One thing leads to another

I had great intentions this Monday of opening up Frostbite and installing the remaining shelves and the door threshold.  However, when I was cranking her up, it stopped just short of being about to hook the safety bar to the frame.  I tried it a few times and was careful not to apply too much pressure so the cables or anything else wouldn't break or bend.  the mechanism that lifted the roof was hitting something that didn't allow it to raise all the way.

I lowered the roof and crawled underneath.  Looking at the so-called whiffle tree, which is the gizmo that that the 4 roof cables attach to and is itself attached to the main lift cable, it appeared bent and I suspected that part of it was hitting the frame somewhere along the path as it was being lifted.  In fact, I noticed that it was digging a groove into the floor along the raise path.  Remembering that I didn't tighten the metal bar that holds the safety bar to the whiffle tree the last time I worked on it so I decided to try tightening that up first. 

It was a pain as it took 2 pairs of pliers and working around the lift cable but I eventually got the screw nut turning.  I kept this up until, to my surprise, it fell apart in my hands.  It turns out that I was actually loosening the screw instead of tightening it.  I briefly tried to re-attach the bolt but it was difficult due to the previously mentioned bend in the metal.  I decided to take the whole thing off and try my patented "smack it with a hammer until it looks straight" method that has worked successfully for me in the past.  Besides, at this point it was much easer to take apart than put back together and I was getting tired of lying underneath the camper.

I had to unattach the corner lift cables from the whiffle tree to get the thing off.  Realizing that this would destroy any special adjustments made keeping the roof lifting evenly, I figured I was already committed to this thing and forged ahead anyway.  Here is the piece in question:

The bend is easier to see in this photo.  Where the two metal strips come together is bent upwards and was digging into the floor when the roof is raised.

I got my trusty hammer and whacked on it for a while.  Eventually, I got the piece to look like this:

Still bent but not nearly as bad

With this done, I then spent the next hour putting the thing back on the camper.  I won't bore you with the details except to say that I was glad my daughter was not outside to hear my commentary during the process.

Daylight was quickly slipping away.  I had to get a flashlight to finish.  Once it was all back together, I gave it one last try before calling it a night and tried to crank up the roof.

About halfway up, it wedged and would go no further.

@#$%