Heartland underengineered the 3950s landing gear.

[PUG]

Just need to vent a little as I am very disappointed in Heartlands design and engineering on the front landing gear of my 09 3950 Cyclone. Just a few months after purchasing the 3950 the motor for the landing gear was popping fuses left and right. I contacted Heartland and they sent a new larger so called heavy duty motor to a dealer and they replaced that. That was all fine and dandy and I was happy and this was suppossed to remedy the problem.

This is now about 2 years later and I am in Arizona from Idaho and poof out goes the lift motor again. After reading the forum last night I learned there is now a suppossedly cure all out now that adds another motor. Being I am out of warranty I just called the supplier and ordered a new motor to replace the burnt one along with their two motor conversion kit. $125 or the new motor and $300 for the conversion kit that includes a second motor and a new leg, wiring etc. plus $45 for shipping. $465 total.

I guess what I am saying is if you are going to purchase a big trl like this one make sure the new ones have either a two motor electric system or a hydraulic system as the one this one came with was not designed correctly. I wish Heartland would do something for me on this as they know they goofed from the start but I am not holding my breathe.

 

[jbeletti]

Pug,

I am not qualified to debate you on this matter, nor do I have anything to do with the design of such things. We have thousands of these systems out there and electric motorized front landing gear can function properly. Why yours burns out motors - I just can't say.

We are continuously improving our products and while it's no consolation for you, I want you to know that beginning with the 2010 model year Cyclone, we began to use hydraulic front landing gear. I believe it was that same year, we did the same thing with our Bighorn product.

Sorry that you have had such a tough time with yours. I am hoping others can weigh in here with ideas on how they manage better with their electric landing gear. Maybe it will be of some help.

Jim

 

[TXBobcat]

Hi Pug.
A lot of us have had the same problem with the older Heartland trailers. This may not be what to hear, but many of us bit the bullet and had a hydraulic system installed but made it the full leveling system.

Some used the Lippert Levelup system and others including me had the Bigfoot Auto leveling system installed. Yep it costs some bucks but I will never had a problem overloading the landing gear and it is easy to level. Just push one button once I get off the TV. Take a look at some of the threads discussing the leveling systems.

You can go up to the search on the top right hand corner, click on the Advanced search drop down for Google (in the forum) and enter a topic, like levelup or bigfoot and you should get some good hits.

Here's a search for Bigfoot threads .

It works but it also find bigfoot in the signatures...

FWIW
BC

 

[jayc]

I have been using an electric landing gear on three different trailers since 1998 and so far, haven't had a problem. Maybe I have been lucky but I like to think I am very careful to release the switch when it reaches the limit. Like Bobcat, I will be switching over to the hydraulic leveling system soon. Sorry you're having a problem and hope you get it worked out.

 

[caissiel]

I found that the landing gear needs attention when it is no longer able to be raised by the crank. A stronger and dual motor will not fix it.
I had to take my unit appart and realign the gear and pinion on both legs. The gear on the jack screw is alowed to be pushed sideways and the pinnion will climb on the gear causing the gears to jam instead of roling easily as normaly required.

Mine was moving enough to jam and I could not jack the trailer with the manual crank. This has been my 3 rd trailer with the same problem and I fixed them all the same way by anchoring the centering bar so as it is not alowed to move.

Now with good grease on the gears and alignment its much easier to lift the trailer with the manual crank, and therefore the motor does not work hard.

In the 1st and 2nd pick it shows the movement of the centering bar, the last pic shows the clamp I made to center the bar.

 

[santafedave]

I have my 2008 Cyclone at Camping World and I am getting the HWH Hydrolic automatic leveling system installed. If you are a President's member with camping world the total price for the equipment is $3799.00 plus around $1,000 for install. I can't wait to not have to worry about getting stuck in the middle of the desert because of the Lippert POS landing gear that is installed stock on these rigs. Any prospective new owners should get the lippert hydrolic system installed new and they won't have any worries in the future.

