Issue with front landing gear on 3914

[nikkita1956]

We had our new Cyclone out several times this season, and every time we try to extend the landing gear more than 12", the in-line fuse blows on the landing gear motor. 12" is usually not enough to level front-to-back. Also, the motor seems to run very slowly. I have searched the forum, and this seems to be an issue that others have had. We tried spraying the legs with silicone, but didn't help.

Also, our TV cable hook-ups do not work. My husband bought a tester and tested all the lines...nothing. Also tried bypassing the splitters in the basement, still nothing.

Please advise...our dealer is 400 miles from our home, and local Heartland dealers will not handle our warranty issues.

Thank-you!

 

[trvlrerik]

I would check to make sure the fuse is a 30 amp first. I had a similar problem and was advised that if the on-board battery is not fully charged it will cause the motor to overdraw amperage and cause to 30 amp fuse to blow. When the battery was not fully charged leaving it hooked to the tow vehicle helped some. Also check if the spade terminals attatched to the motor and switch are tight and not corroded, this will cause the amperage to overdraw causing a blown fuse.

The motor is very slow due to the reduction grears, I thought mine was slow also but had it checked buy a Lippert trained tech. and he advised when they upsized the motor the speeds did go down with the gear reduction.

I cannot help with the TV cable as I am an idiot and had the Direct TV guy work out the bugs I was having. I did find that each TV has to search in the correct mode or it will not find any channels, hope this is some help.

 

[lwmcguir]

I would check the wiring to the motor and make sure the terminations are tight. Sounds like a poor connection or weak motor. Do you receive over the air channels? Do you have the booster on? Do you have the coax connected to the correct cable/antenna location? Good luck.

 

[jmgratz]

We had our new Cyclone out several times this season, and every time we try to extend the landing gear more than 12", the in-line fuse blows on the landing gear motor. 12" is usually not enough to level front-to-back. Also, the motor seems to run very slowly. I have searched the forum, and this seems to be an issue that others have had. We tried spraying the legs with silicone, but didn't help.

Also, our TV cable hook-ups do not work. My husband bought a tester and tested all the lines...nothing. Also tried bypassing the splitters in the basement, still nothing.

Please advise...our dealer is 400 miles from our home, and local Heartland dealers will not handle our warranty issues.

Thank-you!

Contact Heartland Customer Service if your unit is still in warranty. They can authorize an independent RV Repair facility to do warranty repair.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

No Offense but 12" of travel should be enough to level a 5th wheel under all but extreme circumstances. Are you aware of the leg extensions that are used to reach the ground to assist the leveling of the trailer?
The speed of the leg travel is normally pretty slow due to the reduction gears that are needed to lift the heavy load of the trailer.
There are several things that could be the cause of the cable TV not working. It could be how the TV is set up. It Could be the Antenna amp needing to be shut off to allow the cable signal to pass through the amplifier or it could be a bad connector on any of several coax cables needed to get from the pedestal to the TV. Sadly, many things to check before finding the problem Good Luck with all.

 

[mrcomer]

I agree with Ray, 12" of travel is probably the most it will go and you may be causing your own problem. Check with Heartland or Lippert about the total amount of travel those landing gear have.

Please let us know what you find,
Mark

 

[nikkita1956]

Thanks for the input, guys! We will check the motor connections...by the way...where is it? The fuse is a 30 amp, and we let our unit plugged in to shore power, so a low battery charge is not the issue. Also, we do camp in areas not exactly level...we can get close to level before the fuse goes. (Maybe some of the older campsites are not fully graded out for a 42 ft rig??) We always drop the extensions to the ground first before hitting the motor. Anyway, we will contact Heartland if the solutions offered do not work.

As far as the cable issues, it DID work when we camped in May...I'm now thinking maybe we need to upgrade the splitters to HDTV since the digital change in June. Perhaps when we tested the wires, our technical ineptness resulted in operator error! (There are SOOO many connections!!) The TV does work if we run a direct line to it! And we did find on our first trip that the A/V cables hooked to the TV from the DVD system were reversed. Fixed that, at least!

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Also, we do camp in areas not exactly level...we can get close to level before the fuse goes. (Maybe some of the older campsites are not fully graded out for a 42 ft rig??) We always drop the extensions to the ground first before hitting the motor.

As far as the cable issues, it DID work when we camped in May...I'm now thinking maybe we need to upgrade the splitters to HDTV since the digital change in June. Perhaps when we tested the wires, our technical ineptness resulted in operator error! (There are SOOO many connections!!) The TV does work if we run a direct line to it!

You might do this already but?? When you get on your site and the nose is high, try lowering the legs 5 or 6 inches before dropping the extensions. This gives you a little extra adjusting range before hitting the point where motor travel stops. If the nose is low, only extend them an inch or so. Either way, I always extend the legs before dropping the extensions. We have a graduated level indicator that tells us how many inches we need to adjust so we have an idea how far to lower before dropping the extensions.
All this is assuming there are no underlying issues with the landing gear or motor. The motor is located at the top of the off door side landing leg. It's inside the front storage compartment attached to the reduction gear and there is a shaft from the housing going to the other leg. Does your fuse blow before the legs reach their limits? If so, you may have to resort to getting a dealer to look at it. Many possibilities make it hard to diagnose without actually being there.

 

[wdk450]

Get Warranty Service

We had our new Cyclone out several times this season, and every time we try to extend the landing gear more than 12", the in-line fuse blows on the landing gear motor. 12" is usually not enough to level front-to-back. Also, the motor seems to run very slowly. I have searched the forum, and this seems to be an issue that others have had. We tried spraying the legs with silicone, but didn't help.

Also, our TV cable hook-ups do not work. My husband bought a tester and tested all the lines...nothing. Also tried bypassing the splitters in the basement, still nothing.

Please advise...our dealer is 400 miles from our home, and local Heartland dealers will not handle our warranty issues.

Thank-you!

Your warranty is part of the purchase price you paid. If local Heartland dealers won't do the work, you can go to any repair facility you choose; or Heartland keeps a list of repair providers they have had good experiences with in your area.
CALL HEARTLAND SERVICE!

Heartland Customer Service
877-262-8032 / 574-262-8030

If you don't get satisfaction, ask to speak to the Brand Manager for Cyclones.

 

[jimtoo]

Your warranty is part of the purchase price you paid. If local Heartland dealers won't do the work, you can go to any repair facility you choose; or Heartland keeps a list of repair providers they have had good experiences with in your area.
CALL HEARTLAND SERVICE!

Heartland Customer Service
877-262-8032 / 574-262-8030

If you don't get satisfaction, ask to speak to the Brand Manager for Cyclones.

You can go to any "repair facility" you choose, PROVIDING that that "repair facility" call and get authorization from Heartland RVs customer service before any repairs are done. Prior authorization is a MUST for any repairs that you expect to be paid for, or to be reimbursed by Heartland Rvs.

Jim M

 

[nikkita1956]

We will be contacting Heartland about the landing gear issue. We tried letting the 5er on the truck and extended the landing gear without any weight on it (fuse did not blow then!) just to see how much travel we had in the landing gear, and there is alot more extension left in there, so the fuse is blowing long before we run out of leg. We still have to check out the motor connections before we call (weekend job!)