Montana Landing Gear (Front Legs)

[Phil P]

Hello

I have some interesting information you all may be interested in.

The landing gear (front legs) failed on our trailer in the first 60 days we owned it.

The selling dealer installed 2 new landing gear (front legs)

When they brought the trailer out to me the genius that repaired it told me the reason for the landing gear failing was because I had retracted them too far. So he drops the trailer and while I am getting backed up to it to hookup the dealer closes. When I tried to raise the trailer so my truck would go under it the landing gear didn’t work. Well being that I was all by myself and had to be upstate with the trailer by noon the next day I go looking to find the fuse blown. After getting a couple of fuses I still had problems. It turns out the genius had retracted the landing gear too far and jammed them in the up position.

About 18 months later the landing gear stops working. Leading up to this the landing gear had stated making groaning sounds. I tried everything from grease to pouring oil down the legs from the top. They finally quit working.




I cut one of the landing gear open to see what happened. The screw jack screw (#1012-03) and jack nut (910-10) had failed and locked up, there was a lot of steel shavings and plenty of oil / grease etc.

,

Because there isn’t any limiting device when I replaced them I put the new ones on the shop bench and extended them all the way out by hand. Then marked them 1 inch down from the outer housing (picture 1), then retracted them by hand all the way and extended them 1 inch and marked them again (picture 2 the mark is hard to see). By not exceeding the marks I figured I would not damage the screw jack.

Well the old saying “the plans of mice and men” the landing gear have started making the groaning noise again. I have weighed the trailer sitting on the landing gear with it fully loaded like it is when we travel and the landing gear is well under the published weight capacity.

I guess you just can’t win.

Phil P

[DQDick]

That's really strange. One of our landing gears came cracked from the factory. When it was replaced I marked them and had no trouble with them right up until we tossed them and added level-up.

[1retired06]

Yup, damage can occur. I have my legs marked as well. It is important that the legs are aligned properly or early failure will occur, which was the reason I had to replace mine. One leg was not square, placing stress on the gear assembly. When I replaced the legs, I also installed a better quality gear box and have been trouble free for two years now.

[richfaa]

Marking them was something learned from this forum early on with our 06 3400.Never a problem.

[bethandkevin]

My old Jayco had black tape wrapped several times to mark the stop point. It worked.

[Phil P]

quote:Originally posted by 1retired06

Yup, damage can occur. I have my legs marked as well. It is important that the legs are aligned properly or early failure will occur, which was the reason I had to replace mine. One leg was not square, placing stress on the gear assembly. When I replaced the legs, I also installed a better quality gear box and have been trouble free for two years now.

What do you mean "aligned" properly?

My original landing gear had been painted with the inner tube about 1 ½ inches out and I never retracted them any further than the paint mark.

One of the original ones the center that has the long screw in it fell down on the road doing 60mph. Lucky it didn’t catch on anything before I got stopped.

Phil P

[Phil P]

quote:Originally posted by richfaa

Marking them was something learned from this forum early on with our 06 3400.Never a problem.

Hi

The object of the post was the location of the failure.

I figured if I didn’t put the rest of the process in the post I would get a lot of replies telling me to mark them. LOL

Phil P

PS:
I have not experienced any problems with the gears in the top of the leg. No shear pin failures or anything else.

[WaltBennett]

This one had me wondering for a bit until I realized my landing gear isn't like yours. We've extension legs with a collar/pin arrangement. I've been retracting the landing gear up to this collar (which is probably just about 1" before too fa)r and putting the extensions down before extending them. They may not be as stable as yours, but we've never had any of these issues thus far.

[Phil P]

Hello WaltBennett

That’s interesting.

Would you mind posting a picture so we can see what you have?

My landing gear has started making the groaning noise again and I will probably have to replace them soon. I am considering the HWH hydraulic landing gear.

Phil P

[WaltBennett]

The legs on mine are pretty much the same as these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/500162-Bulld...-/290971424386 Don't know if the previous owner replaced the originals with them, but this is what was on it when we bought it last April.

