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Old 09-25-2019, 02:32 PM   #1
Bill and Lisa
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Landing Gear Electric Motor

Lately, my Landing Gear motor has been struggling to raise the front end of the rig up, to the point where it starts to slip gears(?). Normally not a problem when unhitching from the truck but it has been happening more and more lately. Does the electric motor wear out? I have tried dry lube on the extension legs but it does not seem to help much.

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Bill
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Old 09-25-2019, 03:28 PM   #2
mazboy
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Do they wear out? Probably. I had a trailer a few ago and I ended up putting two electric motors on the front legs.

i.e. https://www.etrailer.com/question-147930.html


Or try installing a newer motor.



Sorry but that is probably a good way to go.
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Old 09-25-2019, 04:22 PM   #3
prndl
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Check for Dzerk grease fittings on the upper portion of the legs inside the propane storage area. The upper one lubes the bevel gears driving the screw. The lower one lubes the threaded bronze bushing in the inside of the leg. The motor only gives power to the gear box. If the motor fails you can still operate the legs manually. If the gear box fails you will have to get out the hydraulic jacks and blocks of wood to hitch and unhitch if you remembered to bring them. The slipping gears you hear is probably the screw inside the leg stripping the bronze threaded bushing. I replaced both of my legs just a month ago. One leg stripped the bushing.
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Old 09-25-2019, 06:25 PM   #4
mtlakejim
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On our previous 5th wheel we had to replace both front legs due to the same noise you are hearing. It wasn't the motors it was the gears in the legs themselves. Good news is they are not as expensive as you might think and it is actually about as easy to change out the entire leg as to replace the motor (if I recall correctly there was only two bolts and the wires to undo-with the trailer hooked to your truck and the gear up they slide right out). I think we bought them thru e trailer. Another good thing is that landing gear is a fairly universal part.
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Old 09-25-2019, 08:47 PM   #5
Bill and Lisa
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mtlakejim View Post
On our previous 5th wheel we had to replace both front legs due to the same noise you are hearing. It wasn't the motors it was the gears in the legs themselves. Good news is they are not as expensive as you might think and it is actually about as easy to change out the entire leg as to replace the motor (if I recall correctly there was only two bolts and the wires to undo-with the trailer hooked to your truck and the gear up they slide right out). I think we bought them thru e trailer. Another good thing is that landing gear is a fairly universal part.
thanks I will check it out. Based on the link provided earlier it looks like about $300 per leg?
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Old 09-25-2019, 07:01 PM   #6
timandsusan
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Yes, replacing landing legs will happen. I have done it twice. Now I lubricated the screw mechanism regularly. Today, the new heavy duty electric motor jammed the leg and burned out the 30A inline fuse. Yes, you have a 30A inline fuse. I recommend buying a few spares--also find where the inline fuse is located. Mine we hidden behind my second battery--made it a little tricky to find.
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Old 09-25-2019, 08:36 PM   #7
Bill and Lisa
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Originally Posted by timandsusan View Post
Yes, replacing landing legs will happen. I have done it twice. Now I lubricated the screw mechanism regularly. Today, the new heavy duty electric motor jammed the leg and burned out the 30A inline fuse. Yes, you have a 30A inline fuse. I recommend buying a few spares--also find where the inline fuse is located. Mine we hidden behind my second battery--made it a little tricky to find.
Thanks, I was aware of the in line fuse. I also didn't like the location of the "short stop" fuses. The inline fuse is in the midway in the red wire in the first picture, partially hidden behind the battery vent hose.


The second picture shows my relocation of the short stop fuses. as well as my mod to allow me to raise and lower the landing gear from the area of the truck tailgate.

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Old 09-26-2019, 04:48 AM   #8
timandsusan
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Bill and Lisa, Your photo shows the small device that is the inline fuse holder. Thanks for the photo. As it usually goes--Never too late to learn a new trick!
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Old 09-28-2019, 12:33 AM   #9
h2ojocky
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I am not sure about yours, but mine only has one motor that drives both legs. My drivers side leg seized up and I had to replace the leg. I ordered it from Etrailer for $145. I did have to make a slight modification to the tabs with an angle grinder by grinding off 1/16"
Use your wrench and see if you can manually raise or lower your landing gear. My legs can be manually raised or lowered from the driver side propane compartment.
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Old 09-28-2019, 09:35 AM   #10
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If you are hearing the 'ratcheting' sound sometimes, the slip clutch in the motor assembly my be getting bad. The more it slips the worse it gets. This can happen when you raise the legs beyond the limit. A few times of this and it kind of ruins the clutch. On mine (in a 2006 monty) it was part of the motor assembly.
In my case, I had slightly bent a leg due to parking on a slope. It eventually would only extend about half way before slipping.
Replacing the leg was pretty easy.
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Old 10-02-2019, 02:04 PM   #11
edbales
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Leg and Drive maintenace

Periodically they just need maintained. Mine had slowed to a crawl Over the years I have done a few. The best way is put the rig on you TV and tear out the motor cross shaft an remove both legs and clean them up. Just finished the job again. Less than 100 bucks incl motor plus rebuild kits for the jack planetary gear assembly for both except I did buy another motor because I was going to put two on. I didn't, I left the original with the cross shaft. The grease zerks just don't do the job forever. There are vids as well as instructions both on etrailer and other sites. Replace the motor, gears at the top, and completely clean and lube the jack screw with a good quality grease. Took me about 6 hours because I am probably a little an.. about doing things meticulously. Good luck.
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Old 10-02-2019, 04:00 PM   #12
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Expensive but, Level up fixes those issues forever
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Old 10-02-2019, 04:55 PM   #13
jimc100
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Landing gear problems

I agree with the others, the most likely culprit is one of your landing legs hanging up for some reason, either bent or just needs to be greased. Had that happen with a former trailer and finally traced it to a bent leg. It is a pretty easy and fairly inexpensive fix (as far as trailers go) Good luck tracking it down, etrailer usually has the parts.
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Old 10-02-2019, 06:51 PM   #14
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I noticed last year that my landing gear motor on my 2010 started laboring when raising the RV high. Then I noticed it laboring when lowering the trailer even when the weight was off them. Dealer tried replacing motor and it did not help. He then replaced the gear box and that didn't help. He decided the left front leg was slightly bent. So they replaced that leg. Then neither leg would go up or down. An astute shop foreman figured out that the gearing in the new leg was reverse and when the old leg was trying to go down, the new one was trying to go up. So they replaced the other old leg and it worked. They didn't have the legs with the gearing that my old legs had in stock. The rods you pull to raise the feet up on the old legs were facing to the outside of the trailer. Those rods on the new legs was facing forward.
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Old 10-03-2019, 08:12 AM   #15
jrsemrad
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I had the same problem, it was the bronze gear seizing on the worm. If you try to use the manual crank and it turns hard this is likely the issue. I replaced the leg with one that had a grease zerk, I think the zerk is worthless because it doesn’t get grease to the screw. I solved this by drilling a 3/4 inch hole in the tube near the top so I can get grease directly on the screw.
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