Nice sunny day decided to pop the top to give our steve a bit of an airing. I've just wondered is it the norm to lubricate the springs on the pop top or not required....cheers Phil...

Thanks I've got some silicone spray but not the other will give it a try .

For info, lithium grease, whilst arguably the best solution because it lasts longer does tend to collect dust and you end up with a messy cleaning job every other year. It’s the reason that many locksmiths do not recommend it for external locks. Silicon spray needs to reapplied fairly frequently (annually?) but is less messy in the long run. I have used lithium grease in the past but now stick to silicon.

I greased ours and now it has a lot of Birch seeds stuck to the grease, proper messy so when it warms up I'm going to clean it off.

I have just removed our winter cover and put up the PopTop to get some air in. However when I came to try to put it back down the back went down but the front wouldn't budge at all - the first time this has ever happening.

I have all sorts of sprays and easing oils, including some specialist ones when my Dad worked for the Admiralty (although these are now obviously quite old!!!!!).
I was wary of staining the material which happened once before after it was serviced by a Hymer dealer. Like Randa I plumped for Silicon Spray in the end. I took off the protective mesh so that I could get at it from both sides, and liberally sprayed is with the oil. I left it for 10 minutes and then gradually managed to get it to come down. I moved it in stages and lubricated the spring & bracket as it moved. It then moved freely up and down.

Tomorrow I will do it and the back one again to make sure that it moves freely as we are going to Burrs for our first outing of the season next week.

Cheers
MikeT

Well Roger, I must admit I thought of it when my knees were really hurting.

Strangely at the time we were having our house re-roofed and the roofers labourer was flying up the ladders with stacks of tiles. I told him that he would end up like me with knackered knees before he was 40. His response was that he would put WD40 on his knees like his best mate who was also a builders labourer. The roofer and I nearly wet ourselves laughing but Russ insisted that this was what his mate did everyday before work and he reckoned that it worked..................!!!!!!

On a serious note about my knees my Dr referred me to the Physio Dept of our local hospital and they gave me some exercises to strengthen my leg muscles and lessen the strain on my knees. He explained that due to me being well into my 70s muscle tone was lost quickly without regular exercise & took longer to build back up - cheeky whippersnapper!

However he was right and the exercises had an amazing effect on my movement and agility. I would recommend to anyone starting with arthritic knees to try to get referred. My Dr was initially talking about the possibility of me seeing a knee surgeon.............

Typically for me it isn't all a happy ending - three weeks ago I tweaked a hamstring in a match against a very talented 80 year old & he had to help me off the table, much to the hilarity of everyone watching

As I said before life is a strange journey

Mike

What were you challenged to that involved being on the table in the first place, was it some strange kind of dancing competition ?

As a recently identified owner of two worn out 63-year-old knees (now awaiting the first of two half knee replacements), I think it is, unfortunately, a bit late for the WD40 advice. On a more positive note they have today granted me a blue badge for parking, which means I can, at least, get out of my car when I arrive somewhere! Recently i have been trapped in two different supermarket car parks when people have parked rather too close to my driver's door - rude!! And, unfortunately, I am no longer able to get into the car via the boot, as I had to do once in my relative youth.

All I need now is to upgrade to a Troll 540 with length-wise beds, as climbing over my wife in the morning in our transverse-bedded Triton 430 is, also, no longer possible without endangering her (and me)...