2311H broken cable

Hello everyone. My wife and I invested in a 2311H a few years ago and one of the cables snapped last week. Right above the bolt in the top. I have read the forum on the 98’. I am wondering if much has changed in the process of replacing cables. Can anyone help me find a diagram? I will do all 4 cables while I’m at it.

Switch, welcome to the forum - sorry to hear of your cable failure. The cable routing diagram is in your owner's manual and it's the only "diagram" I know of. Looks like you found this writeup: https://www.hilotrailerforum.com/f22/cable-replacement-and-adjustment-125/ and that's the "bible". There has been very little change in the lift system through the years, so what worked to repair it 40 years ago still works now.

From your post, is sounds like the cable broke near the upper pulley on the top half of the trailer. This is the place where it seems to always break and is the part that needs annual inspection. You have to take the trim strip off the inside upper half to see those pulleys and the cable going over them. This is when you apply a lubricant that will soak down the cable on both sides of the pulley too.

I've not replaced a cable, but I would think you feed the new cable down both sides of this upper pulley too, when putting in a new one. Once the cable is down to the underside of the trailer, you can feed it around all the pulleys under there and out to the frame. Get the bolt through the frame and put a nut on it just far enough to secure it. Then, get the cable stretched as much as you can before securing it to the top half. It will be impossible to remove all the slack in the cable, so you'll need as much shortening capacity at the adjusting bolt as possible, to finish the installation.

- Jack

Hey Jack,
Thank you for the response. It eases my mind a little. Fingers crossed it all goes well. I’m in one of those desperate times to get this bad boy up and camping. Hope I can get it back up as smooth as I got it down. I’ll take some pictures to add to the forum.
Happy camping!!

I replaces one cable on my 1509 last year before selling it. There is a description somewhere in this forum that describes this process. I ordered a new cable from the company recommended on this site. I did purchase a tool to cut the new cable after connecting it as described then getting it as tight as possible. There is a lot more to this story but all information went to the new owner.

I do remember threading the long end of the cable from the bottom up which was a challenge. I also took the wheel off and had that portion of the camper jacked up then set on a jack stand for support so could access the adjustment.

I think the directions were for replacing all four cables at the same time and was about 17 pages long which I printed for reference. I will not be hoe until Tuesday next week when I may be available to talk. Check out the directions on this site and order the new cable including some attachment from the recommended source.

My memory of this went with the camper when I sold it. Although I regularly greased the cables from below it wasn't until I replaced the one that I learned I should have been greasing them all from the top. If the others show any rust they will require replacing soon.

I recently replace all four cables on my 2807C...After getting the top up, I made 4 2x4 supports that went on each outrigger....This allowed me to remove all four cables to facilitate replacement...The cables must be fed from the adjustment bolt thru the pulleys, up the wall and over the wall pulley....the hole in the bottom of the wall will not facilitate the passing of the adjustment bolt (attached to the cable)...It is also difficult to feed the adjustment bolt without removing pulley bolts....I replaced all the pulleys at the same time as a broken pulley was the cause of my cable failure....Make sure you have access to a "swaging" tool to provide a good crimp on the cable end (near the attachment bolt on the upper half). Once you have the new cables in place, it is just a matter of adjusting them for proper top alignment....

Thank you Brian, for pointing out that you can't put the adjusting bolt down the side of the trailer through the hole next to the top pulley. I've not had to do this job myself so I was "guessing" that would be the easiest way.

I wonder if that hole is large enough to insert an electrical fishing wire tape down the side from the upper pulley, tape the cable to it (using duct tape) and then pull it back up? If the tape is too big, possibly just lowering string through the hole and then using it to pull the cable back up would work? Since the cable is stiff, I can see how, with a bit of finagling, you could get it up and out from the bottom, but it would seem to be difficult that way.

- Jack

It took me two hours of trying everything I could think of but it finally went up with ease. A swaging tool and cable cutting tool are necessary. I did attach the cable to the attachment bolt in the upper body after pulling it as tight as I could. I should have used a come-a-long or something to pull it tighter because after attaching it to the top attachment bolt I used most of the adjustment bolt to get the cable tight. Had I gotten the cable an inch or two tighter before attaching it to the top attachment bolt I would have felt much better about my final adjustment. My pulleys seemed fine but all of this now rests on the new owner.