ATF: Greystone - Blown Landing Gear Fuse

Picked up my brand new 2011 29MK and the landing gear fuse was blown by time I arrived home. Obviously until I found the in-line fuse and replaced it, I could not extend the landing gear to unhook the truck. Could the switch be bad or could moisture from rain (I drove through several hours of heavy storms) cause a short at the l exposed switch? Also, is it normal that the switch sticks when I push it in to retract or extend the landing gear? Thanks for your replies.

The only thing I can think of is that the fuse blew when you last retracted the landing gear. Do not run the landing gear all the way to the end as that will result in a blown fuse. Some people have painted a line an inch or two below the limit to warn them when to stop retracting.
Rainwater should not cause the fuse to blow.
I think that it is fairly common for the switch to stick. So now that you know it sticks, be mindful of that when using it.

Peace
Dave

Try a little WD40 on the switch, and yep you may have run landing gear up to high, watch carefully when running them up and if you don't blow another fuse you will know exactly what the problem was.
David

Pretty crappy design as far as I'm concerned. I keep a good supply of fuses on hand, and I marked lines to show the upper and lower limits of travel. When lifting, I also find the Greystone motor seems to really strain and the fuse will blow if it's got a long way to go up. I try to avoid that, and if I can't when I hear the motor starting to sound tired/strained, I give it a rest.

As for the switch, I'm told they all start to stick eventually, just because of the junk they pick up from the road. I don't mind that because the "hands off" operation can be a nice feature.

Just so you know, I had not yet run the landing gear as the dealer raised it so I could hook up my truck. So raising or lowering too far may not be the reason my fuse blew unless the dealer didn't know it either.

WD40 is a good idea and I will try that not only for switch stickyness but also for dampness.

I did go through several hours of torrential downpours. So I'm still wondering whether or not the location of the unprotected switch directly behind the towing vehicle could cause a short in heavy rains?

One other thing was that the 30A fuse that blew was smaller than the replacement I used. The replacement I used seemed to fit into the boot better. And I made sure it was a Japanese fuse (Buss), not from China.

BTW - This is my first Heartland unit and first time to use the forum. I really appreciate your thoughtful comments.

Almost certainly the dealer ran the legs up to the stops and blew the fuse for you.

Here's a possibility. Once the truck was hooked up, when retracting the landing gear, the switch stuck. With the noise of the running truck, talking or whatever may have been going on, the gear reached it's upper limit blowing the fuse. Some sort of limit switch would be great but blowing the fuse or popping a breaker is way better than busting a gear reduction unit. If your rig has an inline fuse for the legs, there is a circuit breaker type plug in fuse available.

The design of the landing gear nor it's capacity isn't really flawed in my opinion. Any time we hook the truck to the pin, we put pressure against that pin. Weather it's forward or reverse pressure, it's usually there. We then operate the landing gear with that additional pressure on the pin. Consider how often we pull into a site and raise the trailer to unhook and have to back the truck up a teensy bit more to releive the pressure against the pin so the hitch will release. There ya have it, we were just adding extra weight/pressure to the pin without knowing it while we were extending the legs.

Your replies have helped immensely. Since the unit is only a few days old I'd better not make any modifications and risk voiding the warranty, but take it in for the sticking toggle switch which likely caused the landing legs to retract all the way. I agree that a breaker is a more convenient way to go, but someone said it doesn't protect like a fuse. However I've watched fuses get mighty hot before melting through while some breakers, e.g., GFI interrupters, work instantly. And, finally, marking the max/min points on the landing legs appears to be the common opinion to prevent this in the future. Seems this would be a reasonable low cost solution for Heartland to seriously consider for its customers.

I'm much more familiar with the hydraulic "level up" system from Lippert which I had on my previous DRV 5th wheel. Level Up can be problematic too (and cost a lot more initially and to fix).

Thank you again.