Front landing gear not working

[ChangingPlaces]

Hi
We have a 2011 2950RK Big Country. We live in Wellington New Zealand.
We purchased this unit July last year from Nick Eagle of Wainui RV.

We had just gone on a weekend rally and returned home. I went to unhitch the truck and level the rig up.
When I went to put the landing gear down the leg nearest the motor was going down, but the other leg just stayed still.
The bar was bolted to the spindle but the spindle was just going round and round.
Something inside the top of the landing gear shaft has come adrift somehow.

Please help us as to what we can do to fix this problem.

Your urgent attention to this would be most appreciated.
We are rather stuck at the moment
Thank you
Regards
Paul Walters

 

[wdk450]

Paul:
What most frequently happens with these is that a bolt securing the connecting shaft to the output shaft of the gear reduction loses it's nut, and the bolt falls out. The symptom of this is that you will NOT see the connecting shaft turning when you actuate the landing gear motor.
Here is a link to a picture of the landing gear system by itself, but you can't see the bolt and nut, which are in the cross shaft by the motor:
http://www.domarproducts.com/gearset.html

Hi
We have a 2011 2950RK Big Country, vin # 5SFBG2921BE217967. Contact phone # 0064 43894492 or 0275 439449.
We live in Wellington New Zealand. We purchased this unit July last year from Nick Eagle of Wainui RV.

We had just gone on a weekend rally and returned home. I went to unhitch the truck and level the rig up.
When I went to put the landing gear down the leg nearest the motor was going down, but the other leg just stayed still.
The bar was bolted to the spindle but the spindle was just going round and round.
Something inside the top of the landing gear shaft has come adrift somehow.

Please help us as to what we can do to fix this problem.

Your urgent attention to this would be most appreciated.
We are rather stuck at the moment and unable to get hold of Nick.
Thank you
Regards
Paul Walters

 

[caissiel]

Attached is the bolt in question

 

[JohnDar]

And there is a bolt at both ends of the cross shaft.

 

[ChangingPlaces]

It is not the bolt that holds the connecting shaft to the output shaft, that was ok. It sounds like the cogs inside have come loose and not turning, due to a split pin I have been told. I don't know for sure. I have tried to get the landing leg un bolted but only could get the bottom one out but the top one I cant" get to. The wall to the Lpg bottles is right next to the leg, so would have to cut a hole in this wall to get to the bolt, then getting the leg out.
Reluctant to do this but I cant' see any other way. Has any one got any ideas.
Cheers Paul

 

[JohnDar]

Paul, I took a photo of a BC in production during the plant tour. You're right, the only way to get at the top bolt of the leg is through the wall of the propane cabinet. I'm still figuring out the new software on this laptop and how to resize photos, or I'd post the photo. Unlike my BH, your legs are outside of the "garage" cabinet and not easily accessible.

I'm back and got the photo thing figured out.

View attachment 13967

 

[PUG]

Paul;
I used to have a 3950 so I could be wrong here. My 3950 had the drive motor on the "off door side" (left looking forward, I think you guys drive on the wrong side of the road) so I am assuming yours is the same. The motor drives the landing gear below it and also the door side landing gear via the connecting rod. As someone else said there is a bolt through the shaft on both ends. These bolts shear easily so make sure both are in place first. I have had my old unit apart and totally out before, replacing the landing gear. I don't remember a split pin like you were talking about. What I remember is a set of gears similar to the pinion gear in a rear end of a vehicle.
Basically two gears mesh together to turn the shaft to raise and lower the landing gear. When I replaced mine (I put in a dual motor system) I had to remove the landing gear totally out and replace it with a different unit that had it's own motor thusly no cross over rod to run the door side landing gear.

To remove mine (2009 Cyclone 3950) i hooked mine to the pickup to hold it up and unbolted I believe about four bolts and dropped the landing gear out through the bottom. The bolts were easy to get to from inside the front storage compartment. It was pretty easy but it sounds like yours has some other method of attachment. If you can get it out I don't know if you can replace gears or if you have to replace the whole landing gear. Have you talked to your dealer? I would think they should be able to tell you how the dang thing does together.
\
I burned out two motors and finally replaced the single motor system with a dual motor system as the Lippert system installed is way under engineered.

 

[caissiel]

I left the trailer hooked to the truck and completely removed the leg from the trailer and placed it on a bench. I lifted the lower section up as far as it could go and there was possibility to take it out from the front storage on my 2009 model.
I see that the newer models have the legs outside the front storage and it makes it a different method. Mine were jamming and I had to create some way to keep the gear holder in center to keep the pinion and gear in line. It's 1/2 the working pressure to lift my unit now. If there is a need for a second motor the gears are definitely binding and will wear faster.

Here is pics of the leg on the bench.

