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Re: Roof lifter

Posted: Tue, 03 Sep 2013, 11:03 am
by Derekscoopers
What a great idea, bit of thought and the problem solved, tried to put up the Portafold for the first time over the weekend and my poor liitle wife is struggling to help, perhaps as she is only 5ft !!

And my daughter is also 5ft would not be able to take it away to use so we must finda way round it.

Steve, are you going into production ? I would definitely be in line for one. name your price. would really appreciate it.

Derek

Re: Roof lifter

Posted: Tue, 03 Sep 2013, 6:10 pm
by txfsealord
Hi Derek,

Sorry to say that when I costed it for an initial 'test batch' of 3off units, the price came out so high it scared me to death. It's one of those simple-looking jobs which takes quite a long time to do, virtually as a one-off, & there's no prospect of big sales to get the price down. If I price 'em to adequately cover bought-in parts & my own labour hours, the unit-cost ends up somewhere near that of a half-decent Portafold; it's completely unrealistic. Another issue is that everyone's caravan is different, & the choices I made for the arrangement of mine might not suit your situation. So each lifter should really be tailored to suit its 'van & owners, to some extent.

I'm happy to furnish advice, recommendations on stock sizes, parts-sources & so on, if you want to build one yourself, as Billy, Shelly & some others have done. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful.

Steve

Re: Roof lifter

Posted: Tue, 03 Sep 2013, 7:27 pm
by Derekscoopers
Steve

Thanks for your reply, I have studied the pictures and I guess I will have a go, so ordered the winch and roller tonight and down to our friendly exhaust supplier tomorrow or maybe aluminium ! lets see, anyway your is what to aim for and if I can get anywhere close I will be happy.

Cheers

Derek

Re: Roof lifter

Posted: Wed, 04 Sep 2013, 7:18 am
by txfsealord
Hi Derek, good for you. If you're using aluminium tubing (excellent weight-saving idea) you need to take extra care with the sliding parts of the hook-carriage as the softness of ally means steel straps will tend to 'pick up' & score its surface. This is one reason why I used steel tube on mine, the main reason being the ease of fabricating steel. Nowadays there are solders available which enable proper ally fabrication at home using a blowlamp, so that no longer applies. You might find it better to use Nylon "cotton-reel" rollers in the hook-carriage, as it's a nuisance when this jams, as well as potentially being damaging/dangerous if the roof suddenly drops. Check out the range of 'Hozelock' accessories in garden centres! I've seen a handy-looking fairlead offered for guiding garden hoses, which might yield exactly-suitable rollers, & I wish I'd spotted it before making my own lifter. Notice in Shelly's pictures, how much further from the roof-hook her tubing has to be compared to mine, to clear her Portafold's bay window when the front panel is erected. My Ansfold has a flat front panel which makes the hook-carriage easier to design.

I found the overall hardest bit was making easy-to-use sleeve-joints in the tubing to enable it to be dismantled for boot storage in the car. If you can fit the full-length tube into your car or your caravan's footwell, it makes the construction vastly easier & much lighter.

Hope these observations are helpful,

Steve

Re: Roof lifter

Posted: Wed, 04 Sep 2013, 9:00 am
by Derekscoopers
Steve

that's a great help, yes I did look at Shelly's and noticed the distance, I can also see that if you were using it to dismantle the Portafold once the end walls are up it would have to be quite a wide hook carriage to keep the pole straight,

Also considered a plumbers tube to temporary fit to the Portafold to carry the lifter without having to have it in breakdown pieces but I will tackle that later

I noticed on Shelly's that there must be some sort of peg on the towing bracket to locate the base of the lifter, I will do the same and then have a t piece that will slot in to use on the floor at the other end.

Well this is getting more fun that I thought,

Cheers Steve

Derek

Lifting Winch

Posted: Wed, 22 Nov 2017, 11:45 am
by shaun_pierce
Saw one of these at a Portafold International some years ago and decided to get one made.
Lifter_1.jpg
Lifter_2.jpg
Lifter_3.jpg
Lifter_4.jpg

Re: Roof lifter

Posted: Thu, 28 May 2020, 9:16 pm
by knockdolian
Hi all, hope everyone is well. I have made one of these roof winches as my wife says I’m too old to be lifting the Portafold roof !!
Anyway to keep her happy. I have made one. I can put one end up easy. When it comes to putting the other end up it just seems so flimsy and precarious. I’m worried the far end will fall outwards. Take the winch with it and brake the hinges. The photos that have been put up showing the erection of their Portafold looks so sturdy and safe. Am I missing something ?
Thanks
Paul

Re: Roof lifter

Posted: Thu, 28 May 2020, 9:22 pm
by TRUNNIONMAN
I made one myself for my Portafold but I made the base mount of mine fixed on the A frame as I found that to be the most difficult end to lift despite me only being in my forties and over 6ft tall.

Re: Roof lifter

Posted: Thu, 28 May 2020, 9:29 pm
by knockdolian
Thanks for your reply. Taking another look at the photos of the red Portafold it looks like the hook is tethered to the pole which makes sense . I’ll try that. I also made mine to sit on the A frame. I have a fixed step on the back which is the same height as the A frame so should be able to lift both ends. 👍

Re: Roof lifter

Posted: Thu, 28 May 2020, 9:36 pm
by TRUNNIONMAN
Yes I made my one to fit around the pole so as to stop it from swinging from side to side