[1retired06]

quote:Originally posted by Phil P

What do you mean "aligned" properly?



My original landing gear had been painted with the inner tube about 1 ½ inches out and I never retracted them any further than the paint mark.

One of the original ones the center that has the long screw in it fell down on the road doing 60mph. Lucky it didn’t catch on anything before I got stopped.

Phil P


Not bent. Legs can be bent if dropped/dragged, etc. Put a level on the leg, front to back, left to right. My gear damage was the result of the drive leg bent toward the opposite leg stressing the gears. Not noticeable to the eye, but my level said different.

[Phil P]

WaltBennett

1retired06

Thank you

Phil P

[Native Tex]

My 3400RL is an 05 model. I have never had any problem with either leg and neither are marked. Do you extend to a certain point or retact them to a point to mark?? Exactly where do you mark them? I have never heard of this until today. Maybe I have been doing something right. I know I only retract them until the weight is off the rig, then I stop, and then hand push them upwards to lock them in place.

[catskiner]

I called Venture mfgco and they said to leave the inner lag atleast 3 inches out of the outer leg to prevent breaking the shim washer.

[Phil P]

Hi

Go back and read my post. The procedure I used to determine where to put the mark is just below the pictures of the marks.

Phil P

[cliff]

For the fourth time the landing gear on my Montana 5th wheel failed. Clunk, clunk, won't raise, skips, catches, intermittent travwel. We managed to get the truck under it and drag it home where I contacted Venture, the manufacturer of the landing gear. They told me that the system needed to be dual motor rather than the single motor system that was installed. Checked the web and found most agreed if the 5th is over 38 feet. We found that for our sized trailer we should have had a dual motor system instead we had a single that did what the landing gear manufacturer said it would do: fail.

I spent four days rebuilding the landing gear legs on the trailer. It was supposed to be a three or four hour job, but interchangeable parts do not. The new right side original leg had 17-1/2 mount spacing, where the old one was 17-1/4. After grinding off sufficient material on the lower mount the new motorized right leg fit. We rebuilt the original motorized left side leg, too. They had a kit for that. Then the sheet metal had to be cut out to allow for the reduction gear to fit onto the right side leg. The instructions said only a 1-1/2 inc hole was necessary. In my case the sheet metal was on the centerline of the reduction box. Be prepared to do a lot of saber saw work.

Had to reuse the old telescoping part of the old leg because the new one did not have the holes to mount the foot with the long side parallel to the 5th wheel. Called the manufacturer and they said that's the way it is now. After the sale of the parts they were more arguementative then helpful.

Mounted the second switch next to the original switch. The wiring harness was too short. Five feet of wire to reach across eight feet of trailer plus a couple of feet of routing. So be prepared to buy extra wire.

[richfaa]

We never had a problem with our 06 3400 front landing gear. We never had a dual motor. We did have them marked so as not to over extend them. We did do the recommended maintenance on them. We are long timers and used the 06 3400 hard so those front legs had plenty of use.

[twindman]

I had problems with the clutch slipping and eventually failing. I am pretty sure it was after parking on a sloping driveway. When hooking back up, the trailer slid maybe an inch forward with the legs still down. Pretty sure they got bent a bit and stressed the drive stuff.
I got a new leg from Venture (I think) and was fairly easy to install. I think the leg was around $100-150 and took maybe 2 hours to remove/install.

[steelpony5555]

Had the shear pin or bolt and nut come loose, easy fix. But makes me nervous regardless when they are extended a whole lot, plus makes the trailer move around a lot more. I built a couple of big blocks out of treated lumber about 10 inches high and a foot long and 8 inchs wide roughly lol lol Yes they are heavy but the truck don't care, just toss them up in the bed. Attached some rope to make them easier to handle. But makes the rig more solid, also keeps legs from burying into the soft ground.

[catskiner]

When the the landing leg motor/gearbox on my sob started slipping I was looking to see how hard it was to replace when I noticed there was a keeper that held the gearbox tight to the leg had a screw missing that held it on the crossshaft. Found it laying on the floor. Replaced it with a nut and bolt and all is well,easy fix.