Drill and socket genie

The best suited drill for opening a camper would be the new dewalt 18v with three battery setup.....Its the gift that he will apreciate outside of camping

Please read the above as me looking out for another Man, not necessarily what is required to just open the camper

 

Well, there will be many to weigh in on this thread with personal preference, torque specs, battery life...
If you are simply using the socket genie for the stabilizer jacks, any drill will do. However, if you plan to use a socket genie to raise and/or lower the roof, then you will need to be more informed regarding the actual "Power" or "Torque" of the drill.
I have a bad shoulder and the repetitive motion of raising or lowering the stabilizers was quite painful for me. I do raise the roof by hand though. It is a slower motion and has much more Resistance. Somehow, that doesn't bother my shoulder as much.
Anyway, I got a 19.2 Volt setup from Sears. The nice thing about this one is the universal fit of the batteries with all of the other battery operated tools that Sears offers. I take my drill, flashlight, second battery, and charger if we are going more than just a couple nights. I'm always doing little projects and use the drill all weekend.
And since I mentioned the universal fit, I also bought a "Dustbuster" type of Vac that uses the 19.2 battery. It is great for cleaning up the little gravels and sand that comes in on everybody's feet. It was a $25 purchase that we use every trip and it stays right in the camper.

 

Try this recent thread:

http://www.popupportal.com/index.php?topic=13478.0

 

I own a jayco the crank is a square tube that the handle slides into to raise the roof is there any kind of adapter I can buy for this style of crank? just put an a/c on top and it's gotten to be fairly heavy, any suggestions are appreciated Thanks

 

Yes. That is the same lift handle that I have. I use a socket genie - an actual one from the manufacturer, not a homemade one. They have a square end with slots for the stabilizers. If you are a little creative, you can also use this for your tongue jack. If you do buy the real socket genie, you will need a 1/2 inch chuck on the drill.

 

Just got a 7.2 amp electric drill to use on my 2006 Sea Pine roof. not enough power, up about 10 clicks and then a smoked drill. Anybody know what amperage I would need to get the job done? would prefer electric to avoid charging battery issues.




Danny

 

The 18 volt Dewalt would not lift my roof, so here is my favorite.

Bosch 38636-01 36-Volt Litheon Drill/Driver

Not cheap, but works great. Hang on tightly.

 

I am not sure what kind of camping you do. If you usually have electric, I picked one of these up at Harbor Freight



http://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-inch-heavy-duty-spade-handle-drill-93632.html

Currently $40 and lifts my 12' box with an air conditioner with no problem....
Like EV2 says, hold on!
ms

 

I can say this from experience, I have 2 DeWalts (12VT and 18VT) with the 12VT being 15 years old, and still being used. And I had a Craftsman. I will not buy another Craftsman again. You get what you pay for.

 

I've been in process of thinking about going this route also. I have had back surgery and neck surgery during the last decade and the bending/cranking gets to me if I don't have the wife/daughter to take turns with. I'm taking my cordless 18v Black and Decker next week on my trip and planning on using it for the stab jacks as they are all lubricated up and move very freely. This at least gets it down to just the roof lifting that I have to manually do. I have a double charger, a spare single charger and 3 batterys. I'm thinking the single charger and one spare battery are going in the camper going forward.

If you decide to get a drill to use for everything, from what I have read, you want a high torque, low speed (rpm) drill. Metal gearing will make it last longer than one with plastic gears. Deciding on if you want the cordless or corded is a decision that needs to take into consideration if you almost always have 120v power or if sometimes you will be camping without it. For me, we seldom go anyplace without 120v so I'm leaning towards the Harbor Freight drill pictured above as many have sung it's praises here on these forums.

Just remember, don't use it to crank your roof up all the way until it stops. I've seen some horror stories about busting cables by those that did. Manually crank your roof one last time. Back it down about 3-4 cranks and take a permantant marker and make a thick line on your lift closest to your crank hole so when you see that line as your raising your roof, you know to stop using the drill and finish the last few cranks my hand. The other warning I will give you is make it a rule that you double or triple check all the latches are open/unlocked prior to cranking your roof up. When using a crank, you can "feel" the resistance of a latch that accidently was left latched. When using a drill, you won't feel it and you will either pop/bend the latch or bust a cable.

 

Be careful with the Jayco, we tried a socket genie that is supposed to fit our square socket and it started to distort the fitting in the camper. We quit using it at that point and went back to hand cranking.

 

Does anyone know which Socket Jenie to use with a 2006 Fleetwood Cheyenne?

 

The socket Jenie website should tell you. If you have a question the site gives you a number to call, and may even mention who to ask for. There was some question re my 2008 Fleetwood Sea Pine, so I called and asked.

I got the 19.2V Sears and it lifts my Coleman Niagara roof with AC on the roof. The Niagara has factory power lift, but I had a problem this spring and so used my Jenie, until I got her fixed.

 

For those using a drill to raise their roofs what do you use to lock the roof up? Our coleman not sure if all hand cranked campers are like this but ours has a pin that when we get as highas we want to go we pull this pin next to the crank handle and let the crank come back to meet the pin and the pin stops the crank from spinning backwards and lowering the roof. If there is a drill on the crank shaft what is used to stop from spenning backwards once you take the drill off the shaft?

 

I am a cheap skate, I made mine with a spare crank.




I also use it on my stabilizers and my modified tongue jack

 

GOOD LORD! That think looks like it could tip the trailer over. I'll say a little quiet prayer for your lift system components.

 

RonB,
It takes a LOT of torque to lift a roof, I have a 12' box with an A/C up there. I don't use it on high speed, in fact I have the speed turned down as low as it will allow the roof to come up. I also never raise the roof completely, I always stop a bit short and hand crank the rest of the way. Works great on the BAL as well!! Best $40 I have spent on the camper.
ms

 

when i was in computer classes in college, one of the instructors gave words of wisdom i'll never forget concerning electrical devices "once you let the magic smoke out, it doesn't work anymore"

 

Its not an amperange issue, its torque issue. You need a drill that can handle 450 in/lb. Check our Hitachi and Dewalt.