New landing gear

[Overlord]

Ditching the 6,000 lb Venture/Lippert landing gear, and putting on a 10,000 lb Bulldog #500161 dual motor set up. According to my measurements, it should be an easy swap-out, with no welding of brackets required, ....I hope! Has anyone here installed these on a drop-frame Montana yet?

One of the original landing gear leg's lead-screw or lead-nut completely stripped out (not sure which failed yet, but suspect it was the nut) on the ODS leg (the one with the motor attached) as I was setting up camp during the last outing. Of course it happened while it was raining, and after I disconnected the truck so the one side suddenly dropped 3 or 4 inches! Fotunately, the other leg held firm, so the whole front of the 5er did not drop to the ground.

Good thing I carry a 20 ton bottle jack with me, but still a PITA, what with spending extra time in the rain getting the rig level for our stay.

When the new legs get here, I will have to modify them so that I will be able to easily grease the lead-screw and nut with whatever grease the MFGer specifies. Even though they state that the units are lubed for the lifetime of the product, we all know that is a load of "male bovine processed hay" since they are not a totally sealed system, and they get grit and grime in there.

Going to set up and wire the motors for the slow speed/high torque option, and hope these last a whole lot longer than the OEM ones that came with the 5er.

One benefit that I am looking forward to is that I will no longer need to shim under one side or the others feet to keep them even. Now, each leg will operate individually until they both touch the ground, then operate in tandem to raise and lower the front evenly, assuming that the motors are well matched as far as RPM goes. Fingers crossed!!!

I am going to need to also figure how to wire in the remote control so that I will be able to operate them when I am in the truck when hooking up. Hopefully that will be possible. Another bonus is that I will be getting rid of the landing gear connecting tube that crosses through the front storage bay.

Only downside to the dual motor setup that I can think of is if one of the motors fails, it would be a slight pain to manually crank that one up/down while the other is still able to be run by a good motor, although the access for manual mode is fairly easy to get to, I'm pretty sure it would be a slow process. Probably need a strong drill motor to do it with any kind of speed and ease.

[Dam Worker]

Our old Vangaurd SL 270 had independent front jacks. It was very convenient when setting up to have the ability to just adjust the slide part and repin it and hit both buttons to lift the front of the unit. If one side was a bit off level it was easy to tweak by either lifting one side or lowering the other. It seemed to have good power when both motors were running for lifting.
I would say you will be happy.

Tom. Marty

[Phil P]

Hi

There is nothing wrong with the Venture/Lippert landing gear it’s the motor that Keystone puts on them.

I put the second motor / gear box on our Venture/Lippert landing gear and found the Keystone motor ran almost twice as fast as the Venture/Lippert motor. I replaced the Keystone motor with a Venture/Lippert motor and now the legs run slower but they have at this point lasted twice as long as any one of the last 3 sets of legs.

I suspect the long screw and nut in the center of the leg was becoming heated because of the increase RPM and causing the lubricant to liquefy and run down the screw causing excessive wear.

I did cut a couple of the legs open and it was the long screw and nut that failed.

Phil P

[Overlord]

What a strung out mess! (warning: long post)

Ordered the Bulldog dual-motor landing gear from e-trailer on June 2nd, and received this response via e-mail the same day:

"Your order is in transit to our distribution facility and should ship in the next 7 days."

On June 10th, I called e-trailer to ask why my order hadn't shipped yet. They told me that the Bulldog Dual Landing Gear Model.#BD500161 was on national back-order. So, I went in search of them on the internet, only to find that every outfit that sold them said "Out of Stock" or "Unavailable", everybody that is, except e-trailer. :-/

Called some local outfits, and got the typical, "We don't carry those in stock, but we can order them for you. You should get them in a week or two." response. .......Riiiiiiight!

Fired off an e-mail to e-trailer, mad as a hornet:

"Xxxxxxx,

Not a happy camper!

I called e-trailer CS to find out that my purchase is on back-order. It would have been nice to know that fact when I initially ordered the Bulldog BD500161 landing gear set.

I called the manufacturer to find out their production schedule and ship date is approximately 7/4/16. So, that would mean I will not see them for at least another month. Hopefully, I am misinformed, or e-trailer is first on their list for re-supply.

Did I mention that I am not a happy camper? Please keep me apprised of any further updates to this delivery schedule.

unhappily yours,
Xxxxxx Xxxxxx

Another month passes. :-/

Called Cequent(the manufacturer) sometime the first week of July and they said that the division the makes this particular product was in the process of being moved, and the couldn't give me a definite delivery date.

Yet another month goes by. Grrrrrrr!

Got another e-mail from e-trailer on August 8th

"Xxxxxx,

Thank you for your order with etrailer.com; we appreciate your business. I have been keeping an eye on your order and wanted to give you an update.

We still expect to have the landing gear you ordered on hand to ship within the next two-weeks. I will send you an email with tracking information as soon as the order ships. As a reminder, you are not charged until the initial order ships. I will personally be watching your order until the part arrives and notify you if anything changes.

If there is anything I can assist you with or if you have any questions please do not hesitate to email or call me at 1-800-298-8924.

Thank you,

Xxxxxxx X."

Getting more and more ticked off!

