Ricon wheelchair lift reinstallation after floor repair ...?

[Stovebolt-SKO]

I tried a search ...
Looking for some guidance or experience ... I want to remove the Ricon wheelchair lift from my 2001 AmTran RE3000 to fix any rust damage under it ... and then reinstall it. If anyone has done this, I'd like to know what their experience has been and what I should know before I do this. Is it more involved than a simple unbolt, remove, rebolt done procedure? I have the Ricon installation manual ... but ...

Any intel on this would be much appreciated before I go boldly forth. I need the lift to work after or my whole skoolie project is pointless.

Thanks

 

[RadioHill]

As it were, I'm about 4 days or so behind you as I was looking at pulling up my flooring, so was considering the same, but also was pondering working my flooring around it....

I wish I could do something more useful than convey second hand information, and at the risk that I'm saying something that's not the same, a photo of what I believe yours and mine lift looks like(mine has pump on other side);

On my lift I'm tracking 4 bolts in the floor (needing to double check this), and a large power disconnect at the forward facing end of my ramp (same side as pump). I was told by the bus garage foremen when I picked up the bus that those 5 things were the only items I needed to be aware of.

I would double check on your end, because the only other thing I haven't accounted for is the "ready" signal that comes from the door when it's open.

Apologies if that's unhelpful, and will follow thread for my own knowledge.

 

[Stovebolt-SKO]

Thanks! Yours looks newer, On mine, there is only one wire for a power feed input -- the power feed from a the big fuse in the battery compartment. That all seems simple enough. I more worried about the 8 carriage bolts and what ever bracing might be under the floor. On the RE3000, the fuel tank is directly underneath my lift. My concern is what is going to prevent me from merely rebolting everything after I fix any rust damage. And ... do I need to drop the fuel tank ... which I really hope I don't need to do ...

 

[desrtdog]

My bus had a Braun lift - different but probably very similar in mounting and wiring. There were 8 carriage bolts holding it through the floor, and on the underside, there were 4 pieces of angle as stiffeners. Single positive cable to the lift inside that came from a breaker off the battery, and the negative ground was attached to the chassis…There was also a door interlock relay that prevented operation unless the door was open…pics are included below.

 

[nikitis]

My advice is take pictures of every wire you unplug, before and after. It seems silly, but if you end up with a no start situation because you undid a wire and couldn't remember where you'll be up ****'s creek as most of us don't know the wiring quite as well as we probably should for those.

Take good pics before you do anything of every connection you can find all around it, and take pics of every wire you remove as you remove them. Then when reinstalling you can go back in reverse of your pictures and reinstall with no issues.

A mishap in the wiring here will cause your bus to not start as a safety feature.

 

[Stovebolt-SKO]

Thanks Nikitis. Tag and shoot -- Always Good advice. However, in my case, the only wire I need to disconnect is the hot wire coming from the battery compartment. The interlock isn't in the way of what I need to accomplish.

I understand that *most* people have no use for the wheelchair lift and just remove them as part of the demo process. Thus, I may be fairly unique in that I want to reinstall mine after fixing the floor. And I'd really like to be able to do it without having to drop the fuel tank (and the monster cage its encased in ....). I think I just really need to hear from someone with an AmTran of my vintage with the lift installed directly over the fuel tank (ie, in the forward position) who has removed and then reinstalled the lift for any lessons learned -- because what I really need to know is pretty specific to this particular application. Above the floor is simple and straight forward. Under the floor is the unknown part.

As there may not be any other forward lift AmTrannies out there in Skoolie Land, I may just have to press on and figure it out on my own. Having to drop the fuel tank is better than having the floor give way while my wife is hanging outside the bus 4 feet in the air ....

Still, I appreciate the input!

Thanks!

 

[nikitis]

If you have the interlock disabled already then it shouldn't matter. It's mostly a Bat+ and Ground cable to chassis as the main wires if I recall. The other little wires are a part of the device and likely doesn't need to even be removed. These are only complicated when the interlock is involved which is in all of them by default. But if you've already removed that system or bypassed it near the source of the interlock system then the other wire's likely won't matter and are just there for show.

If I were in your shoes, I would just disconnect the main fatter Battery cable and ground, and see what's still attached and go from there leaving everything else in tact.

 

[Stovebolt-SKO]

Yep -- That's my plan.

 

[Shortbusjohnny65]

I tried a search ...
Looking for some guidance or experience ... I want to remove the Ricon wheelchair lift from my 2001 AmTran RE3000 to fix any rust damage under it ... and then reinstall it. If anyone has done this, I'd like to know what their experience has been and what I should know before I do this. Is it more involved than a simple unbolt, remove, rebolt done procedure? I have the Ricon installation manual ... but ...

