Tricks for Mechanical Advantage

At age 76, I am not as strong as I used to be. The last time I put up the TM, I had to pull fairly hard and get a little momentum going to open the forward shell all the way. Also the pull had to be exerted at or above head level, as I remember, which was a little hard on my back. Anyway, I got it up and the rear shell came up much easier.

When I put the TM down, I couldnt get the back shell to snap down quite by stepping on the side U-bolt. I went and got a prybar and padded it and stuck it under the TM. With the mechanical advantage of the lever, the shell snapped down with no problem. The same trick worked well with the front shell.

This got me to thinking. There ought to be a number of leverage tricks to take the physical effort out of raising and lowering the TM for us old geezers. It should be possible to put a couple of eye bolts in the shells that a rope could be attached to. Then a stake could be driven in the ground with a pivot eye to the bottom of a 6 foot lever. The rope from the shell could be clipped to the middle of the lever, then one could just grab the top of the lever, lean back with your body weight, and the shell should snap into full extension with almost no physical strain on the body. There would be a vertical and forward lift on the stake at the foot of the lever, so one might have to go to a screw stake such as is used to anchor a dog chain.

Have any of you experimented with gimmicks like this? It seems to me that several months back, one one of the posters sold his TM and shifted to another RV because the physical disabilities that come with age made it difficult for him to cope with the TM. I thought at the time that that was a pity, since it seemed to me that a little ingenuity might be able to overcome the physical limitation.

Anyway, all you frequent posters are great in the ingenuity department. Perhaps, some of you have already developed tricks to use mechanical advantages, (levers, pulleys, etc.) to remove the strength requirement from the activities of camping with a TM. I can currently handle the operations mostly. But a few years down the line, I may have to develop such tricks (or trade my TM in on another RV). I would welcome any ideas that might postpone such a necessity into the far future.

Best Wishes,
WyomingRockHound

[Bill]

I have occasionally found that when either shell is almost fully up, and I need to tweak the position a bit, it is easier to grab one of the (now almost vertical) lift arms (the white rectangular arm, two per side per shell), and lean in the direction I want it to go.

T_C mentioned levelling, and he is right - trying to open a shell even slightly uphill is VERY difficult. Someone on this board (I apologize for not knowing who) put this fact to his advantage. IIRC, he unhitched, then dropped the tongue jack slightly below level, which made it easy to open the front shell. Then he raised the tongue jack slightly above level, and opened the rear shell. Finally, returned the tongue jack to level and lowered the stabilizers. Obviously an electric jack makes this process quite a bit easier.

Bill

Thanks for the suggestions!! I'll try them out as soon as the dreary skies and relatively thick afternoon thunderstorm activity blows over here in Southeast Wyoming. It's nasty to get out into the mountains with the frequent lightning and heavy rain. We should change into a summer high pressure weather cycle with lots of blue sky very soon.

Thanks again for your help. I hadn't thought of the trick of lowering or raising the tonge or pulling on the lever arms. Actually, I might attach a rope to the two lever arms at the appropriate spot so they could be pulled equally in a one-man operation.

Best Wishes,
WyomingRockHound

[Bill]

Wyoming Rockhound wrote:

I might attach a rope to the two lever arms at the appropriate spot so they could be pulled equally in a one-man operation.

Great idea! A length of rope with an S-hook at each end! Drop the S-hook onto the the appropriate spot on each side - maybe on the side U-bolts - then drop the middle of the loop over your butt, and simply lean into the loop.

Thanks for the idea!

Bill