Help with our landing gear.

2010 Big Country - 18 months old. Landing gear is completely inoperable. Heartland says no warranty... RV repair company states that everythng has to be replaced. This landing gear is made by Lippert. Has anyone had this experience and is anyone going to stand behind their product that costs $60,000.00? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.


Barbara and John Bird
 

jimtoo

Moderator
Hi Barbara and John,

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 if needed.

First, it is unheard of for everything needing to be replaced. You don't say if it makes noise and does not work, or if no noise at all. If you could give us a little more information about what it is doing it would help. If your not into doing any repairs yourself, I would take it to another repair shop or person. There are a lot of things that can happen, but never something that would require replacing the complete system unless you want to upgrade to something else.

Please give us some more information.

Jim M
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
Hi Barb & John, Welcome to the Heartland Forum. There may be some help here but we need more details. Did the gear just stop working? Does the electric motor make any noise at all? There are a few possibilities but it will help a lot if you can give us more specifics.

Electrical? There can either be an in line fuse between the motor and the switch. It may be behind the battery in the front compartment. If no in line fuse, there is a bank of breakers on the wall just above the battery. Feel along the sides of these breakers for a little button sticking out. That will be the reset.

Mechanical? The most common failure is the cross shaft bolt. IF this is the case, the gear will only work on one side and not the other. SO I doubt this is your issue. If you hear the motor turning but there are loud popping noises, Your gear reduction unit may have failed.

Mechanical failures are not common but they do happen. Sadly warranties have to end somewhere and we have to bite the bullet and fix what's broken. I would get a 2nd opinion when someone tells me the whole thing needs to be replaced. That sounds like someone taking advantage of you.
 

SouthernNights

Past South Carolina Chapter Leader
Like Jim said, it is unheard of that EVERYTHING needs to be repalced.
Do this,

If it makes no noise when you hit the button for the legs you probably have popped the fuse. The fuse could be one of two places. Look behind the the battery box for an inline fuse or just trace the wires coming from the switch over towards the battery box area.

If the motor does make noise but neither leg moves, then you might have stripped the gear box. Still not that big of deal, just need to get the parts,.

if only one leg moves when you hit the switch then you probably have lost a bolt in the crosshaft (the shaft that connects the two landing gear legs.

let us know..


on and edit, Ray i see we had the same thought at the same time..LOL
 

branson4020

Icantre Member
2010 Big Country - 18 months old. Landing gear is completely inoperable. Heartland says no warranty... RV repair company states that everythng has to be replaced. This landing gear is made by Lippert. Has anyone had this experience and is anyone going to stand behind their product that costs $60,000.00? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.


Barbara and John Bird

If you are not able or inclined to do any detailed diagnosis of the problem, then definitely get a second (at least) opinion from a different shop. Make them actually show you what is wrong. You've got to at least poke your head under the hood. DO NOT blindly believe the repair shop.
 

archbarb

Member
I am replying just cause Arch is not home from work...I'm in agreement with Larry and Ray...we've had the bolt on the shaft broken and....we've blown a fuse! both were within a few months of purchase! Please get a second opinion!!!!!
Barb
 

slmayor

Founding California Northern Chapter Leader
I work at a repair facility and I will also agree with the opinion that there is no reason to replace everything. The only reason to replace all components in the landing gear would be if the trailer were dropped, bent both legs, the connecting rod and busted the gear box to boot. Even in that case, it's likely that the motor would still be good. All individual components can be ordered as replacement parts. Gear box, motor, landing legs, etc. I would get a second opinion.
 

SouthernNights

Past South Carolina Chapter Leader
2010 Big Country - 18 months old. Landing gear is completely inoperable. Heartland says no warranty... RV repair company states that everythng has to be replaced. This landing gear is made by Lippert. Has anyone had this experience and is anyone going to stand behind their product that costs $60,000.00? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.


Barbara and John Bird

There is also a member here that happens to have a complete set of landing gear including all the little parts that go with it. I bet they would be willing to sell what ever you need.

Ray also mentioned about the circuit breaker. I had an 09 that was wired through a breaker and I know the 2011 had a breaker on them. I do think they might have gone to a fuse for a short period of time, just not sure when.
If I recall the wire might be a white wire with a blue tracer coming from the switch to the breaker and the breaker is in the middle of the breaker stack. Cant remember if it is the third or fourth breaker down.
 