Another e-mail from e-trailer on August 17th:

"Xxxxxx,


I have been keeping an eye on your order and have some updated information.

I apologize for the unusually long amount of time it is taking for us to receive the landing gear from the manufacturer. I spoke to them again today and they let me know that we should have it on hand to ship by he beginning of September. I will continue to personally keep an eye on your order and notify you if there are any changes.

Please email or call 1-800-298-8924 ext. 79535 if you have any other questions.

Thanks,

Xxxxxxx X."

Thinking about canceling the order, but I don't.

Another e-mail September 7th, over 3 months since I ordered the damned things!:

"Xxxxxx,

I have been keeping an eye on your order and have some updated information.

I apologize for the unusually long amount of time it is taking for us to receive the landing gear from the manufacturer. I spoke to them again today and they let me know that we should have it on hand to ship by the end of September. I will continue to personally keep an eye on your order and notify you if there are any changes.

Please email or call 1-800-298-8924 ext. 79535 if you have any other questions.

Thanks,

Xxxxxxx X."

The new landing gear show up the night of September 22nd, almost 4 months of waiting. But of course I'm leaving early the next morning to go on a family reunion camping trip. No time to install them, so I put them in the garage., ...have to use a bottle jack and cribbing to get the 5er on and off of the truck. At least it wasn't raining like it was forecast to do.

Got back from camping on the 26th and left the 5er hooked up to the truck. Next morning I retrieved the big box from the garage and opened it up, put the new stuff on the floor, and right away I notice that on one of the legs, the motor was kind of cock-eyed and the leadscrew was bent. Jeez Fricking Louise!!!

Four months of waiting, and then the things come in damaged. Look closer at the box that FedEx so kindly mishandled for me. Stickers all over it stating "THIS WAY UP", "DO NOT STAND UP ON END", and of course both ends of the box were accordioned/crumpled. Of course, when the friendly FedEx man left it at my garage, he left it standing on its end. Probably slid it out of the truck that way too and let it thump on the ground, as it weighed around 70lbs, but I'll never know for sure.

Send pictures of box and video of massively wobbling motor and bent leadscrew to e-trailer on September 28. Get a call back the next day, a Friday, and they say that they couldn't send the video to Cequent because it was too big of a file (That's funny! It wasn't too big for me to send to e-trailer!). They ask me to make another shorter video, so I render and shorten it up to send again. Of course it is now Friday 3:00 in the afternoon where I am on the West Coast, ....and Cequent is already closed for the week-end, them being on Central Time Zone somewhere in Michigan.

Don't hear another word from anybody, and a package shows up at my door on October 11th and, you guessed it, I'm leaving on a 3 week vacation to the East Coast the very next morning. What they sent me was only the inner leadscrew cartridge to replace the bent one.

Get back from the East Coast, and decompress for a few days, OK, ...it was a week. Get the landing gear out to remove and replace the leadscrew cartridge, drive the pin out that holds the motor and gearbox on the whole assembly, slip out the old and slip in the new. Piece of cake!

I take the "special tool", (which is essentially a 1/2" bolt that has no threads and has a flat milled on it to fit in a "D" shaped hole of the gearboxes, used to manually crank the legs up and down), ......and you guessed it, it doesn't fit into the D-hole of the gearboxes. My friggin' head is about to explode right about now!!!

I take the now "extra-special tool", as I call it, over to the belt/disk sander and make the flat about .010" deeper, so now it fits, but come on guys!!! I take a look at the Bulldog sticker on the side of the leg, ....Hecho en Mexico, but at least they had the decency to actually print it in English, "Made in Mexico". It figures, ...maybe Trump can fix this for me.

I decided to mount the motors in the optional upside-down position, so I flipped the other motor on the second leg and reinstalled the retaining pin. Took the leg that I repaired and stuck the now working extra-special tool into the "D" hole and happily ratcheted the leg up and down with a socket and ratchet. Beautiful!!! Stuck it in the second leg, which I only flipped the motor over, and started the same process of manually working it, ....and it made a grinding sound that was gawd-awful. WTH did I ever do in a past life to deserve this crap!!!

Gave a call to e-trailer today to let them know my joyful news, and they said to contact Cequent about it as a warranty item on Monday, and that Cequent was good about warranty replacements. Seeing as the landing gear has a 5-year warranty after all. ....Yay!!! :-P

After I gleefully hung up the phone, I decided to hell with it, ...I'm going to install these mothers on my 5er anyway, before the rain sets in for the next week or so.

The install went pretty well, except for having to file off some sloppy weld beads so the legs would fit into the trailer's mounting brackets. Popped right into place, ...easy-peasy, extra greasy.

Haven't done the wiring and switch mounting yet, but that should be simple enough. Just have to go get the proper gauge wire at Home Cheapo tomorrow.

Now, I really don't blame e-trailer for this entire debacle, except for the fact they didn't list the product as "back-ordered" on their website in the first place.

Cequent is the culprit here, and I hold them responsible for making e-trailer look bad due to their crummy manufacturing process and unforgivable production delays down old Mexico way. Viva NAFTA!!! :-P

I just hope that I can get a new motor/gearbox assembly on a warranty claim, ...before my head really does explode, ...or maybe die from old age.