Closing the roof on your camper trailer can be a simple task.. but more often than not, especially if this is a new camper trailer for you, you may find yourself wondering “why on earth can’t I close my camper trailer lid”?
Fear not! I’m sure when the trailer was built, it did indeed, close. So lets just run through a few simple scenarios and get this thing closed up nice and tight.
Space
Camper trailers are designed to be compact in nature. So there isn’t going to be a whole lot of free space inside your camper trailer. The trick is to get all the bulky items you can, mainly lounge cushions, poles, bedding etc, down as low as possible in the trailer.

The less you have close to the roof, the easier you are going to find closing the lid. Pack from the floor up!
Canvas Overhang
Sometimes, you will find some of the canvas hanging outside the rubber seal. This is more than just a lid close problem.

Having canvas hang outside of the seal will make it a little more difficult to close the lid, however this is not the main problem. If you have, even the slightest, bit of canvas on the outside of the seal, you are going to have problems. You see, canvas draws water in. If that tiny little bit of exposed canvas gets wet.. the canvas is going to draw water into the camper… Like a sponge! FAR MORE of your camper is going to be wet inside. And the next time you open it up, guess what.. Mould. A lot of it.
So the next time you do pack your camper trailer lid down, take some extra care you go around the edge seal, even use a torch to make sure you don’t miss anything, and be sure there is no canvas hanging out.
Bunching Canvas
For the best chance of closing your camper lid, make sure the canvas is as flat as possible, and not bunched up. Make sure you roll down all the window flaps. When you have rolled up flaps, there is more bulk to one part of the trailer, thus taking up more space. Remember. Flat and thin is going to make closing your camper trailer easier.
Body Twist
This may sound like a serious problem, but really isn’t that bad.
Camper trailer body twist occurs when too much pressure is put on the corner support leg. Remember, these support legs are just that. There for support. Not to take the weight of the camper trailer.
Body twist can cause the entire lid of the camper trailer to skew to one side, therefor not lining up correctly.


You can see by the 2 photo’s above, the lid on this camper trailer is clearly favouring one side.
This is undoubtedly caused by too much pressure on the rear corner of the camper, flexing the body, so the lid actually skews the opposite direction. If you’re seeing this when your trying to close your lid, you only need to release the pressure on the opposite corner of where the lid is touching the boy, in this case, the rear right side stabilizer jack.
How do avoid body flex in your camper trailer
The best way to avoid this problem, is to stabilise your camper trailer before you open the lid.
Pull up onto your chosen camp site. Level as best you can using a spirit level, and levelling blocks. Lower all 4 stabilizer jacks and wind down to take the pressure. Don’t use any of the jacks to lift the weight of the camper.
When the camper is level and stable… Go ahead and open the rest of your camper. Provided none of the stabilizer legs are wound up or down, the lid should fall back into its correct position with no problems!
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