help lowering roof of early 2000s Bonair 700

Hi, all.  This is my first post here, and the help that I need is the reason for me signing up for this forum! I recently purchased an early 2000s Bonair 700 (used) that is in pretty good shape.  I saw it put up at the seller's place, and then I came back another day to pick it up and tow it home.  That was in the fall, and my free time and the weather finally coincided, and I have been able to set it up in my driveway before I take it out into the wilderness!

Well, I'm awfully glad that I did, as I got it up and it's all great, but NOW I DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET IT DOWN!!!  I've crawled underneath the trailer and had a look the winch/ratchet system, and I don't see any way to release the ratchet pawl so that I can lower the roof.  I can get in there with a loop of wire and directly release it (I'm an engineer when I'm not camping!), but I don't see any other sort of manual release system

The only other thing that I have noticed is that there is a plate that slides on the winch's input crank shaft that has a bolt welded to it.  This bolt lines up with the shaft of the ratchet wheel in the winch (the one that the pawl engages with), and this shaft is threaded.  On my trailer, this is just free hanging, but it looks like it is supposed to thread on to the shaft as you crank up the roof.  I can't see how this would be a release mechanism - at best it looks like it is there to stop you from cranking up the roof too much (i.e., some sort of mechanical stop).

Regardless, I need to know how to get this roof down properly.  Any advice that folks can give me would be greatly appreciated.  What I've described sounds kind of complicated, so I'll post a photo shortly as a follow-up to illustrate what I mean.

Thanks,
-Chris

Here are the photos I promised of the trailer itself.  The first is it set up in my driveway so that you have a better idea of the model.  Specifically, it is a Bonair BA700 made in 2002:

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Here is the location of the winch crank beside the door:
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And here is the actual winch.  The long shaft at the upper left is the input crank shaft.  The threaded shaft in the middle is the one that the intermediate gears rotate on, and it also carries the ratchet wheel.  This is the shaft that the threaded piece sitting on the input crank shaft would thread on to, I think. The bolt at the lower right is the axle on which the pawl swings, and the nut on the top right is on the end of the shaft that holds the cable capstan itself.

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Hi Iron...just bought a 1010tt and found this site. I assume you worked your problem out by now but yes that arm is threaded on to the shaft beside it on my winch. did you ever find a blow-up or description of its operation? mine is hard to crank down and information is hard to come by...