Landing Gear - Montana Owners Club

randye · 01-13-2010, 01:02 AM

Hello All This has been talked over before, but now I have the problem. Our landing gear and motor has been blowing fuses, on our trip here to Picacho AZ. I took the Monty to camp world in Albuquerque. It was the 31st of Dec. They checked it and said the Ventura Motor and Gear Assembly was bad and needs replaced. They could not get the parts until a week after the Holiday. They gave me all the part numbers.
I waited until we got to the new area and back to work a week and I called an RV repair person that had work on our neighbors Allego Motor home. He was happy with the work. It took 24 hrs to get a call back. When he did call, he said that Lippert knew these motors and gears from Ventura were to weak for the weight of the Monty, and if you don't catch this within two yrs, they will not warrentee it. The fix he said is two motors and gear sets one for the left landing jack and one for the right landing jack a dual switch, I would have to pay for it out of pocket. My question is has everyone had to pay for this out of pocket, lippert says in the book its cover for three years, which Is five months away. Also this repairman said if I was to install a generator in the front storage compartment, it would only cause the motor and gears to go out sooner. I would like to hear your imput on this subject. Thanks.

Mrs. CountryGuy · 01-13-2010, 02:09 AM

CountryGuy and ole Carol may have been among the first to do this fix. We had some doubters. That is OK, we were present during the pre-fix testing.

Simply put, Lippert in Goshen replaced the motor and gear box (within 2 hours we were back to the same problem, click, click, click, can we get Tana off Big Butt??). Back to Lippert the next AM, replace motor again.

Still a problem. So, they pulled the legs off, etc etc etc. No bent parts, no broken gears. Legs were actually replaced, still problems.

Solution, add second motor, all the stuff they are telling you.

Yes, we paid. It was not cheap. BUT, PRICELESS.

It is our opinion, there is the disclaimer, that the new motor(s) just are not up to snuff. This is not a techy explanation, but they are not as powerful.

We were told at that time that a number of SOB units had been outfitted with double motors. We were at Fox RV later that week and he told us, yes, he has seen a number of SOB's with this fix, but that we were the first Montana he had seen.

Note our unit, 3295, about the heaviest pin weight on any Montana manufactured.

We LOVE our two motors, never regretted the $$ spent on the fix and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Waynem · 01-13-2010, 02:24 AM

Consider that since you are still under warranty to just make a deal to pay for one extra motor and the dual switch instead of two motors. I have always thought that it was better consumer business to have things fixed under warranty until the warranty runs out, but then I would not want to be stuck somewhere and the gears not work.

Good luck.

H. John Kohl · 01-13-2010, 02:48 AM

I did find the switch for the legs is rated at 20 amps and the fuse or resettable breaker was 30 amps. I replaced the switch once it failed and the resettable breaker quit blowing.

Lubrication on the legs are a must.

If you manual from lippert says three years get to them now. If you have problems with them use the Keystone service center.

Good luck and let us know the outcome.

randye · 01-15-2010, 07:33 AM

UPDATE: I have found out that Lippert will only warrentee the landing jacks, motor and gear box for one year. Is that consistant with what you all have found. So now we are trying to get our extended warrentee to help. We shall see.

mazboy · 01-15-2010, 02:14 PM

i just thought i'd add my 2 cents.
just 3 months after we got our new 2010 3150 we had the electric motor burn up and replaced. oh wellll, we'll see what happens this year. oh yea, it is very hard to manually put the legs up and down.......

Tom S. · 01-15-2010, 11:12 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by mazboy

i just thought i'd add my 2 cents.
just 3 months after we got our new 2010 3150 we had the electric motor burn up and replaced. oh wellll, we'll see what happens this year. oh yea, it is very hard to manually put the legs up and down.......

I've only had to do it once but I used a drill motor and it worked pretty well.

hookman · 01-16-2010, 04:17 AM

Mine was clicking and wouldn't lift the 5th and when checked the the legs where bent. They where probibly made out of Chinese steel.

randye · 01-16-2010, 02:30 PM

I had thought about using a drill motor, what size socket did you have to use, I now can't find my extended warentee paper. I will call them on Monday and have a new copy of the policy sent, the RV repair has to have a hard copy to copy it before they will do the ordering of parts. Thats it for the up date. ty for the advice or thoughts.

