wdk450
Well-known member
Gang:
While on the road on a 7 week trip, it was evident that my electric landing gear was giving up the ghost. Lots bumping noises, struggling to lift the front of the trailer until I could not lift it above the hitch. Luckily I could force hitch up, drop the pinbox off, and where the gear stopped was about level with the trailer. I think most of my problems go back to my first year of RVing, when I had a tire changed, the trailer was NOT hitched to the truck (I didn't know better then), I had the small diameter gear extention pins, the pin in question was only through 1 side of the leg tubing. The end result was a catastrophic failure - the leg pin sheared, the gear slammed down, and it was never the same. Eventually I bought 2 new legs, a reduction gear and a crossover rod - every thing but the gearmotor. I bought the Domar brand, as I liked the price. I later found that it seemed to be built better than the Venture system, but it was not identical, and many of the parts were NOT interchangeable. More about this later.
Last year, a few days before a trip, I took the rig to my trusted RV servicer, and included repairing the landing gear in my list of things to do. I told them to use the Dormar legs that were in the storage compartment if parts were needed. They used some of their own salvaged parts instead, and it didn't work 100% correctly when i picked it up, but I had a schedule to keep and accepted it.
Anyways, I got serious about this as soon as I could on this trip (when I got my computer back from repair). I pulled out the generator prep support frame and 2nd battery, removed the screws from the generator prep shroud, but couldn't figure how to get it out of the compartment (at that time). So I ended up shifting the shroud side-to-side as I worked on each of the landing legs. I bought a pair of jackstands, got out my never used trailer bottle jack, and got the weight off of the landing gear support legs. I started on the driven door side leg, as I supposed it was in better condition, and I had a Venture repair kit on order through Lippert (about $80) for the bad off-door side leg.
So I disassembled the doorside leg and learned. I used the parts diagram drawing from the Heartland Users Manuals site linked at the "Tools" tab at the top of this page. I found that although my Domar legs had zerk grease fittings, the 2 inch square leg tubing had a lot of empty space beside the 3/4 inch lead screw that lifts the trailer. I ended up using a molybdenum/graphite high pressure grease I found with a small grease gun at Harbor Freight Tools. Upon installing this leg, I found that the gears didn't mesh right. I traced the problem to a ridge of material at the top of the lead screw where the thrust washer sits. Working this area over with a file to get a definite, right angle face at the top of the screw threads ended up in giving the gears a little more clearance, and got them to mesh smoothly.
I got the repair kit in from Venture/Lippert installed it, greased the lead screw, and had the same problems as I originally had. Upon re-disassembling the leg, I found that the thrust bearing was frozen - in fact you could see indentations from the bearing balls in the SIDE of the bearing. The bearing WAS NOT INCLUDED IN THE Venture/Lippert REPAIR KIT. A google search of the internet showed that repair kits for Atwood and Domar landing gear INCLUDED the thrust bearing, and cost less than 1/2 of the Lippert/Venture price. I called Venture to see if they would at least give me the generic bearing part number (I worked at an auto parts counter in my youth). The lady there refused and said that their insurance carrier would not let them sell anything not in the repair kit (bushings, gears, roll pins, shaft, washers). If you need anything else YOU HAVE TO BUY A WHOLE LEG ASSEMBLY!!! Again, Atwood and Domar don't act this way. I did some bearing research with a bearting supplier in Eugene, Or. (and some research on the internet myself), and came up with a part number for the thrust bearing:
THE VENTURE LEG THRUST BEARING IS AN RB/SKF PART NUMBER 603-V
I got one shipped from Portland, Or. to the bearing suppliers Eugene, Or. office overnight. Total cost about $7.00.
I bet you are asking why didn't I just install the new Domar legs I had in the storage compartment, or just at least swap out the gears and thrust bearings? Well, I learned that the Domar legs have their swaged lips to transfer the trailer's weight to the leg at different places on the leg than the Venture legs do. And the straps for the leg clamps are WELDED to the trailer frame. I would have had to have a welder come out with a cutting torch and remove the top clamp and weld a new clamp in the proper spot for the Domar legs.
