Ratcheting noise from leveling jacks

[LoLadTraveling]

We own a 2005 2980RL Montana and are full timers since 2006. When I lift the front end, the jacks go only a short distance and then a ratcheting noise come from the gear box and the jacks go no lower. I then have to support the king pin with our tripod, raise the jacks, place blocks under the feet and then start lowering the jacks to raise the front to level the rig - front to back. Have taken the gear box apart and found the roll pin by the drive shaft partly pushed out. Centered the pin on the drive shaft, reassembled the gear box and tried raising the front of the rig. Once the full weight of the trailer was on the jacks, the gear box began to ratchet again. Anyone have any suggestions. Lad (Trav'lin' J's)

[DQDick]

My guess would be the vibration is what's pushing the pin out. Could the gears be worn out and jumping?

[jimcol]

Sounds like the same noise you get when fully extended. Are you using the drop down legs so the motor/ lift assembly isn't doing all the extending? Jim

[1retired06]

Last year I had the same symptoms. The gear inside the leg was badly chewed up, and I ended up replacing both legs, and installing a much better gear box as well. My problem was caused by the leg being slightly bent, not noticable to the eye, but very apparent when pulling a level against the leg. That caused the leg to bind against the gear when operating.

[Rondo]

Sounds to me you may have a bent main leveling screw or whatever it is called. I had the same thing in Little Rock this year on our way back to Omaha. The problem was the legs or the all-thread rod inside the legs was bent. The ratcheting noise is from the rod getting so far on the gears and binding. We had to put on two new landing gears/legs and a new gear box. The new gear boxes are made of metal and according to the tech are much stronger and a lot better design than the plastic gear box that was standard on the unit.. We have a 2004 2980 and that is what happened to us. The tech ordered the equipment from Lippert but I think if you contact Ventura Manufacturing in Ohio, you might be able to get them from them direct since that is where Lippert buys them from. I might have the part numbers for the items IF you want them and might want to try to do the job yourself or order them for a tech.

You will have to raise the front of the Monte with jacks on the frame and support it while working on it. We used two hydraulic jacks to raise it and then set two heavy duty jack stands under the frame to support the unit while the parts came in and so we could have the tow vehicle to use while waiting for parts. We did use some 4X4 and 4X6 blocks under the hydraulic jacks to get enough height to get the unit off the pickup. We left the jacks in-place also just for more support. Once we got the legs and gear box replaced we used the legs and a couple of the 4X6s to take the hydraulic jacks and the jack stands out and level the unit again.