Clemson1881 · 01-16-2010, 04:09 PM

How much do these motors cost if you have to buy them?

randye · 01-17-2010, 02:27 AM

I haven't heard the price of the units yet, since they are waiting for my policy, we will shearch the Monty top to botton tonight and hopefully find the papers, or I will have to call American Gaurdian and have one sent out. I will let you know when I know, thanks.

ChuckD · 01-17-2010, 04:20 AM

I had to have the road side leg replaced 20 months after purchase due to stripped gears, Lippert would not cover it, It cost me over $500 to have camping world replace it.

BirdingRVer · 01-18-2010, 02:38 AM

After going through dozens of fuses, stripping the gears, snapping a shear pin, running gear oil down the legs, never running the motor for more than 30 seconds and still never sure if we would be able to get the trailer on or off the hitch.

Like Mr and Mrs. CountryGuy we bit the bullet and replaced our entire landing gear system and had two motors installed. Not cheap but what a difference.

No, our extended warranty would not pay for it. They were content to pay to repair what ever broke each time we had a problem and really didn't care how often we had to find someone to fix the landing gear.

It was the Ventura Motor and gear people that suggested we go with two motors to solve the problem.

randye · 01-18-2010, 03:13 AM

Hello Grant I was told by Lippert that if we added a secound motor and gear box, it would void the wareentee on the frame. They say Trailer owners tweak the frame if they bring them down spearately. So they will not cover any thing to do with the frame after that.

camper4 · 01-18-2010, 03:38 AM

On my 05, 2955, I had four failures of the landing gear, all on one side. On the right side the drive shaft connection to the leg broke at the leg. Twice the dealer fixed it, once I did. The fourth failure was the top gear coming loose from the shaft, getting cocked sideways. That one required replacement of the leg. Ah, I also remember replacing the drive motor because of a stripped gear too.
In 4 out of 5 failures, one leg lifted and the other did not. so you can twist the frame a bit, if not careful, with the one motor system. If my 3075 starts giving me trouble I will put the two motor system on. When landing gear fails it can be difficult to get the 5er back on the truck.
The two motor system is rated for more weight.

I carry a double lift 12 ton bottle jack to lift one side while the other leg is run by the motor. It has saved me when I was far from a service provider more than once. The jack is heavy but worth every pound.

bncinwv · 01-18-2010, 03:52 AM

Our motor failed after about 15 months of service. Extended warranty (Interstate Star Rv - Interstate National Dealer Services, Inc.) paid for replacement and installation. The replacement motor was definitely slower in lifting and lowering the rig, but no additional problems to date (Other than trying to lift the rig with the rear stabilizers down.....That will blow a fuse by the way.....and if you don't notice the stabilizer jacks being down, believe it or not, it will blow the fuse again, and again, until the jacks are raised). By the way this is a hypothetical situation...surely a person could and should figure it out while it was happening????? Good luck!
Bingo

BirdingRVer · 01-18-2010, 03:59 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by randye

Hello Grant I was told by Lippert that if we added a secound motor and gear box, it would void the wareentee on the frame. They say Trailer owners tweak the frame if they bring them down spearately. So they will not cover any thing to do with the frame after that.

Our rig is just over three years old so, we are probably out of Lippert warranty anyway. The "tweaking" of the frame is a maybe. The stress of not knowing if you will be able to hitch or unhitch was a constant. Not to mention the hassle of finding a repair facility and then waiting for parts.

randye · 01-18-2010, 07:50 AM

I just got back from the RV Repair shop, took my extended Warentee papers so they could copy it and send an estimente, to see if they will cover it. I need to send him some pictures of the cross bar and exiting motor and gear box. I may have them add the secound motor and gear box. The service manager said you still can tweak the frame with the one motor. Do to ground shift and many variables. Its just a story that Lipperts uses to not have to do any fixing on the frame and other components. I will keep you updated as it unfolds.

Mrs. CountryGuy · 01-18-2010, 11:09 AM

LIPPERT PUT THE SECOND MOTOR ON OUR RIG! in Goshen. Rig was NOT under any warranty, but they did the work, it was their suggestion, said they have done to a LOT of rigs.

Sorry, I don't buy that one.

Our legs come down at the same speed, etc, come down together, course if you hit one button first, all bets are off.

We have used two motors for about 18 months now, LOVE EM.

And, I still don't buy that story from Lippert, Al just laughed.

Clemson1881 · 01-18-2010, 12:32 PM

Unbelievable this hasn't been addressed by Montana by now.

You may also like: