Venture Landing Gear

I too have had problems with the Venture landing gear. I was on a trip recently and the landing gear siezed. The hand crank would not move the landing gear either. Two bottle jacks lifted the trailer to get it mounted on the truck.
There are two things that I think need to be done: 1. Convert to the two motor system and 2. Lubricate the jack screw and jack screw drive gears on a regular basis. I have discussed the lubrication of the jack screw with Venture and they agree that the jack screw needs to be lubed. There is no permanent lubrication system on this landing gear regardless of what has been printed or said. As far as the motor goes, the single motor system is a bit over taxed. The two motor system has been discussed in other places on this forum
I have found a way to lube the jack screw but it requires a bit of work. You need to remove each leg off the trailer to accomplish this. Removing the legs is not difficult ( can't say about those who have a generator in the front compartment ). After removal of the legs, dissassemble each leg. Remove the drop leg, inner leg and all drive components. This process takes less that two minutes per leg. Drill two holes in the outer leg, centered side-to-side, and about 10" and 16" from the top of the leg ( this is not critical ). Removel the drilling burrs from the inside of the leg using a file attached to a long handle. I taped a file to a piece of wood. Before reassembling the leg, grease the jack screw and the thrust bearing. I have disassembled 4 legs and there is no grease on any of the bearings. Venture uses #2 Moly EP ( Extreme Pressure ) grease.
On an annual basis extend the landing gear so this it uncovers the holes in the outer leg. Raising the landing gear will move the inner leg down to expose the outer leg holes to the jack screw. Get a grease injector needle from any hardware store . I got mine from Ace. A grease injector needle will attach to the end of any grease gun. Insert the needle thru the hole and apply a small amout of grease directly on the jack screw. Don't over do this. Snap off the metal cap on top of the leg and apply some grease to the drive gears. That is all there is to it. I discussed this idea with Venture and they thought that it would work well.
The reason that my gear siezed was the fact that the jack screw was worn almost in half. I needed to get a new leg from Venture. Be careful if you get a leg for the two motor system. Venture makes two different legs sizes and the incorrect one will not fit the mounting system welded to the trailer frame. I have a 3055 and this uses an extended leg, which is 4" longer than a standard leg.
I have viewed other trailer manufacturers' forums and each has a post concerning landing gear problems. About 95% of the posts are problems with Venture landing gear. Again, The two motor system works great but does not solve the problem as to why these fail in the first place. They need to be lubed.

Hi Gary,

This is a great post on what is needed and how to do it in terms of lubing the landing gear. If you took any photos of this process, please post them on this thread as an additional help.

You may already be aware of this, and it doesn't help you with your exiting Bighorn - for the 2011 model year, we began using hydraulic front landing gear for Bighorn. We did the same thing for Cyclone - I think for the 2010 model year.

Jim

I will take a couple of pictures of the grease hole locations.
I took the legs out through the front compartment. I removed the motor first, loosened the clamps, and pulled the leg from the clamps. While the leg was tilted, I removed the foot and dropped the drop leg out of the assembly. The leg just lifts out.
Venture will send you instructions as to how to disassemble the landing gear leg.
As I mentioned, Venture makes a couple of different size legs. There are about 4 other companies that make landing gear. One company that has really low prices is Domar. This or any company's landing gear will work - maybe. However, It must fit the welded on clamp spacing or it will not work. The landing gear leg has tabs on the side the that fit above and below the clamps. These tabs support the weight of the trailer and keep the leg from moving up and down. The prices from Venture are not bad.
The motor screws to the reduction gear box. The reduction gear box slides on the drive shaft of the leg. The reduction gear box is held in place by a plastic sleeve which slides over the drive shaft. There is a screw that holds the sleeve in place. The screw goes thru a hole in the drive shaft. I have read where folks are concerned with the motor movement while it is in operation. The movement is from the fit of the gear box on the drive shaft not necessarily a loose motor. There can also be a small amount of movement of the drive gear itself inside of the case. The reduction gear box is designed so that it can be mounted to the leg in several orientations. This movement does not hurt anything, in my opinion. One of my motors has a lot of movement one does not. I have also disassembled the reduction gear box. There are two metal gears inside with a small amount of grease on the gear teeth, that is it. The hand crank fixture and motor fixture fits on and drives the smaller of the two gears. If there is real excessive movement and you feel uncomfortable, replace the reduction gear box.