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This is an alert to all Pathfinder owners – and probably other FCs too. Before and after each journey, I’d advise you to check the tightness of the nuts which secure the canvas support poles to the frame of the trailer. They are supposedly self-locking nuts but we have learned to our cost not to rely on that.

Unknown to us one of ours came off altogether. We didn’t notice until the end of a holiday. We were folding down the bed at the towbar end and I was on the toilet side. As we folded, the whole thing just collapsed. The bolt holding the upright bedroom pole had no nut. The whole joint had come apart. The place where it attached to the trailer was damaged and some of the plastic components were broken. We had the devil’s own job trying to get it back on just so as we could close the camper and go home. It was as if the bed had got narrower - which of course it hadn't - or the bolt had got shorter. I can now give you the tip that if ever this happens to you, raise the bedbase into a vertical position. For some reason it fits onto the bolt easier than when its either open or closed.

Photo taken with camper closed folded down, sorry it's out of focus.

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Once home we discovered that the frame itself was damaged not only on that side but also on the opposite side because everything had gone out of alignment. We knew it would be a major repair so… typical of us – we kept putting it off and didn’t get round to it until the week before we were booked to go away with some friends. In the meantime we had dropped into Casey’s Outdoor Leisure (Cheshire) one day as we were in the area. We were buying other bits and pieces but, knowing they did FC repairs, we asked for advice on where to get replacements for the broken plastic components. Typical of their usual willingness to help, they gave us some free of charge. I love that shop - and we didn’t even buy our Pathfinder from them!

Naturally it took way longer to do than we expected. Talk about last minute… this is how our poor Pathfinder looked on Saturday when we were due to go away on Sunday!

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This is the damage to the frame on the effected side (after the bed base has been removed). The Tee nut had chewed away the wood of the frame. The little metal tube you see in this photo wasn't there originally, it's part of our repair.

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This is opposing side with the Tee nut still in place. The damage doesn't look all that bad in this photo but if you had felt how wobbly it was you'd have done it too - we didn't want to have to do this again in a few months!

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Those Tee nuts are tricky to remove too - when the frame is chewed up like this it's hard to unscrew them from the bolt.

My OH first tried packing the hole with araldite but that didn't work out so he then used plumbers putty which worked a treat. He pushed the Tee nut into it after a few minutes. (sorry no photo)

We did the repair ourselves because we’re reasonably capable DIYers and we just plain didn’t have the money for a professional repair. It all works fine again now but we nearly wrecked our beloved Pathfinder (and our relationship!) in the process.

If you ever need to remove a Pathfinder bed for repairs… detach the gas-lifter/hydraulic struts first, whilst the bed is in the closed position. We didn’t and landed in terrible trouble, trying to support the open bed base as it hung from just one plate attached to the gas-lifter was no fun (no photos of that bit, everybody was busy holding the bed up and trying to counteract the twisting force of the hydraulic strut). Without any counter-force, the strut had fully extended so the bed base was being twisted away from the trailer with great force. With difficulty we managed to support and detach the bed base from the plate by drilling out the rivets. I don’t understand hydraulics so as I was detaching the strut, I was petrified that the metal pole in it would suddenly shoot out and get my son in the head! Of course that didn’t happen but it wasn’t a controlled situation and I was stressed.

We haven’t been able to compress the struts sufficiently to be able to re-fit them to the camper. My OH and I are strong enough to open and close the beds without the assistance of the gas lifters so we’re managing but if anyone knows how we can compress and re-fit the struts, I’d be grateful for instructions.

Here's a photo comparing the removed strut to one still in position on the other end of the camper. You can see the difference in the extension.

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A friend who's a mechanic suggested using luggage straps to compress it - it works but only for the first few centimetres then the strap slips off. Any brighter ideas people?

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Finally some photos of our repairs.

This is the effected side:

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Ironically, it was on the opposite side that we ended up drilling out the rivets. Then we couldn't get the right size rivets to replace them so we ended up drilling through the steel frame beneath the bed board and using roofing nuts and bolts.

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We’ve been away in the Pathfinder once since our repairs and when we got home, opened it up to remove a few things. Half joking I went round checking the nuts and bolts were secure on all the poles and found to my shock that one nut securing the other bed was almost off! I know that particular nut was tight before we left home – I checked it myself. I can only assume that the vibrations incurred during the journeys to/from were enough to loosen it. I drove home in a second car behind the Pathfinder and was surprised at how much it got jostled and bounced about.

Hi,

Just a thought about refitting the strutss, did you try to put it on at its greatest stretch point during the folding process. Thinking about it, I would say it would be when the bed board was in the vertical position.

It may be you would only need to compress it a little to get it back on.

Cheers

Mark

Hi

I suspect a lot of us felt your pain when we saw your photos.