 

[bwwalczak]

You are getting great advice here on the forum, but please feel free to contact one of our retail service folks here at Heartland via email. You can email garry.randolph@heartlandrvs.com .

 

[ChangingPlaces]

You are getting great advice here on the forum, but please feel free to contact one of our retail service folks here at Heartland via email. You can email garry.randolph@heartlandrvs.com .

Many thanks Brian, I might do that.
Cheers Paul

 

[ChangingPlaces]

Hi Brian

We recieved an email from Garry but it just said to contact Lippert by phone to query the two different sized legs in question. Refer below.
As we are 12 hours ahead in time it is not easy for us to be in contact with Lippert, when you are alseep, we are awake.
Garry did not provide us with an email address or a contact name so we are really no further ahead.
It would be greatly apprecaited if you could in fact ask him to contact Lippert himself and then be in contact again with us please?
We are after some customer service and would appreciate further assistance from you and Garry please.

We have been told that we should take out and check the leg but access is very difficult as we will have to go through the LPG wall to allow the bolt to come out as access from the inside front area is very tight.

Our dealer Nick Eagle from Wainui RV left for the US 13 July NZ time, so yesterday for us. He has suggested we replace the leg once we gain access. He has a new leg from an Elkridge unit that he thinks we should replace ours with. BUT our question is, Will the new leg from the Elkridge be the same size as our Big Country leg and will this work? The leg with the motor goes down only.
We are reluctant to attack our unit to get the top bolt out from the leg as this is every close to the wall with the LPG area. From the forum we have had many replies and photos but unsure which way to address this.

Should the Elkridge leg be the wrong size, how quickly can you airfreight a new Big Country leg to NZ please?
You have the Vin number and all the details of our unit.

Await your urgent reply to our situation.
We are heading away again very soon and need to be able to unhitch, so we need this sorted ASAP.
Thankyou
Regards
Paul

 

[ChangingPlaces]

Hi Bryan

PS: Apologies for spelling your name incorrectly.

Look forward to hearing from you.
Cheers
Paul

 

[bwwalczak]

I really need to get Lippert involved in this discussion. Let me get you a contact email at Lippert. They can help. Please send me an email at bryanw@heartlandrvs.com

I will reply back with Lippert's customer service guy's email.

Gary is correct, they need to resolve. We don't have have additional legs/gears here at Heartland. Landing gears/legs all come in with the frames from Lippert.

 

[ChangingPlaces]

Hi Bryan

Have just emailed you our details. Will Lippert be able to supply the correct leg size for us in the nxet week by airfreight to NZ, should the the Elkridge one is the wrong size that we have on stand by here in NZ? Cheers Paul

 

[branson4020]

Paul,

Is it possible to access the leg through the basement compartment by removing the front basement wall?

 

[TXBobcat]

This is who I worked with at Lippert. Dave Brice DaveBi@lci1.com

FWIW

BC

 

[wdk450]

Paul:<br>
I am pretty sure there is just 1 landing gear set and size in the electric/mechanical version (not hydraulic).<br>Here is a link to the Lippert online store only showing the Venture brand landing gear they use: http://www.lci1.com/storecatalog/venture-landing-gear-legs--accessories.htm<br>
Here is a link to a mechanical diagram from the Venture website. Evidently there is a rebuild kit (all parts in Red):
http://www.venturemfgco.com/docs/lg parts explosion.pdf
<br>

Hi Bryan<br>
<br>
Have just emailed you our details. Will Lippert be able to supply the correct leg size for us in the nxet week by airfreight to NZ, should the the Elkridge one is the wrong size that we have on stand by here in NZ? Cheers Paul <img src="//heartlandowners.org/images/smilies/smile.png" alt="" title="Smile" smilieid="1" class="inlineimg" border="0">

 

[ChangingPlaces]

Thank you all for your replies. We had a new leg on order with our dealer, but ended up taking our existing leg to an engineer to take a look at it.
The engineer fixed it, apparently when unhitching bringing the leg back up we must of bought it up too far and put some strain on it and the lug on the side pushed inside the leg along with the bottom cog/gearing, making it unusable. He managed to push the lug and cog back into place.
So we aren't legless any more, very delighted. We are up country getting some work done on the rig and on our way to a rally. Very pleased to be able to unhitch properly now.
Cheers Paul

 

[wdk450]

Paul:
Congrats on getting your landing gear fixed that far away from the manufacturer.
The pulling the landing gear up too high (or too low) is a common problem, and many people have expressed the wish that there was an electrical limit switches circuitry to prevent this. Many people mark their landing gear with permanent marker "limit lines" to try to prevent damage.

 

[ChangingPlaces]

Hi Bill
Thats exactly what we did. I put some red tape that is 20mm wide around the base of the leg for a limit line, so I won't make the same mistake again.
Cheers Paul