57chevyconvt

Well-known member
John, Sorry to hear about your landing gear problems. As noted in the replies, the folks on this forum has LOTS of experience in the area of mechanical landing gears supplied by Lippert. Many of us have worked on this problem and can prove some real insites on what to do next. Please follow the advice note by others in order to do or get a "root cause analysis", in corn bread terms just find the problem and your forum guys/gals can hopefully save you some time, money, and grief, most of all restore confidence in your landing gear. You can go to Lippert's website and down load the Venture Mfg. 5th Wheel Landing Gear Owners Manual.
 

Invizatu

Senior Road Warriors
Barbarajohn... Think about joining the Heartland Owners Club, if you do you will get a 10% discount on parts from Heartland!
Good luck and be sure to let us know what you find.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
Are you currently in Lapeer with your rig or somewhere else? Assuming you have electric front jacks and not the leaky Lippert hydraulics, there isn't a whole lot to them. A drive motor with a plastic gear box, a breaker fuse, worm gears at the top of the jack posts, and the crossbar that runs from the door side (where the motor is) to the opposite side to drive it. As mentioned, find that breaker first and try pushing the little reset button. On some models, there is supposedly an inline fuse hidden somewhere in the wiring (in the front compartment). Look for a fuse holder. While you're at it, check all the wire nuts in the system. They've been known to not be installed correctly and come loose.

I replaced my electric jacks with the Reico-Titan Ground Control system early last year. Unfortunately, I got tired of the parts laying around and took them and my old pin box to the scrap yard a while ago.

I agree, you're getting hosed by the repair company saying that everything needs to be replaced. But, the warranty period is what it is.
 
This is Barbara and John again. Thanks for all your replys. More info today, apparently Heartland has welded stops on the front jacks and they have been raised higher than than the stops thus damaging the gears in the jacks as well as in the landing gear. Our repair service has been in touch with Lippert and the parts are on order and will be in by next week. Lippert as well as us and repair shop are in disbelief as to why these stops have been welded on the jacks. We will pay the hefty repair charge and take it up with our Dealer and Heartland when we return home in April. Barbara and John
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
barbarajohn, I must say, this is the first time I've ever heard of "stops" being welded on the landing legs. There is really no reason for there to be stops. The legs will only retract to a certain point and then the gearbox will begin to strain, skip and then the breaker usually pops to "break" electrical power to the motor. Good Luck with the repairs.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
apparently Heartland has welded stops on the front jacks and they have been raised higher than than the stops thus damaging the gears in the jacks as well as in the landing gear.

If there are stops, the obvious function of stops is to prevent the jacks from retracting further than the design engineer intended. Yet they went too far anyway. You should be asking how the stops failed to stop the retraction, thus causing the damage. Something doesn't smell right.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
I have to agree that there should be no stops welded on. When I removed my jacks, I was able to fully collapse them after removing the foot pads and pins. The only "stops" were pieces welded onto the outer tubes where it lifted the rig at the mounting brackets.
 

navyAZ1

Well-known member
I'm gonna guess that y'all have hydraulic landing gear since the coach is only 18 months old, but if not and you have electric landing gear than I fear someone is taking advantage of you on the repair cost if it is a huge amount. If it is electric and you stripped the gears in the top of the landing gear legs those repair kits can be purchased from Lippert for about $28 per kit. Who ever will be accomplishing the work be sure and have them disassemble the legs and lubricate the worm gear and the caster nut (I think that's what their called) inside the leg these get really dry and can cause a huge problem if not kept lubed. Our electric landing gear gave us fits for years until I had the newer hydraulic landing gear installed this past summer at the rally in Goshen. Good Luck, and be patient with the Heartland Customer Service folks, I have had them take care of a lot of small things out of warranty just by being firm but nice. I have learned with all of these folks whether it be Heartland or one of their vendors "it's all in how you ask"!!

Ron
 

wdk450

Well-known member
The usual stop point on mechanical landing gear is the telescoping leg pins which hit the trailer frame when the landing gear is raised too high. In an ideal world there would be an electric microswitch cutting out the motor when the upper limit is reached, or a fuse or circuit breaker would open. The circuit breaker has been modified up in value due to it popping while lifting up the trailer, so now it doesn't pop when the up mechanical limit is reached.
A lot of people paint lines on their landing gear legs a little before the pins hit the frame as a visual up limit.

This is Barbara and John again. Thanks for all your replys. More info today, apparently Heartland has welded stops on the front jacks and they have been raised higher than than the stops thus damaging the gears in the jacks as well as in the landing gear. Our repair service has been in touch with Lippert and the parts are on order and will be in by next week. Lippert as well as us and repair shop are in disbelief as to why these stops have been welded on the jacks. We will pay the hefty repair charge and take it up with our Dealer and Heartland when we return home in April. Barbara and John
 
Top