Electric Landing Gear Motor & Gears!!

2008 Heartland Cyclone 3912

Ok so hitched my trailer the other day and Landing gear motor sounded as if it was straining then popped. Upon Inspection keyways and all attached drivetrain was in tact, it appeared as if the actual electric motor case that holds it to the jack post has broken allowing the motor to swivel causing it to hit the front of the trailer!

Has anyone else had this happened? Also what was the fix? Extended bumper to bumper warranty says it wont cover it! I purchased the trailer used from rv dealer and had a full system check done also! I havent even used it, this was the first time i hitched up since bringing it home! Any suggestions?

Hi ejered,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and Family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and most are willing to help when you have a problem.

If you were hooking up and retracting the jacks, it sounds like you might have retracted to the end of the gearing and maybe the circuit breaker of fuse did not pop. There have been a few reports about the motor case breaking, but it usually has been caused by trying to retract the legs past the stopping point or overloading the motor. I can not see why your extended warranty would not cover the motor, but I am not the adjuster. And a lot depends on the adjuster and how your relation is with them on your call for service. I would call your insurance again and ask for a supervisor and appeal your adjusters decision.

I can see you are unhappy, but at this point, I do not see that it is a Heartland problem.

Enjoy the forum and hope you get your problem resolved.

Jim M

Perfect just got off the phone with the extended service rep and they have changed their mind and decided that it is now covered. Thank you for the advise. The new motor case is made of aluminum and not plastic! Thanks again, I love the site!

We are always trying to keep our family members happy. Glad things changed for you. :angel:

Jim M

ejered, Welcome to the Heartland family & Forum. I was in the middle of responding to your post but got called away. I'm back now and see that all will be resolved. Good to hear the extended warranty took care of it. As they should! For future reference, try marking your landing legs with tape or paint so you know when to stop retracting them. This will save you some aggravation in the future.

Thanks I will most definatly do that! Seems as if they have fixed this problem with the aluminum motor case for the motor, Im sure it has been discussed previously, Thank you both for your help, as lord knows im not quite the most experianced rver ha

There are two little plastic nubs on the gear box and if one breaks off it will allow the motor rotate around until it hits a solid object.

I had this fixed on my bighorn.

on my way home from dealer,newly purchased,brand new etc .when i tried to lower legs i had same experience.corner of motor/gearbox broke off with stop nub.dealer came to my housenext am and relaced whole assy.i am just waiting for it to happen again !!!!!bad engineering on this plastic part.is lippert now offering aluminum ? buckeyebob

This is exactly what happened to my unit, and yes i believe they do offer a new one made of aluminum as the dealer stated the new one is updated and made of aluminum instead of plastic, buckeyebob it may be worth researching as this happened in my driveway, i couldnt image it happening away from home!! BUt very possible......Jered

Similar thing happened to me today. Getting ready to leave Albuquerque this morning and started to raise the coach to hitch up. First sounded like the jacks were binding then the gears started to slip.

Could not raise anymore so we began raising manually then the entire motor shifted like something broke. I had to use my bottle jack to help raise enough to hitch.

there seems to be a lot of play with the motor and gear box, do I need to replace the mount?

We are now in Kingman but I'm staying hitched to the truck. I at least was able to lower the landing gear to stabilize the rig.

Any suggestions??

5erWonk said:

Similar thing happened to me today. Getting ready to leave Albuquerque this morning and started to raise the coach to hitch up. First sounded like the jacks were binding then the gears started to slip.

Could not raise anymore so we began raising manually then the entire motor shifted like something broke. I had to use my bottle jack to help raise enough to hitch.

there seems to be a lot of play with the motor and gear box, do I need to replace the mount?

We are now in Kingman but I'm staying hitched to the truck. I at least was able to lower the landing gear to stabilize the rig.

Any suggestions??

Click to expand...

I noticed a lot of movement/play from the landing gear motor and mount. I'm thinking maybe this bouncing on the road could lead a failure of the mounting case? I added a support, hoping this added motor support will help.