Heartland underengineered the 3950s landing gear.

[dodgeguy44]

I too have had problems with my landing gear. 2010 Cyclone 3950. It blew fuses the second time I used the gear. It took me a while to find the fuse, on top of the generator(not sure why we have fuse boxes), and then replace it with a circuit breaker. It still kicks out the breaker but then comes back on after a minute. The legs and gear are simply too light for these trailers. Heartland admits there are some problems but refuses to help us out when there should be a recall on all of these. Jim has read and replied to the original post but still nothing is done.

This will be the last Heartland for us!

 

[navyAZ1]

For the folks who are getting the hydraulic landing gear and those who have it now I saw a 5er at another campground that had the hydraulic landing gear and he had a adjustable leg mounted on the frame next to the landing gear leg that was hinged so once he had the coach set up he would swing this leg down in place and adjust the leg to within about an inch short of the ground. This would then prevent the coach from dropping all the way to the ground should the hydraulic system lose pressure. He told me where he bought them at but for the life of me I can't remember, but I going to look into this once our new landing gear is installed.

 

[Rodbuster]

You guys are scaring the daylights out of me.
I'm picking up a brand new 40 foot Key Largo this Saturday. Should I be concerned with this landing gear problem?

Rodbuster

 

[cookie]

You guys are scaring the daylights out of me.
I'm picking up a brand new 40 foot Key Largo this Saturday. Should I be concerned with this landing gear problem?

Rodbuster

No.

Peace
Dave

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

You guys are scaring the daylights out of me.
I'm picking up a brand new 40 foot Key Largo this Saturday. Should I be concerned with this landing gear problem?

Rodbuster

First, the Landmark has a 14,000# capacity hydraulic system that should be more than enough to handle the landing legs on the Key Largo. This threads original poster was referring to an electric motor/geared unit he was having trouble with. Rest your fears my friend.

 

[ParkIt]

For the folks who are getting the hydraulic landing gear and those who have it now I saw a 5er at another campground that had the hydraulic landing gear and he had a adjustable leg mounted on the frame next to the landing gear leg that was hinged so once he had the coach set up he would swing this leg down in place and adjust the leg to within about an inch short of the ground. This would then prevent the coach from dropping all the way to the ground should the hydraulic system lose pressure. He told me where he bought them at but for the life of me I can't remember, but I going to look into this once our new landing gear is installed.

My guess is HWH - when I owned a 40' diesel pusher and worked at a high end RV sales lot, we did more HWH installs on every coach & trailer that left the lot by customer request. HWH also has electric 'kick jack levelers' - we used to call them "idiot proof levelers" since the first tug and they will unlock and snap up into place under the frame without damaging anything. They hold up and considering my brand new 3500BC arrived with a bad rear hydraulic pump for the rear levelers (factory had jammed the wiring in so hard to the inside switch it stripped the sheath from 2 wires drying out the pump) I'll probably spend the money for HWH hydraulics both front and back. Sturdy, no worries about pumps electric/hydraulic, and will never drop or jam.
2¢

 

[mikehammer001]

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.

I have a 2008 3950 cyclone. I bought it used from a dealer. I've had some issues that I've fixed that shouldn't have on a unit of this price range. I am now working on landing gear. On one of them the jack screw is froze. I changed the gear box because it was broke but after that is when I found the frozen screw. I am not happy with the Quality of this system but cant afford to do anything but fix it myself. Thanks for the pictures they'll come in handy.

 

[goldwinghaulers]

Heartland/Lippert sent a person to my house and replaced the motor on mine. he spent three days replacing the motor and on the third extension the motor quit again. He callled Heartland and they sent a second motor system to be installed. It has worked until now. This is the fourth time I have used the RV since both motors were installed and the right motor has stopped working. I was told on the replacement paperwork, that if it failed they would replace the system with a hydraulic one. Could someone from Heartland/Lippert give me the person I need to contact to have this done. Thank you. It is a 2009 Cyclone.

Barry Martin
334-774-1301

 

[jbeletti]

Barry,

You should contact Lippert Customer Service:

Lippert Components Inc.
866-524-7821
Lippert's Website
eMail Lippert

Be ready to fax them that paperwork that shows the hydraulic upgrade upon failure as they'll likely want to see that.

Jim

 

[caissiel]

Like I said before if the need is for more power to raise the legs, there is something wrong with the screw and its turning to hard. The result in the future will be a failed gear and pinion as I found with mine that I repaired before failure.
Try to lift your trailer using the hand crank, mine was so hard to turn that the crank was bending.