Before you refit the gas struts you may want to consider this modification that Pennine did to the Fiesta when they started fitting struts.

Our 2002 fiesta without struts & the bed bolt the same as yours, just a Tee nut

A 2006 Fiesta with gas struts and a strengthening plate on the bed bolt

This would transfer some of the stress across a larger area. Infact you could make the plate larger, sort of a Victorian engineering approach.

I think Mark is correct about fitting the strut. If you fit the strut to the body mount first then use a strap to compress it whilst lifting the bed to a point where the strut would be at it's longest travel.

Good luck with it and keep us informed of your progress.

Pieface

We had the same idea about fitting them when the bed base is vertical.

In their current state, i.e. fully extended, the struts measure 74cm. We'll have to re-measure when the Pathfinder is next open but from memory the length we need to get them to is 71cm in order to fit them when the bed is vertical.

So far the best we have achieved with the ratchet strap is just under 73cm, then the strap slips off. The ball shaped ends are awkward to work with.

I have one plan involving fitting the ends of each strut into pieces of wood, then pulling the wood together with ratchet straps (which I have) or window cramps (which I would have to buy). It will be tricky to keep the struts at the edge facing out so they can be fitted on whilst compressed. I'm thinking of using a metal plate as a sort of removable gate. I can't try that for a few days due to work commitments.

The type of nuts that are on the bolts are the same as the uncapped one near the top of pie*face's first photo. It is a locking nut but not the type that has plastic coated thread. I think I will replace them all with the plastic coated thread type.

I'm intrigued to see that Pennine have changed their fixture. That would suggest we are not the only ones that have had trouble. I sent them a photo of the original damage and they said it was something they could repair. We bought it second or third hand off ebay so we'd have had to pay though and, as I said, we don't have the dosh. We need to wait till next payday even to buy the locking nuts!

Hi

Those type of split lock nuts are a use once only. Nyloc nuts would be better, but still a use once option.

I don't think that those nuts should be done up too tight, but should be a preset tightness and locked to keep the hinge and tubes in place but still allow them to rotate on the bolt.

It's possible that if the nuts are tightened too tight, as the frame is opened up and rotates on the bolt it would undo the nut, especially if the nut has lost it's locking ability.

I think the principle behind the design is that the bolt should be tightened to the body with the Tee nut. The rest of the bolt just acts as a pivot shaft for the hinge & frame tubes with the lock nut just keeping them in postion. Not a particulary good design.

I can see that the extra mounting plate is needed, as there is a lot of stress at that point. Not only from the gas strut, but supporting the weight of the bed and canvas.

pieface

Quote: Originally posted by pie*face on 15/6/2011

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Hi

Those type of split lock nuts are a use once only. Nyloc nuts would be better, but still a use once option.

I don't think that those nuts should be done up too tight, but should be a preset tightness and locked to keep the hinge and tubes in place but still allow them to rotate on the bolt.

It's possible that if the nuts are tightened too tight, as the frame is opened up and rotates on the bolt it would undo the nut, especially if the nut has lost it's locking ability.

I think the principle behind the design is that the bolt should be tightened to the body with the Tee nut. The rest of the bolt just acts as a pivot shaft for the hinge & frame tubes with the lock nut just keeping them in postion. Not a particulary good


design.

I can see that the extra mounting plate is needed, as there is a lot of stress at that point. Not only from the gas strut, but supporting the weight of the bed and canvas.

pieface

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Hi Ailish

We had the same problem but it only affected the offside. I managed to remove the bolt without dismanteling the bed board and struts, I then filled the hole with 2 part putty and pushed the t-nut into the putty and left to dry. As the damage is very near to the corner  I then plated the side inside and out (similar to the Fiesta in pieface's post) with 2mm steel plate with holes drilled to take the bed board bolt,the plates now take the weight.The plates where sprayed white to match the camper sides. it took a little bit of effort to get the holes lined up to put it all back together but it was easier than taking the gas struts off.

dave

Quote: Originally posted by the black fox on 15/6/2011

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ahh someone that knows what he's talking about

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I don't think my wife would agree.

No errors, just different ways of stopping nuts turning. They all work.

Ailish

The more I think about it there has to be a position of the bed that the strut can be fitted without being compressed or the strut might lock the bed at the change over position from being extended on the raise cycle to being compressed on the lowering cycle.

When I've researched gas struts in the past, I noticed that the manufacturers don't sell strut compressing tools, so I've taken that as meaning that struts don't need compressing to fit them.

I really do hope that is correct and makes the job a little easier for you.

pieface

I'm dashing off to work so this has to be brief - just wanted to say thanks for all the replies and thoughts. I think if we can just compress them 3cm then we'll be in business but I won't have the opportunity to re-measure until the weekend at least. I'll let you know what happens.