# Pop-Up Camper Repair for Tustin Tent Trailer Owners > Pop up camper repair at OCRV Center usually begins at the lift system: scissor arms, steel lift cables, corner pulleys, the winch and the torsion bars that carry roof weight. Canvas and zipper work, roof panel delamination and low clearance roof strikes make up most of the rest. Camper body work runs $750 to $50,000, in shop. Source: https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/campers-trailers/pop-up-camper-repair/ Business: OCRV Center, 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887. (949) 799-3387. Serving Tustin, California. Ballpark range: $750 to $50,000. Posted rates at https://ocrv.biz/prices/ ## The lift system is effectively the whole camper Strip a tent trailer down to what actually matters and you are left with a shallow box, a thin roof panel and the mechanism that separates them. Four scissor arms sit in the corners. A steel cable runs from a drum on the winch, through the frame, over corner pulleys, and terminates at each arm. Torsion bars carry a share of the roof weight so the winch is not fighting the full mass on its own. That means the whole vehicle is a load path. If one cable stretches half an inch more than the other three, the roof lands out of square, the latch on the low corner will not seat, and the owner reports a leak. The leak is real, but the cause is a cable, not a seal. This is the single most misdiagnosed complaint on the subtype, and chasing it with sealant makes it worse because the roof then bears on hardened caulk instead of the gasket. The crank gearbox is the other quiet failure. Nylon or powdered metal gears inside a sealed housing wear a flat, and the crank starts skipping under load near the top of travel. Owners keep cranking. A skipping gearbox will eventually shear a tooth with the roof halfway up, which is how cables get shock loaded and how roofs get dropped. ## Cable fray, pulley wear and the order we check them Cables fail from the inside out. The visible strand break at the swage fitting is a late symptom. Long before that, the cable has been sawing across a pulley whose bushing has worn oval, so the sheave no longer runs true and the cable rides the flange instead of the groove. - Roof down, latches released, tension read at each corner by hand. A slack corner is found before anything is disassembled. - Access panels off, cable runs traced end to end with a rag, feeling for broken strands and rust bloom under the lay. - Every pulley spun by hand. Any sheave that clicks, wobbles or shows a flat spot on the groove gets replaced with the cable, not after it. - Winch drum inspected for cable stacking and the brake mechanism checked for hold under partial load. - Torsion bar bushings and arm pivots inspected for elongation, which is what makes the roof rack sideways during travel. - Roof cycled three times, corner heights measured at full extension, cables adjusted until the four corners land within a common plane. Replacing one cable on a four cable camper is a false economy. The other three have the same hours, the same salt exposure and the same duty cycle. We quote the set. ## Canvas, vinyl and the zippers that surrender first The tent bag is either cotton duck canvas, a poly blend, or a vinyl coated fabric depending on the model and its age. Each behaves differently. Canvas breathes and mildews. Vinyl does not breathe and cracks along fold lines once the plasticizers migrate out, which in Southern California sun happens faster than owners expect. Zippers are the highest failure item on the whole bunk end. Coil zippers on door and window panels stiffen with grit, the slider spreads, and the teeth stop meshing at the exact point where the fabric is under the most tension. A slider swap fixes an early case. Once the coil itself is deformed, the panel needs a new zipper tape stitched in, which means removing the panel from the bag. Where the bag meets the roof and the box, it is held by a bead in an extruded track, or by staples and a batten on older units. That attachment line is where leaks actually live. Water rarely comes through a canvas field. It comes in at a torn bead, a pulled staple, or a seam whose stitching has rotted while the fabric around it still looks fine. ## Roof panel delamination and garage header strikes The lift roof is built light on purpose: a thin fiberglass or aluminum skin bonded to a foam core, sometimes with a luan layer, framed at the perimeter. It has to be light because a person has to crank it up. Light also means it has almost no impact reserve. Two things wreck them. The first is delamination, where the skin releases from the core and the roof develops soft, oil canned patches you can press with a thumb. The second is a strike: a garage header the owner forgot about, a low branch on a campground loop, a