Landing Leg - Slipping Gear Problem

[aelenz]

I have a recently discovered a problem with one of my landing gear legs of my 5th wheel. I own a 2008 2900MK Sundance. I have found that the leg, opposite the drive motor, was not in sync with the other leg. In order to work on the landing legs I attached the camper to my truck to relieve any weight.

I then checked both ends of the shaft that connects the output shaft of the gear box. I found both bolts and nuts firmly attached. What I did find was on the leg opposite the drive motor the gears did not seem to "mesh" or move the landing leg at all times. The gears seemed to be slipping, especially when trying to extend the legs.

I found the upside down "U" shaped pin, located just below the two gears inside the landing leg tube, had slightly backed out of the leg tube. This caused the lower, or horizontal, gear to not connect with the upper "vertical" gear when the shaft was turned. I adjusted the "U" shaped pin and tapped it back in place with a hammer. I removed the connecting shaft and turned the output shaft by hand using a small screwdriver. The "U" pin came out of its position again.

Could you help me with this issue? I would like to know what has caused this "U" shaped pin to move around like that and what I need to do to correct the problem. At this time, I have a large "C" clamp on the leg tube holding the U pin in place. It seems to work fine at this time.
I do have some photos that I have copied from some other posts from the Hartland Form that will help show this U pin.

Thank you for your advice.


U Shaped Pin
Inside view Vertical & Horizontal Gears
Another view of the leg and gears (I have not removed the leg from my camper)

 

[traveler44]

Yes the U-tabs must hold that plate all the way up for the gears to mesh. I had to crank the shaft until I forced the plate back up into place and then I bent the tabs in to hold it all the way up. Mine happened because I over traveled the landing gear. Tom

 

[caissiel]

The pics U are showing are the ones I took when I repaired the problem with my legs on our unit 2 years ago. The U pin you are talking about is the centering plate that centers the larger gear on the screw to the smaller pinion on the cross shaft. On mine the pinion was climbing on the gear due to much movement of the U-Centering Plate. There is build in clearance for assembly and if to much movement the gears will not mesh.

Check if your gears mesh enough for proper operation and to hold the weight and use something to hold it together on center. My thread shows a clamp I did that has worked for the past 2 years. Its a 1/8 x 2 plate bend in a U and held with a 5/16" bolt. It was done while in a CG and it was the max thickness I was able to bend without a proper press and its working.

I found that the plate held in center will allow proper meshing of the gears. Mine was able to move close to 1/4". Some have used heavy hose clamps and tighten it snug without having to make something or removing the legs.

 

[hoefler]

//heartlandowners.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=21155&d=1298781210&thumb=1 Looking at this picture, you can see the tube is distorted/bent, not square. The drive gear is not fully engaging the driven gear. At some time, this leg was/is in a bind, twisted, overloaded, or something else it didn't like. Unfortunately, you need a new leg.

 

[aelenz]

Fortunately, the photo that Hoefler has refereed to was not mine. I use used the photo to show the gears. Caissiel thank you for your great photos. I hope you did not mind that I used some of them to help explain my problem.
Today I pulled the truck away from the camper after checking movement of both landing legs using the motor. By the way, I just purchased a new reduction gear from Venture. It is made of aluminum instead of plastic. The plastic reduction gear had broken off a "nub" that is used to hold the unit in place.
Today, while extending the legs the motor struggled quite a bit and then seemed to slip and basically stop the extending movement. I know the camper is not raised too high and the legs are not at the end of their range. Anyone have anymore suggestions of what is causing this now? It can't be too much weight because it is in my yard at this time and is unloaded.

 

[traveler44]

I thought I would explain how I got the centering plate back into position. There is a hand crank that came with the bighorn hanging on the wall of the storage compartment and it fit the end of the shaft inside the landing leg. I figured out which direction I would have to crank to get the centering plate to move back into place. Kind of like over traveling it in the opposite direction from the one that pulled it out of position. So with the landing leg held in a vise I cranked until the centering plate was back into position and then bent the tabs under it to hold it into place. I had an electrical problem that caused intermittent travel of the landing gear for a while. It was a spade connector that was loose on the back of the rocker switch for the landing gear. It took me a while to find it because it made enough connection to work part of the time. As soon as I pulled the switch out the wire came loose and I realized that it was never pushed all the way onto the spade tab. I hope this helps you find out what your problem is. Tom

 

[caissiel]

//heartlandowners.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=21155&d=1298781210&thumb=1 Looking at this picture, you can see the tube is distorted/bent, not square. The drive gear is not fully engaging the driven gear. At some time, this leg was/is in a bind, twisted, overloaded, or something else it didn't like. Unfortunately, you need a new leg.

The bend side is normal. The pinion does need that hump to have clearance for the gear. The way I test my landing gear is by manualy cranking the unit and if it runs hard there is something causing it. Its my 3rd unit I had to do the repairs to.

 

[caissiel]

Fortunately, the photo that Hoefler has refereed to was not mine. I use used the photo to show the gears. Caissiel thank you for your great photos. I hope you did not mind that I used some of them to help explain my problem.
Today I pulled the truck away from the camper after checking movement of both landing legs using the motor. By the way, I just purchased a new reduction gear from Venture. It is made of aluminum instead of plastic. The plastic reduction gear had broken off a "nub" that is used to hold the unit in place.
Today, while extending the legs the motor struggled quite a bit and then seemed to slip and basically stop the extending movement. I know the camper is not raised too high and the legs are not at the end of their range. Anyone have anymore suggestions of what is causing this now? It can't be too much weight because it is in my yard at this time and is unloaded.

No Problem if it helps.
I too bought an aluminium case unit for spare. But after repairs the motor does not work as hard and for almost 2 years been doing great. Also had to repair the geardrive anchoring system that was also failing.

I noticed on some SOB not Lippert 5th wheels the landing gear clamp is in line with the centering plate, thus holding it centered.