These landing gears are tested for 5000 Lbs service and to me its maintanance that will make them perform as designed. But the center plate is designed with to much clearance. I have seen SOBs setup with the center plate held on the coach anchor. On our heavy units the drop design it don't align but fully feasable on the heavy cyclone.

 

[happykraut]

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?

It is NEVER a good idea when you have a problem like this to put in a higher amperage fuse. If the original wiring was close in the current capabilities of the fuse (amperage wise) and now you are forcing that wiring to handle more current, the wiring could burn up before the fuse blows and possibly cause a fire. My 2 cents worth.
P.S.. I done rewrote this about a half dozen times and it's not coming out just right, but I think you should be able to get the picture.

 

[cmk1960]

When I purchased my 2009 3950 I bought it used and the landing gear was damaged. I inspected all the components and my conclusion was that my landing gear was abused by the former owner. I replaced the motor and gearbox, but not the switch. Recently we were getting ready for a trip and the motor stopped working again. This time the switch went out. Inspection of the switch revealed that it had overheated evidently many times. Now I am in the process of replacing the switch. Since the landing gear system appeared to be abused prior to me buying the unit, I feel the factory switch will be sufficient for the job. I tested the system and checked for voltage to determine where the failure was and after locating the problem I used a pair of jumper wires with alligator clips to wire the motor to a 12v supply so that I could raise the unit to the proper hitching level. The motor and landing gear operated properly with no problems at all. I know it sounds redneck but in time of need improvising is necessary.

 

[jimtoo]

Hi cmk1960,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and Family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge when needed.

Well,, if that's being a "Redneck",,,, then I (and a whole lot of other owners) belong to the Redneck Club also. You do what ever it takes to safely repair or make something work until it can be repaired correctly. HMnnn,,,, maybe we could start a "Redneck Temporary Repair Area" .... don't know how many folks would understand and could follow the redneck instructions,,, but maybe some folks could.

In your above post you said ""I tested the system and checked for voltage"" ,, so that means you touched the wires togather and had some sparks ,,, so you knew you had juice.... is that right?

Hey,,,enjoy the forum and your new to you Big Horn.

Jim M

 

[cmk1960]

Actually I tested the proper way with a volt meter, but touching wires can be fun...lol. I really enjoy my 3950 anytime we go camping. We recently went to Destin Fla. for a week and loved the area and the camper, ( the longest trip yet). It is amazing how many people with the class A campers come by and admire the 12 ft garage area especially when I have my supports attached to turn my ramp into a patio complete with table, chairs, and a propane fire pit, even a grill at times all on a camper as long as theirs without a cab. Don't get me wrong, I like the class A's, but they just don't fit my needs. I like my 3950 and my F-350 better, that way I can take my Harley Touring Bike and all the goodies. Looking forward to chating with other Heartland owners!

 

[argyll1st]

Hi guys, so what is the actual factory position on this "problem" we have a 2009 Sundance ( bought in 2010) that's been popping fuses, is it under warranty ? Are they sending out second motors ? We live in the UK and only come state side to holiday so I don't want to be stuck on a dealers forecourt for 3 days as they have a go at fixing this ! Are the landing jacks covered under the 3 year warranty ?

 

[happykraut]

When I purchased my 2009 3950 I bought it used and the landing gear was damaged. I inspected all the components and my conclusion was that my landing gear was abused by the former owner. I replaced the motor and gearbox, but not the switch. Recently we were getting ready for a trip and the motor stopped working again. This time the switch went out. Inspection of the switch revealed that it had overheated evidently many times. Now I am in the process of replacing the switch. Since the landing gear system appeared to be abused prior to me buying the unit, I feel the factory switch will be sufficient for the job. I tested the system and checked for voltage to determine where the failure was and after locating the problem I used a pair of jumper wires with alligator clips to wire the motor to a 12v supply so that I could raise the unit to the proper hitching level. The motor and landing gear operated properly with no problems at all. I know it sounds redneck but in time of need improvising is necessary.

Call me a redneck too. I did the exact same thing this summer up in Alaska. I wire nutted two short pieces of 12 gauge solid wire to the motor leads. They acted like probes and got me all the way through Alaska and back home.

 

[Gary521]

There has been a gazillion posts on the electric landing gear. Adding the second landing gear motor helps a bunch but does not solve the underlying problem and that is the lack of lube on the jack screw. The jack screw runs hard and maybe seizes and "poof" there goes the fuse, motor or whatever. I have a technique to drill holes in the leg so that the jack screw can be greased. It can be found on the forum or anyone can e-mail me and I will give the technique.