Landing Gear Gear Maintenance

[1retired06]

Guess I am a slow learner. After 13 years of pulling Montanas, discovered the landing gears could use a greasing occasionally, and that if you remove the top cover of each leg, inside the propane compartment, there are the gears right on top. Mine were pretty dry.

[rapidrobert]

When my landing gears went bad I received the following info from Venture. I replaced both of my jacks with a dual motor system.

Care of the jack legs:
OILING THE SQUEAKY LEG

The shim washer usually bends when the legs are retracted too far when under weight. The legs may be run all the way up and down if they are on the truck, and it is actually recommended to do that once a month whether or not you are using the trailer, in order to grease the jack screw and keep it from wearing a groove in the spots at which you usually stop and start. (About six to eight inches of normal travel) But, when you are raising and lowering you should only go as far both ways as you absolutely need to for getting the trailer on and off of the truck. As a rule of thumb, in order to prevent damage, never retract the legs where less than three inches is showing of the inner tube from the outer tube. If your manufacturer didn’t already mark this for you, mark it in red at three inches, up from where the drop legs come out. (Feel free to use all seventeen holes of the drop legs as needed.) Use paint, tape, red marker, whatever you can to remind yourself to leave at least three inches of the inner tube showing. This will prevent the bending of the shim washer and breaking or falling out of the drive pin.

Sometimes an older leg would benefit from regreasing. (The grease when maintained usually lasts the lifetime of the leg unless desert conditions get a lot of sand and grit inside.)
Our engineer recommends the following. “As far as lubrication goes... the only good way to do it is to remove the leg from the coach and disassemble it... Use a good EP (extreme pressure) type grease, preferably one with moly (molybdenum disulfide) grade 2”.
If the grease is still looking pretty good it is a good idea to run it slightly above and below your regular pathway so it doesn’t wear a groove and get slow and sluggish. Don’t go beyond the recommended heights or things can break.

[DQDick]

quote:Originally posted by rapidrobert

When my landing gears went bad I received the following info from Venture. I replaced both of my jacks with a dual motor system.

Care of the jack legs:
OILING THE SQUEAKY LEG

The shim washer usually bends when the legs are retracted too far when under weight. The legs may be run all the way up and down if they are on the truck, and it is actually recommended to do that once a month whether or not you are using the trailer, in order to grease the jack screw and keep it from wearing a groove in the spots at which you usually stop and start. (About six to eight inches of normal travel) But, when you are raising and lowering you should only go as far both ways as you absolutely need to for getting the trailer on and off of the truck. As a rule of thumb, in order to prevent damage, never retract the legs where less than three inches is showing of the inner tube from the outer tube. If your manufacturer didn’t already mark this for you, mark it in red at three inches, up from where the drop legs come out. (Feel free to use all seventeen holes of the drop legs as needed.) Use paint, tape, red marker, whatever you can to remind yourself to leave at least three inches of the inner tube showing. This will prevent the bending of the shim washer and breaking or falling out of the drive pin.

Sometimes an older leg would benefit from regreasing. (The grease when maintained usually lasts the lifetime of the leg unless desert conditions get a lot of sand and grit inside.)
Our engineer recommends the following. “As far as lubrication goes... the only good way to do it is to remove the leg from the coach and disassemble it... Use a good EP (extreme pressure) type grease, preferably one with moly (molybdenum disulfide) grade 2”.
If the grease is still looking pretty good it is a good idea to run it slightly above and below your regular pathway so it doesn’t wear a groove and get slow and sluggish. Don’t go beyond the recommended heights or things can break.

Good info, Thanks!

[Art-n-Marge]

Oh my... I've never done this, ever.... this sure makes a lot of sense I better go look. I think this is great info. It just might help prevent future problems.

I have my own checklist for all this maintenance stuff, but the biggest problem I have is remembering to check this list periodically. Being retired and not on a clock sure makes it hard to remember stuff like this. I use the truck all the time so remember about that, but my Monty sitting on the driveway, mostly ready to go, I sometimes forget to check (battery full of water, maintaining tire psi, lubing the slideouts, keeping out the bugs, supplies are full, everything working okay, etc., etc.

[Carl n Susan]

I have spent some time communicating with Venture Manufacturing Company and as a result they sent me 12 PDFs with everything you ever wanted to know about their landing legs. The topics range from "Owners Manual" to "Landing Gear Rebuild Instructions" including parts lists and how to convert to dual motors (for the really heavy front-end Montanas). Everything you ever want to know about your landing gear is available in these documents.

If you would like a copy of the PDFs send me (via email or PM) your email address. I will send them to you.

[pineranch]

Carl,
You may want to post the most informative pdf on the HOME page of this forum.
Mike

[Carl n Susan]

quote:Originally posted by pineranch

Carl,
You may want to post the most informative pdf on the HOME page of this forum.
Mike

Unfortunately, there is no way for me to do that. That would have been my preference too.