum/wood combo. Having the knowledge from working on the other side however, made it go a LOT faster. Instead of cutting off the long screws hanging down with my dremel tool, I just cut them with my bolt cutters. I would bet it took me an hour to get the old wood out, screws out, and put the aluminum in. I will screw it all together tomorrow after my cordless drill battery's charged up. (Screwdriver, bought at big lots for 35 bucks). So I guess cut the 2.5 hour job down to 1.5 hours from the other side. Lol, I guess from looking at it, it seems bad...almost "unrecoverable" to some.....to me, it was a 2.5 hour job that I cut down to 1.5....... ;o) I've spent more time fixing a toilet in my house.......lol.......doesn't scare me much.

I just stuck some wood in there, then added my aluminum. I added from the rear and pushed it in forward. What you see in the above picture is a .5"x1" piece of wood used as a filler.

Above, you can see how I then added the aluminum tubing, again from the rear, and pushed it in forwards.

And finally, you see all the aluminum in place ready to be screwed down.