# 2006 Fleetwood Niagara HW



## FireEater

We just picked this 2006 Fleetwood Niagara High Wall up for $8000.00 last month. It is very clean and was kept garaged. The awning has never been opened until I looked in it the other day. Expecting mold and such, it is brand new looking.

The pup is loaded, with two king beds, a dinette slide out, Fridge w/a freezer, Microwave, Stove/Oven that has never been used, Double Sink, Toilet/Shower combo, Couch, Radio, Two Propane Bottle, New Marine Deep Cycle Battery, New Tires, cold A/C, Heater, Water Heater, All curtains, seat cushions, tent fabric has no stains or tears, and Electric Brakes. This thing was kept up.

I had recently added more lift to the Durango, bringing it to 12" total sitting on 35" Goodyear Wranglers.



So here is what it looked like pulling it home. 


Well instead of putting on a longer drop hitch from the 6" drop I have on it now, I decided to lift the pup. I am on Popupportal.com and read about a lot of others doing it.

So I went to American Fence and picked up two spring perches so I could put the springs on top of the axle, giving the pup a 5 1/2" lift.

Here is how the tires sat up in the fender wells before the lift. 


Removed the tires after I put the pup on jack stands at all four corners.


Springs located under axles


Had to cut the wires to the electric brakes


This is why you simply cannot flip the axle, it has a arch in it for the camber


Unbolted one side


Took me about 20 minutes to get the axle out and up on saw horses


Removed the springs


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## FireEater

The new spring perches compared to the old ones


Removed the drums to check the bearings and change out the old grease


Back of drum where the electric brake mechanism grabs the drum to activate the brakes. I will add new dust seals also.




The part that activates the brakes. This is the electrical part of the system. When it activates, it magnetizes and grabs the inside of the drum, when it does, it pulls the arm that moves the pads against the drum to stop the camper.


Pads are shot




As well as the brake adjustment bullet, notice the upper spring missing from it?




Found the spring down inside the drum


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## FireEater

Drums are in good shape. I will mask off the inside hub where the bearings go and sandblast the entire drum and paint. 


Over at the shop, I leveled the old axle perches and tacked the new ones in place.






Put a cutting disk on the Angle Grinder to get the old pads off once the news ones were tacked in place.


After removing the old perches






I used a Tiger Paw disk to clean the area where I ground them off. The Tiger Paw does a clean smooth job of grinding metal down.


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## FireEater

Filled in the grooves I made and will grind them down smooth.




Welded the perches in place. I welded them a little at a time and rotated back and forth between the two so the heat would not warp the axle. 


Picked up a set of brake kits, they were $39.00 each. Just buying the brake shoes alone run $37.00 and the magnetized part is $29.00 each, so it is s much cheaper to just get the whole unit. 


Went ahead and broke the leaf springs apart to sandblast them. I'll get a pic tomorrow of them sandblasted, I guess I forgot. lol


Sandblasted the axle


Sandblasted the drums inside


And out


I will treat everything first with Prep and Prime to convert any rust that might be left on parts


Springs after sandblasting


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## FireEater

After brushing on the Jasco Prep and Prime, any dark spots are where some rust was left behind. I also brushed the entire inside, that way it might hold off the rust where the magnet and brake shoes do not rub. 








After drying in our 100 degree Texas heat, everything was ready to paint, which pretty much baked on quickly due to the heat. lol!






Painted the center, then the outer part, then the stud heads. What paint I got elsewhere will be rubbed off by the braking


Treated the nuts and bolts also


Then shot them with flat black. Gloss black would have gummed up all the threads. With flat black, I can still apply some never seize to them and the paint will still hold.


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## FireEater

Used this to clean a lot of the under carriage, especially all around where I will be working. Once everything dries, I will go back out and treat all the rust I see with Jasco and then paint black. 


Springs stacked on top of each other. 


Tires and rims were real dirty, especially the inside of the rims with a lot of brake dust. 