Any intel on this would be much appreciated before I go boldly forth. I need the lift to work after or my whole skoolie project is pointless.

Thanks

I tried a search ...
Looking for some guidance or experience ... I want to remove the Ricon wheelchair lift from my 2001 AmTran RE3000 to fix any rust damage under it ... and then reinstall it. If anyone has done this, I'd like to know what their experience has been and what I should know before I do this. Is it more involved than a simple unbolt, remove, rebolt done procedure? I have the Ricon installation manual ... but ...

Any intel on this would be much appreciated before I go boldly forth. I need the lift to work after or my whole skoolie project is pointless.

Thanks

To answer your question it is pretty easy. But you do need access to the nuts on the bottom. Try long handled ratchet before dropping fuel tank. Of course getting them back on will be fun would replace carriage bolt with regular grade 8 bolt that way all you have to do is get nut started hold with wrench and tighten from top. So first thing lower lift to the ground take bolts out be careful making sure there is no tension on attachment bracket. Turn off breaker for lift remove wires. Next use the manual release on the lift and lower it down. Be slow it can come at you fast falling on you or breaking or shearing off fingers or hands. For going back up do the opposite jack up into place and bolt in wire back up. Mine was easy because of open access below and I put flooring in and just drilled up from bottom. You might want to make sure a template of the bracket and do it that way just measure 3 times. Hope this helps.

 

[1dmpo]

Nikitis gave good info about taking pictures, lots of pictures for the wiring. Shortbusjohnny6 did his different than what I did with mine. I has access to a smooth concrete floor and a good heavy cherry picker/motor lift and I left it folded up and once everything was loose I wrapped a ratchet strap around it to keep it closed up and then use the lift to take it out and move it out of the way before working on the floor. So there's couple different possibilities. Good Luck, Have Fun

 

[Stovebolt-SKO]

Thanks for the input. I don't actually have any questions about the wiring -- it's only one wire so I think I can handle it I had hoped to hear from someone with an AmTran configured like mine -- forward-located lift situated over the fuel tank. I've decided to press on. If I have to drop the fuel tank to reinstall the lift (because of the bolt locations, etc), then so be it. Wouldn't mind losing the fuel tank cage anyway ...

Time to fish or cut bait -- the wheelchair lift is holding up floor progress...

 

[Stovebolt-SKO]

For those who may yet still be interested ...

Just closing the loop on this thread. Got the lift out today. Turned out to be easier than I thought with no real surprises. Ended up using the big angle grinder for all but to two corner bolts closest to the wall. Those required the cordless cut off tool. Once the 8 bolts were cut the three braces (instead of a 4th brace, the front pair of bolts used the existing support the P-side steer tire mud flap hangs from), fell out and the lift was free to walk to the other side of the bus while I finish the floor. Only one wire to disconnect. I will pull the 30 amp fuse before powering up the bus again.

The Subfloor under the lift was completely rotten, but the steel floor wasn't too badly rusted -- apparently we caught it in time. The linoleum piece under the lift came out intact so I will be able to use it as a template to drill the holes for the bolts to remount the lift.

Bottom line -- Lift removal was not too bad. We did discover the trick to getting to the outside bolts (closest to the door sill) -- deploy and lower the platform. All 8 carriage bolt heads were ground off.

Regards,
John

 

[nikitis]

So my next question is. Any plans to do a split side door?

 

[Stovebolt-SKO]

No, should I consider it? Not sure what the purpose or benefit of that would be, though. The door and the lift seem to work fine as originally installed. My plan is to put the lift back as it was and go on.

 

[desrtdog]

Yeah, if you’re keeping the lift, a split side door does nothing for you - can’t use it with the lift up or down…

 

[nikitis]

Ah ok, I forgot you said you were putting it back in. Nevermind then. I did a split door on my rear door and love it. It's far lighter to handle and gives easy access to the under bed garage without having to open the whole thing or expose the bedroom. I highly recommend it personally after having done it if you have two spaces one door opens to.

 

[Stovebolt-SKO]

To close this loop: Wrapped up the lift re-install. Turned out to be pretty straight forward. Not entirely easy, though.... Would have been better with a helper, but I got everything back in place, tightened down and working properly. Was worried about where the Ricon installation manual talked about torquing each bolt to take out any unevenness that could cause binding or jerky operation. That turned out to be a non-issue in this case -- I tightened everything down and it worked fine.