Northstar 850 sc Electric roof lift

MKish wrote:
I'd look into using a drill (after making sure the lift system is in good shape). People do that for tent trailers all the time. Not sure how the weight compares; they have shorter--but wider--roofs and a lot more weight in the sidewalls.

I have a TC800 and would use the drill if I had rooftop AC and a bad shoulder.

The new lift system is built into the cabinetry and probably hard to retrofit without gutting much of the camper.

I had a tc 800 and you should put a 90lb bag of concrete up there and see if you still would use a drill , the first 3 or 4 turns will be the worst and your going to rip up the teeth on the crank and more . I tried it on my tc800 before putting an AC in the back window .

I agree that the Reico system would be a lot of work and the ceiling inside paneling has nothing behind it but foam and the outside alum skin , thats why its so light . I`m sure NS has redesigned the roof to include backing at the lifts . And yes pocketing the lifts that seem to be about 2+ times the length of the softwall would take some doing , not to mention the holes left after taking out the tubing from the Heco , also theres going to be a hole in the softwall at the rear corners where the plates are carriage bolted to the vertical of the roof

Thats where the issue a lot of times is , the carriage bolts-nuts loosen and some of the torsion is lost , if its real bad -loose its obvious , sometimes the plywood of the vertical is rotted . Thats how I got my ts1000 cheap , and then fixed it with an alum plate on the outside. If their loose raise the roof to work on it , theres no torsion in the tubes then , the system is just an inner tube welded to a outer tube w/ rosete welds to the outer tube , the inner tube has the plates that attach to the roof in the back on NS ,and to lower wall in Outfitter and Hallmark , as you lower the roof tension is put into the inside tube twisting it , a new light roof will pop up a few inches in the back when the hold downs are released , one thats overloaded wont

I can see retro fitting the newer screw type system that the Hallmark video shows into the NS , there are differences in the NS Heco and the Hallmark in that the torsion is in the upper tubes and the Hallmark in the lower , but if they havent moved the points where the arms attach to the old heco to much , I think the vertical wood part that the Heco rack is attached to could be reworked to a flat horizontal with a vertical behind it to still separate the underbed area ,Not real easy but doable with carpentry skill . If the screw system w/ gear reduction could be bought .?