And this comes to the real reason for my posting (Beside sharing the bearing part number). I bet that very few of you have any idea of how little metal is actually transferring the weight of your trailer to the landing gear legs. AND HOW ONY 1 OF THE 2 SWAGE LIPS ON THE LEG IS ACTUALLY SUPPORTING THE TRAILER - THE UPPER LIP AND CLAMP IS ACTUALLY SET UP TO PREVENT THE LEG FROM DROPPING DOWN!!! The side clamping action of the clamps wherever they are placed is enough to keep the leg from dropping down. It is MUCH more important to properly support all of that trailer weight!!!
Following are some pictures of the leg and clamps out of the trailer. The clamps are positioned as they are in the trailer, and as they are instructed to be in the Venture literature.
Here is a photo of the leg and clamps together. The shaft is at the left, the foot of the leg would be at the other end (removed). Notice the small lip on the bottom that mates with the bottom clamp. This is what supports all of the trailer weight! A subsequent detail picture will show this better. The clamps squeeze on the sides of the legs, and a bolt through the end of the clamp over the leg keeps the leg in place, BUT THE WEIGHT OF THE TRAILER IS CARRIED BY THE LEG LIP/CLAMP BACK CURVE INTERFACE.
Here is a detail photo of the bottom clamp and mating leg swage lip. THIS IS ALL THAT SUPPORTS YOUR TRAILER AT THE LANDING GEAR LEG!!! THE CLAMP SIDES HAVE VERY LITTLE CLAMPING SUPPORT!
Last of all here is a photo of the upper clamp, positioned as it is on the trailer BELOW the swaged leg lip. The forces on the leg want to push it UP, away from the lip (fortunately the leg doesn't move because the bottom lip/clamp is transferring all of the weight).
So, I got the Venture legs repaired, I used the Domar gear reducer as it was metal and the old venture was plastic), I got the trailer off of the jackstands, I finally got the unused generator prep shroud out of the fornt compartment and I suddenly have LOADS more accessable space there, and I was even able to wire in a household light switch for the unreachable light fixture in there. If I could do everything I would like to, I would get those top leg clamps moved to help support the weight at 2 points instead of 1, and would get the Domar legs installed in place of the Venture legs. In my opinion the Domar legs are made out of heavier metal, have a heavier (thicker) thrust bearing, a metal (instead of plastic) reduction gear assembly, and a better built crossover rod. But now i'm ready to hitch up and go home on Saturday.
While on the road on a 7 week trip, it was evident that my electric landing gear was giving up the ghost. Lots bumping noises, struggling to lift the front of the trailer until I could not lift it above the hitch. Luckily I could force hitch up, drop the pinbox off, and where the gear stopped was about level with the trailer. I think most of my problems go back to my first year of RVing, when I had a tire changed, the trailer was NOT hitched to the truck (I didn't know better then), I had the small diameter gear extention pins, the pin in question was only through 1 side of the leg tubing. The end result was a catastrophic failure - the leg pin sheared, the gear slammed down, and it was never the same. Eventually I bought 2 new legs, a reduction gear and a crossover rod - every thing but the gearmotor. I bought the Domar brand, as I liked the price. I later found that it seemed to be built better than the Venture system, but it was not identical, and many of the parts were NOT interchangeable. More about this later.
Last year, a few days before a trip, I took the rig to my trusted RV servicer, and included repairing the landing gear in my list of things to do. I told them to use the Dormar legs that were in the storage compartment if parts were needed. They used some of their own salvaged parts instead, and it didn't work 100% correctly when i picked it up, but I had a schedule to keep and accepted it.
Anyways, I got serious about this as soon as I could on this trip (when I got my computer back from repair). I pulled out the generator prep support frame and 2nd battery, removed the screws from the generator prep shroud, but couldn't figure how to get it out of the compartment (at that time). So I ended up shifting the shroud side-to-side as I worked on each of the landing legs. I bought a pair of jackstands, got out my never used trailer bottle jack, and got the weight off of the landing gear support legs. I started on the driven door side leg, as I supposed it was in better condition, and I had a Venture repair kit on order through Lippert (about $80) for the bad off-door side leg.
So I disassembled the doorside leg and learned. I used the parts diagram drawing from the Heartland Users Manuals site linked at the "Tools" tab at the top of this page. I found that although my Domar legs had zerk grease fittings, the 2 inch square leg tubing had a lot of empty space beside the 3/4 inch lead screw that lifts the trailer. I ended up using a molybdenum/graphite high pressure grease I found with a small grease gun at Harbor Freight Tools. Upon installing this leg, I found that the gears didn't mesh right. I traced the problem to a ridge of material at the top of the lead screw where the thrust washer sits. Working this area over with a file to get a definite, right angle face at the top of the screw threads ended up in giving the gears a little more clearance, and got them to mesh smoothly.
