wyleyrabbit
Well-known member
Today I took our trailer to our local campground for a family weekend. Everything worked normally when I picked the trailer up from storage, but when I tried to disconnect the truck, I had a serious problem with my front landing gear. I was just raising the trailer so I could disconnect, and suddenly, the door-size leg gave out and telescoped back into the trailer. There wasn't any loud noise or anything, it just gave out. Fortunately, the trailer was only a few mm off of the 5th wheel.
I tried operating the gear, and the off-door-side leg seemed to function normally, but the door-side leg didn't respond at all. After trying to push it up for a bit, I was able to get it to *almost* work with the motor, and the everything almost worked. But it's almost as though it's got broken gear teeth or something, just on the one leg, because at the point where it stopped part-way, I was able to use my non-superhuman strength to easily push the leg back up against the frame. This leg will now hold exactly zilch, other than in the fully retracted position.
Using a bottle jack, I was able to raise the trailer up enough to disconnect the truck, and then lowered it down and placed the retracted landing gear on a half-dozen lynx leveler blocks. The off-door-side leg operates fine with the motor.
My trailer is now level, and at the campground. We'll stay in it for the weekend.
I tried calling Venture Manufacturing (they made the landing gear on our Bighorn), but as Murphy's Law would dictate, they are a couple of time zones away had just closed for the weekend.
On their website, I was able to find this:
http://www.venturemfgco.com/admin/uploadfiles/image/file/LG-Specs.pdf
Does anyone have any idea what is likely broken? Has this happened to anyone else? I'm cringing at what my repair bill will be...any guesses?
Chris
I tried operating the gear, and the off-door-side leg seemed to function normally, but the door-side leg didn't respond at all. After trying to push it up for a bit, I was able to get it to *almost* work with the motor, and the everything almost worked. But it's almost as though it's got broken gear teeth or something, just on the one leg, because at the point where it stopped part-way, I was able to use my non-superhuman strength to easily push the leg back up against the frame. This leg will now hold exactly zilch, other than in the fully retracted position.
Using a bottle jack, I was able to raise the trailer up enough to disconnect the truck, and then lowered it down and placed the retracted landing gear on a half-dozen lynx leveler blocks. The off-door-side leg operates fine with the motor.
My trailer is now level, and at the campground. We'll stay in it for the weekend.
I tried calling Venture Manufacturing (they made the landing gear on our Bighorn), but as Murphy's Law would dictate, they are a couple of time zones away had just closed for the weekend.
On their website, I was able to find this:
http://www.venturemfgco.com/admin/uploadfiles/image/file/LG-Specs.pdf
Does anyone have any idea what is likely broken? Has this happened to anyone else? I'm cringing at what my repair bill will be...any guesses?
Chris