 

[caissiel]

I was talking to a retired farmer that had hydraulic landing gear on his previous trailer and he told me he was never assured of the dependibility of the landings and the next trailer he bought he made sure it had the gear type landing gear. With his experience on the farm, a hydraulic hose can fail at anytime so the trailer could fall down and damage anything under it.
We have to understand that the Motor homes have the wheels under the unit when the jacks level them and they have been known to fail often in the past. I heard many failure stories about them.
I would rather invest in proper maintenance on my units then spending very valuable investment money for these hydraulic units.

 

[santafedave]

I just had the Rieco Titan ground control system installed on my Cyclone 3795. 4 Electric motors on each lift leg. Each motor is interchangable with the other and they are easy to remove. At camping world they wanted almost $7,000 to order and install a Hydraulic system and I paid 4,000 for the whole kit and install. They did have to move the spare tire system farther aft of the fuel tank in the rear and remove the genset to complete the install. I am happy now that I know that I will not be stuck in the middle of the desert with a failed lippert landing gear system. See my video at youtube called "dgsantafedave" Yea. D.

 

[branson4020]

I found that the landing gear needs attention when it is no longer able to be raised by the crank. A stronger and dual motor will not fix it.
I had to take my unit appart and realign the gear and pinion on both legs. The gear on the jack screw is alowed to be pushed sideways and the pinnion will climb on the gear causing the gears to jam instead of roling easily as normaly required.

Mine was moving enough to jam and I could not jack the trailer with the manual crank. This has been my 3 rd trailer with the same problem and I fixed them all the same way by anchoring the centering bar so as it is not alowed to move.

Now with good grease on the gears and alignment its much easier to lift the trailer with the manual crank, and therefore the motor does not work hard.

In the 1st and 2nd pick it shows the movement of the centering bar, the last pic shows the clamp I made to center the bar.

Laurent,
Thanks so much for the pictures. I just wasn't getting this from the words alone. Is the top of that tube supposed to be square? Is it really pushed out that much?

 

[porthole]

Watch for the tire hitting on steep areas. Where the tire is mounted from the factory on our trailer it hits my driveway backing i. Any further rearward and it would be an issue. As it is now it just starts to scrape.

 

[nugget]

Timely. My landing gear motor has had a hard time raising the front of the trailer since new. It frequently blew the 20 amp fuse so I went to a 30 amp. The motor still works hard when raising with shore power or truck power connected.
I am considering going to a dual landing gear system hoping 2 motors will raise the trailer a little easier.

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[porthole]

I don't know if it would work, but I kept the landing gear from our Cyclone when the hydraulics were installed.

 

[PUG]

Come on Jim. You read, sort, and reply on practically every post made on this forum. You are also suppossed to be the "owners" voice to the factory relaying on problems we are encountering and suggestions we have made. You replyed on my post where I was voicing dissatisfaction with the front landing gear that you didn't know why (I) was having so much trouble, more or less saying it was either a one of a kind problem or maybe me.

All you or anyone else has to do is search for front landing gear problems on this forum and you will see many many posts similar to mine. Come on Jim, I know you try but you are starting to sound like one of our polititians back East. If Heartland wants to have a good reputation and produce a quality product they need to listen to their customers and respond.

 

[jbeletti]

Hi Pug,

You posted here in late February. While I can no longer keep up with all posts, I saw yours the next day and replied to the best of my ability. Six weeks later, you've come back here and I'm sort of lost on why you are calling me out.

All I can do for you is reiterate what I stated 6 weeks back, Heartland has responded by upgrading to hydraulic landing gear for a HUGE portion of their products. This in response to what we felt customers saw as a product improvement.

I understand that this changes nothing for you or anyone who has electric landing gear today.

If what you're asking for is to see a better "electric landing gear" system on those rigs we still produce with such systems - I hear you loud and clear. I'll certainly pass this on.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[nugget]

I'm interested.
My gear has a lippert high speed motor, 7149 rpm 35,3:1 gear ratio tied to a venture leg and gear assembly.
If yours is the same could your lead leg be used to replace my follow leg?
Would it work?