I got the repair kit in from Venture/Lippert installed it, greased the lead screw, and had the same problems as I originally had. Upon re-disassembling the leg, I found that the thrust bearing was frozen - in fact you could see indentations from the bearing balls in the SIDE of the bearing. The bearing WAS NOT INCLUDED IN THE Venture/Lippert REPAIR KIT. A google search of the internet showed that repair kits for Atwood and Domar landing gear INCLUDED the thrust bearing, and cost less than 1/2 of the Lippert/Venture price. I called Venture to see if they would at least give me the generic bearing part number (I worked at an auto parts counter in my youth). The lady there refused and said that their insurance carrier would not let them sell anything not in the repair kit (bushings, gears, roll pins, shaft, washers). If you need anything else YOU HAVE TO BUY A WHOLE LEG ASSEMBLY!!! Again, Atwood and Domar don't act this way. I did some bearing research with a bearting supplier in Eugene, Or. (and some research on the internet myself), and came up with a part number for the thrust bearing:
THE VENTURE LEG THRUST BEARING IS AN RB/SKF PART NUMBER 603-V
I got one shipped from Portland, Or. to the bearing suppliers Eugene, Or. office overnight. Total cost about $7.00.
I bet you are asking why didn't I just install the new Domar legs I had in the storage compartment, or just at least swap out the gears and thrust bearings? Well, I learned that the Domar legs have their swaged lips to transfer the trailer's weight to the leg at different places on the leg than the Venture legs do. And the straps for the leg clamps are WELDED to the trailer frame. I would have had to have a welder come out with a cutting torch and remove the top clamp and weld a new clamp in the proper spot for the Domar legs.
And this comes to the real reason for my posting (Beside sharing the bearing part number). I bet that very few of you have any idea of how little metal is actually transferring the weight of your trailer to the landing gear legs. AND HOW ONY 1 OF THE 2 SWAGE LIPS ON THE LEG IS ACTUALLY SUPPORTING THE TRAILER - THE UPPER LIP AND CLAMP IS ACTUALLY SET UP TO PREVENT THE LEG FROM DROPPING DOWN!!! The side clamping action of the clamps wherever they are placed is enough to keep the leg from dropping down. It is MUCH more important to properly support all of that trailer weight!!!
Following are some pictures of the leg and clamps out of the trailer. The clamps are positioned as they are in the trailer, and as they are instructed to be in the Venture literature.
Here is a photo of the leg and clamps together. The shaft is at the left, the foot of the leg would be at the other end (removed). Notice the small lip on the bottom that mates with the bottom clamp. This is what supports all of the trailer weight! A subsequent detail picture will show this better. The clamps squeeze on the sides of the legs, and a bolt through the end of the clamp over the leg keeps the leg in place, BUT THE WEIGHT OF THE TRAILER IS CARRIED BY THE LEG LIP/CLAMP BACK CURVE INTERFACE.
Here is a detail photo of the bottom clamp and mating leg swage lip. THIS IS ALL THAT SUPPORTS YOUR TRAILER AT THE LANDING GEAR LEG!!! THE CLAMP SIDES HAVE VERY LITTLE CLAMPING SUPPORT!
Last of all here is a photo of the upper clamp, positioned as it is on the trailer BELOW the swaged leg lip. The forces on the leg want to push it UP, away from the lip (fortunately the leg doesn't move because the bottom lip/clamp is transferring all of the weight).
So, I got the Venture legs repaired, I used the Domar gear reducer as it was metal and the old venture was plastic), I got the trailer off of the jackstands, I finally got the unused generator prep shroud out of the fornt compartment and I suddenly have LOADS more accessable space there, and I was even able to wire in a household light switch for the unreachable light fixture in there. If I could do everything I would like to, I would get those top leg clamps moved to help support the weight at 2 points instead of 1, and would get the Domar legs installed in place of the Venture legs. In my opinion the Domar legs are made out of heavier metal, have a heavier (thicker) thrust bearing, a metal (instead of plastic) reduction gear assembly, and a better built crossover rod. But now i'm ready to hitch up and go home on Saturday.
