How to keep front shell fully extended

[ByronDillard]

How can I keep the front shell fully extended? When I raise the back shell, it pulls the front shell back a bit. This causes problems with the door because the swing out box at the bottom is out of square, the door doesn’t close properly, etc. The little arms that swing out to hold the shell in place have quite a bit of play front to back so they don’t completely hold the front shell all the way open. A related question is how do you keep those little arms up? When the shell is in the property position, there is no tension/friction to keep them from dropping off the pins on the bottom of the shell.

[Kidkraz]

You should be able to tighten those little arms enough where they don’t fall down. I have one that always loosens over time. On my last serving they snugged a tiny bit too much in my opinion, but it does move with extra effort. There should be a split lock washer under the bolt head to help it stay tight.
With them snug and staying up you should be able to keep the front shell from shifting back.

[ByronDillard]

Thanks, I hadn’t thought about tightening down on the bolt to keep the arm from dropping. Seems like that will work fairly well on a couple of my bolts but a couple may need some locktite so that they don’t loosen every time I raise or lower the arm.

[Larryjb]

Byron,

I think that as long as the aluminum has not stripped out, I'd avoid the use of locktite. If you find you need to retighten or readjust in the future, locktite may make this much more difficult. I'd try by using or replacing the lock washer first.

If the screw hole is stripped out, I think I'd be inclined to bolt a new piece of aluminum to the side where the bolt screws into to give you new threads to bite into.

[Bill]

To tighten the arms, you might consider adding one or two rubber flat washers to the stack. They may be a little grippier than steel flat washers, and a bit less grippy than steel lockwashers (on aluminum? really?)

Bill

[ByronDillard]

Yes, I was wondering about using rubber washers.

[ByronDillard]

Bill tells me that the front shell should stay fully open without needing to use the arms to hold it in place. My TM doesn’t want to do that. When I pull the front all the way out, it immediately settles back about 6 inches when I let go. I have to hold it out while I attach a little arms on each side to keep it in position and then of course it tries to settle back as far as they will let it go. I thought that was normal but I guess not? I will try to attach a couple pictures that show where it naturally wants to sit and picture with it all the way out. It will only stay there as long as someone holds onto it pretty well like my wife can be seen doing in this picture. I have the TM completely level. What should I do to fix this?

[Larryjb]

If your shell wants to pull back, your torsion bars may need adjusting. Do the front shell feel heavier to lift than the rear one?

I spent a lot of time working on mine. In the end I had to replace two torsion bars, but that was for other reasons. In the end, I learned a lot about torsion bar adjustments. I summarized the check/adjustment process here:
https://www.trailmanorowners.com/for...ad.php?t=19939

I have future plans to add more pictures, but things like replacing the rear main seal on my truck have taken precedence!

[ByronDillard]

Thanks Larry! I’ll read up on this. I haven’t noticed a significant difference in the effort to lift the shells. I’ll try to pay more attention. I have noticed that it takes quite a bit of force to pull down and latch the front shell when I’m closing. So my immediate thought is if I tighten the torsion bars, it would be even harder to close, but maybe that’s not the way it works.


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[Larryjb]

It's still a good idea to check the torsion bars. However, I'm starting to wonder if something is binding. Stranger things have happened. Just look at the following:
https://www.trailmanorowners.com/for...ad.php?t=20059