 

[caissiel]

There was noting wrong with the top part of the square tube, there is an expanded side of the tube that fits the shaft. The thing that was not right for me is the movement of the screw gear. It moved enough sideways to come out of alignment with the pinnion and the small gear climbed on the screw gear. I just centered the screw bearing and gear with a clamping device that centers the centering bar that was floating. I was afraid the gear would break as I was turning the pinion with the hand crank. The hand crank on mine was almost bending.

The gear was already showing wear due to clibing of the pinion.

 

[SmokeyBare]

Reading this post as well as others who have had problems with their landing gear & landing legs... I can't help but wonder why this is the case with some and there are others who have not had issues. Perhaps it's just not their turn yet, I don't really know.

I have read with a good deal of interest other guys posts, where they did some preventative maintenance on their Landing Gears and the legs by removing them from the RV, dissembling them so they could lubricate them, hoping to prevent a problem. It sure sounded like a good idea and one I probably will do one of these days. No doubt if the screw shaft starts to rust this will put a heavy strain on the Electric motor and on the drive gears. All the moving parts need lubrication on them. If they bind from a dry threaded shaft and start to rust, it will stress the motor and probably blow the fuse/circuit breaker from the additional stress of lifting the RV.

One other thought. Some use a test when they hitch up. That is, when they hitch up, they test to be sure the hitch is locked. I sure hope they are lifting the landing gear legs an inch or so off the ground/pavement before they do the tug test. What would concern me is the weight on the legs and then moving the RV ahead, even if it is only a bit of movement. Not sure how much stress they could stand before something gave. Even a slight bend of the lower leg could begin to cause the motor to work harder as it retracted back inside the upper part of the leg.

The hitch I have uses a solid plate of steel behind the King Pin to lock the RV to the Hitch. The tug test is not really needed in my case, since I can see the back side of the Hitch and see the steel shaft as it locks behind the King Pin. Sort of an Old Fashion design, but it works for me.

 

[jdfishing]

Hi Pug:
I hear you loud and clear. I've been fighting my front landing gear for four years. I complained about it early on and was told they all sound like that. That got me into year two, out of factory warranty, when it locked up while unloading from my TV. Since then, I've had it torn apart and replaced several times. I don't know why some fail and some don't, but some clearly do.

Well, it is again broke, six months after the latest motor/gear box replacement. I've got a major trip planned in three weeks, most of the repair facilities are booked solid, and I'm stuck with a Bighorn that's broke. This, after I've already poured a lot of money into a problem that continues to break. I asked Heartland if they have a recommended upgrade to the landing gear system and they don't. So, I guess we are on our own. I am interested in the dual motor system you installed. Thanks for the detailed istallation instructions, but that's more than I want to take on. I do have some concerns, since the motor/gearbox assemblys are the same as I now have. Please forward any updates you may have on how your's is performing. I don't believe I'm interested in throwing a couple thousand bucks at this problem, which I believe should have been corrected by Heartland.

But, I certainly understand the factory warranty process. After that first year, it's drop dead time. I just wish I would have known about this problem, and several others, before I bought, or at least in the first year. This landing gear issue goes back to my dealer and me mostly, but he's no longer in business. However, I honestly believe Heartland knew they had a problem and that's at least part of the reason they changed to the hydraulic system. But it is what it is, so now I just want to fix it permanently and move on to the next issue.

 

[JSalapka]

I found on my Sundance 2900MK that if you lift the landing gear all the way up it will blow a fuse everytime. I marked the legs and leave it down about an inch
and haven't had any problems so far. ( Knock on wood )

 

[jdfishing]

I also had marked my legs so I would not extend or retract them to the max. It's in the shop now, getting the two motor system installed. I asked if they had run across this problem before with any other units. They said they ocassionally replace a motor which has gone bad, but have generally not encountered the same problem Heartland seems to have with a system not capable of handling the weight. Hopefuly, this will solve my problem. I talked to a few other campers with SOB units of approximately the same size and weight as my 3055RL Bighorn. None have had or new of any problems with the front landing gear on their brand units. Doesn't speak well for a Heartland brand product.