U-bolts, plates and spring holders cleaned up, this will all be painted once it is back on trailer.


Had to clean the inside hubs out real good with degreaser and Joy liquid to make sure I removed all left over sand from blasting them Friday. Any sand left over could eat up a bearing. 


Same thing with the spindle ends


Bearings were cleaned real good in Acetone and then degreaser and soap.


New dust shields


Cleaned spindle hardware


Here is some rust before I paint the Jasco on it


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## FireEater

And after it starts to convert the rust to a paintable surface. Eventually it will turn the rust completely black. 


Putting the leaf springs together, I painted each one with Anti-seize to help hold off the rust as they rub together during use.


Clamp to hold together enough to put in the center bolt


Painted about 3/4's of the frame after treating a lot of it for mild surface rust. I'll treat and paint the rest before Labor Day camping.






Springs are hung again




Used the dolly to roll the axle under the springs so as to not damage it by dragging it on the concrete.


Torqued down the u-bolts to 55ft lbs. Make sure you tighten them down similar to wheel lug nuts. Do not just torque one at a time until you reach 55ft lbs. Once I had them tightened down with the air tool, I turned each one 10 to 15 times each as I rotated between them until I got to 55ft lbs. The reason for the 55ft lbs for me is because of the anti-seize I put on the threads.


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## FireEater

Passenger side or Left Side as these Electric Brake are right and left. If you do not have the sticker on yours, then always put the smaller shoe facing forward. 


Axle is hung


Drum is on, repacked with fresh grease


Springs are now on top of axle


The bow in the axle is still arched upwards.


Camper sitting level


Pretty good lift I got out of it. From my measurements before and after, it looks to be about 5 1/4". I had 23 1/4" at fender well center, now I have 28 1/2". 


My hitch measures 25 1/2" to top of ball, Camper measures 22" to bottom of tongue, So I have to raise tongue 3 1/2" to meet Durango when they both sit level. These measurements are pretty much perfect as when I lower camper onto Durango, it sits just enough to cause the bubble on the level I had on top of the camper to ride the front line slightly. Looking at it, you really cannot tell and it looks level.


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## FireEater

Ok, finished up with underneath the camper.

Sprayed everything, frame and all with Simple Green Degreaser.


Wiped the worm gear on the Whiffle Tree down and then sprayed it also. 






Treated this with the rust treatment after cleaning


Removed this funky plate setup, already bought a new holder that goes behind the tail light. Just waiting on the new LED tail lights to come in.


Here is some of the damage it had when we bought it. I believe the camper came off their hitch at some point, or they had a blow out and jack knifed it. 






Screws pulled though the diamond plate. I will replace it with a full sheet front and rear once I start the front end mod of fabricating a storage area and extending the tongue.


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## FireEater

Gotta build the wooden platforms in bondebond's post.


Saw this and had to remove the rear bumper


Other than the rivet, the curly metal has been in there since the factory.








Started painting, though the dealer had already rattle canned a lot of it, including the body with over spray. 


Once the rest of the frame was painted underneath, I greased the worm gear.


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## FireEater

Everything painted






Screws for the cover on the Whiffle Tree was replaced with stainless


Inside part of cover was coated with Corrosion X, the green can. 


All I have to do now is grease the worm gears on the stabilizers. Most likely do it with the Corrosion X, the red can as it does does attract dirt like WD40.


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## mas360

That is one awesome job you did. 
I flipped the axle on my popup camper also. After I sold the popup and bought a full up travel trailer I did same axle flip, but this time installed an upgraded suspension EZ-flex by Dexter to give it some cushioning. 

You ought to paint the underside of the floor to protect it from water spray. The OSB board they used for the floor is susceptible to water damage.


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## fishfeeder

Great job. Just a personal experience though, don't put neversieze on your lugnuts. I did it once and ended up having lugnuts come loose. Sounded good though...

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2


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## Law Dog

That is one awesome overhaul. Camper trailer looks great, thanks for sharing your story, Great pics.


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