Lifting Mechanism?

[starleen2]

Whew! Finally back from Virginia – and just finished reading the thread - I’m going out in a while to find a suitable crank and I do think the cable and pulley is the best method. Thanks for the input folks and I’ll begin the installation as soon as I can gather up all the parts - and Rayvillian – I too am pondering your situation )

[kennyrayandersen]

JMHO but it seems the cable rollers are placed in the wrong orientation. If they were placed with the axle 90 degrees to the trailer side walls at the very tops of the right and left rear 90 degree wall corners and then the cable ran down to the the lowest point on the hatch wing , IE the point of the wing, they would not have to follow an arc.

The cable and attachment point would be all but hidden by the wing,think of a garage door torsion balance spring mechanism but with the power located remotely.

Using pulleys the pull point could be located anywhere with a simple boat type winch providing the power. The cables would not have to be that robust (less than 1/8")as the hatch from what I have seen is not all that heavy. In fact it is very possible that a pair of garage door cables could be utilized as they already have an eye and ferrule on one end which would slip over a pin located on the wing side panel of the hatch. The cables are used for lifting and lowering not holding.

Sorry for the long post but this intrigued me and it was all clear in my mind even if it came out muddy.

Tech

Because there is a hinge-line there will be an arc -- it just happens.

Good I dea about the cable source!

[tech]

Cable route on side profile posted by Mike

[starleen2]

Hey Gary it can work for you too. Instead of mounting the crank in the center – move it to the front on the tongue? Then run the cables to the front parallel to the dropped floor and then use an additional set of pulleys to align it to the winch once past the dropped floor section.

[kennyrayandersen]

Cable route on side profile posted by Mike

The line is straight, but the path traveled is an arc

It doesn't mater where you put it. Because it has a hinge-line any point on the hatch proscribes an arc as it travels.