parking structure beam. Because the roof sits low in travel mode, drivers stop thinking about height, and pop up roofs get hit far more often than their square footage suggests. A localized delamination repair is an injection and vacuum clamp job. A struck roof usually needs a section of skin cut out and a new panel bonded and blended. Delamination repair prices at **$1,500 to $20,000** across 10 to 100 hours depending on how much of the panel has let go. Camper roof repair, reseal and full replacement covers $500 to $14,000 over 3 to 70 hours. Both bands are posted on the [prices page](/prices/). ## What pop-up work costs and how long the camper stays Small jobs stay small on this subtype, which is why we like owners to bring them in early. A window repair, reseal or replacement is $250 to $3,500 over 1 to 14 hours. Entry and cargo door repair is $400 to $4,500. Tongue, coupler and safety chain repair is $250 to $1,500. Bearing repack and hub service is $250 to $1,200, and on a folding trailer that has sat in a side yard through several seasons, the bearings are usually overdue. Electric brake and axle service on Dexter or AL KO running gear runs $300 to $5,500. Cabinetry repair and refacing on the galley module is $500 to $7,500. Posted labor is $210 per hour for body and paint work and $260 per hour for mechanical and electrical. Jobs over $2,000 take 50 percent at authorization, balance at pickup. All of it is done in shop in Yorba Linda, a straight run for Tustin owners up the 55 and across the 91. We stand behind our work. Bring the camper in with the roof down and the keys, and [Request a Quote](/contact/). ## How this job runs 1. **Roof down assessment**: The camper is received closed. Corner tension, latch engagement and roof to box gap are measured before anything is opened, because a closed unit shows the twist that an open one hides. 2. **Mechanism teardown**: Access panels come off, cables and pulleys are traced end to end, and the winch and crank gearbox are bench checked. Findings are photographed for the estimate and for the carrier if a claim is open. 3. **Structure and skin repair**: Roof panel delamination, skin damage and box frame repair are completed before the lift is reassembled, so the mechanism is set against a roof that is already the correct shape and weight. 4. **Fabric and seal work**: Tent bag, zippers, bead track and batten attachment are handled after structure. Panels are fitted with the roof at full extension, then checked for bunching at the fold line with the roof down. 5. **Cycle test and handover**: The roof is raised and lowered at least three times, corner heights are measured at full extension, latches are verified without adjustment, and the owner is shown the crank effort to expect. ## Questions ### My roof will not latch on one corner. Is that a latch problem? Almost never. A single corner that will not seat means the four lift cables are no longer landing the roof in a common plane, or one scissor arm pivot has elongated. Adjusting the latch hides the cause and puts a permanent twist into the roof frame. ### Can you replace just the canvas, or does the whole camper need work? The tent bag can be replaced on its own, and often should be. The camper needs to be opened, the bead pulled from its track or the batten removed, the new bag fitted and tensioned, and the roof cycled to confirm the panels sit square when folded. ### Is a pop-up camper worth repairing after water damage? Sometimes yes, sometimes not. The deciding factor is the floor and the box, not the canvas. If the subfloor under the dinette and the galley is sound, the rest is manageable. If the box frame has rotted at the corner posts, the arithmetic usually stops making sense. ### Do you service the crank gearbox and winch, or just replace them? Both. A gearbox that skips under load gets replaced because worn gear teeth cannot be restored. A winch with a serviceable brake and a clean drum gets cleaned, relubricated and reset. We inspect the cable set at the same visit either way. ## Related - [Campers and Trailers](https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/campers-trailers/) - [Folding Campers](https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/campers-trailers/folding-camper-repair/) - [Hard-Side Pop-Up Campers](https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/campers-trailers/hard-side-pop-up-camper-repair/) - [A-Frame Campers](https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/campers-trailers/a-frame-camper-repair/) - [Delamination Repair](https://ocrv.biz/services/fiberglass-repair/delamination-repair/) - [Roof Repair and Replacement](https://ocrv.biz/services/roof-repair/) - [Panel Replacement](https://ocrv.biz/services/body-repair/panel-replacement/) - [Prices and Posted Rates](https://ocrv.biz/prices/)