rear stabilizer jacks

[Bobby A]

Hi Heartlanders, I need a little guidance, yesterday I retracted my rear stablizers because I took the rig up the street to get new tires on it and when I returned back to my campgrounds and went to extend the stabilizers they would not extend, no sound coming from the switch or the motor. The first thing I thought of was maybe a blown 12 volt fuse but looked in the fuse compartment and there is no fuse for the rear stabilizers. Anyone have any ideas of what to do ??
Thank you in advance,
Bobby A

 

[danemayer]

Hi Bobby A,

The stabilizers may be powered by way of a 12V DC mini-circuit breaker on the buss bar near the battery. The buss bar is a row of small circuit breakers usually covered by a red rubber boot.

A number of us have experienced a motor problem where there's a little water intrusion that rusts the springs that load the motor brushes against the armature. You can take the motor apart to replace the spring using 1/2 of a ball point pen spring.

The motor may be mounted with Torx bolts. I've found it necessary to first loosen the nuts on the inside in order to remove the mounting bolts.

You can check the voltage at the wires to the motor to determine if you need to open the motor.

 

[Garypowell]

If it is the switch there is probably at least one other switch on your rig that could be swopped in to test. Namely your front landing gear. I also have one that runs the TV up and down but not sure of its amp rating.

Be be sure and take a picture or draw out the wire colors so you can reassemble. I think there are six wires and that can get confusing.

 

[GOTTOYS]

Mine didn't want to work once and I rapped the motor with a hammer. Started up again. I was planning to tear it apart and check it out but I haven't had any more trouble.....so far. Don

 

[MurrayN.]

It's like the old saying . "If you can't fix it with a hammer ... you've got an ELECTRICAL PROBLEM !!! "

 

[boatto5er]

Mine didn't want to work once and I rapped the motor with a hammer. Started up again. I was planning to tear it apart and check it out but I haven't had any more trouble.....so far. Don

Ditto, but I used a rubber mallet .


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[Bobby A]

Thank you all for your help/advise, I will take everyone's advise and report back probably over the weekend as I will be busy the next couple days.
Thanks again,
Bobby A

 

[JohnDar]

If it is the motor brush springs, it's a pretty simple fix with the ball pen springs. Hardest part is getting the long screws that hold the casing in past the magnets and into their holes to put it back together.
My spring repair has been working for several years now. I used a wrapping of Rescue tape to seal the casing/gear box joint and around the wire entry to the motor.

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[Carleen]

I have a bonehead question really... With the electric stabilizer jacks- they run at the same time rather than independently. The ground wasn't level so I used the orange blocks under the feet to get them as even as I could. Still one hit first and the other was still about 1/2" off the block. I continued lowering hoping for the best. They seemed to do fine, but I worry about over-stressing one or popping a gear. Any thoughts or suggestions? I could be worrying too much.


Carleen
2011 Ford F-350 6.7
2011 Big Horn 3585RL

 

[danemayer]

I have a bonehead question really... With the electric stabilizer jacks- they run at the same time rather than independently. The ground wasn't level so I used the orange blocks under the feet to get them as even as I could. Still one hit first and the other was still about 1/2" off the block. I continued lowering hoping for the best. They seemed to do fine, but I worry about over-stressing one or popping a gear. Any thoughts or suggestions? I could be worrying too much.


Carleen
2011 Ford F-350 6.7
2011 Big Horn 3585RL

Carleen,

I think that's actually a pretty good question. I've been thinking about how ours work. Ours are operated by the auto-leveling, either automatically or manually. There's no switch.

One foot always touches down first. The worm gear keeps turning until the load on the motor increases, which signals the electronic controller that both feet are down so it can interrupt power to the motor. The first foot that touches down doesn't load the motor. Both have to be down.

So while I'd have to watch the mechanism to see why it works that way, I'm pretty sure it's ok to run the motor until both feet are down.

Btw, if you ever have trouble retracting the stabilizers, it may be that the coach has settled putting extra load on the stabilizers. I've had a couple of occasions where I've had to extend my rear landing gear to take the load off the stabilizers.

 

[cookie]

Yeah, me thinks you are worrying a bit too much.
It is normal for one pad to hit the ground then the other will follow.
Once they are both grounded there is, or should be, equal pressure at that time.

Peace
Dave

 

[JohnD]

With the electric stabilizer jacks- they run at the same time rather than independently. The ground wasn't level so I used the orange blocks under the feet to get them as even as I could. Still one hit first and the other was still about 1/2" off the block. I continued lowering hoping for the best. They seemed to do fine, but I worry about over-stressing one or popping a gear. Any thoughts or suggestions? I could be worrying too much.

I've often worried about that as well . . .

I see you are using the orange blocks (Lynx Leveling Blocks).

I have those as well and I found these in the parts store at our dealership (Four Seasons RV in Loveland, although I'll bet they have them at their Wheatridge store):



http://trilynx.com/lynx-cap/

Camping World sells the blocks . . . but not the caps.

I bought four of them and love them (I am going to buy another set soon)!

They are about half as thick as the blocks, so you can fill that extra gap when one jack hits first.

The main reason I wanted them is because I wanted a flat surface to have the tires on while the trailer is parked all winter in our side yard.

- - - Updated - - -

It is normal for one pad to hit the ground then the other will follow.
Once they are both grounded there is, or should be, equal pressure at that time.

True . . . but could this be a possible cause for the frame flex issues we read about a lot here?

 

[cookie]

True . . . but could this be a possible cause for the frame flex issues we read about a lot here?

Not likely.

Peace
Dave

 

[JohnDar]

The rear stabilizer motor starts to labor and stall if you try to lift the back end of the trailer. Frame flex is usually the result of unequal lift by the front jacks, like lifting using only one jack at a time instead of together.


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[MurrayN.]

On my new Torque 5-er I had no option for an electric stabilizers so I am back to the old manual crank scissors jacks. But my previous Sundance had the electric stabilizers which worked great. They both went down at the same time until the first one made contact with the block. But it wasn't until the second one was on it's block that they both actually starting lifting the trailer. So I never had to worry about them lifting evenly because they automatically did that. If you're talking about your rear stabilizers then I'm sure it is the same.

 

[Bobby A]

I would like to give a shout out to JohnDar for driving 2 hour round trip and about 3 hours or so of his time to help me do the ball point pen fix on my rear stabilizer jacks, this Heartland Forum and the people involved in it is totally awesome. Thanks John for all your hard work and especially your willingness to drive out all this way to do the work, you are awesome !! It took a little longer than normal because we had a screw break off and then we lost a washer but john with his Maguiver instincts he improvised and got it to work.

Thanks again John,
Bobby A

 

[JohnDar]

I would like to give a shout out to JohnDar for driving 2 hour round trip and about 3 hours or so of his time to help me do the ball point pen fix on my rear stabilizer jacks, this Heartland Forum and the people involved in it is totally awesome. Thanks John for all your hard work and especially your willingness to drive out all this way to do the work, you are awesome !! It took a little longer than normal because we had a screw break off and then we lost a washer but john with his Maguiver instincts he improvised and got it to work.

Thanks again John,
Bobby A

It was my pleasure, Bobby. Great to see you again and glad we got it working. And you were unnecessarily generous, but THANKS! By the way, tell Lisa the banana bread is delicious!

 

[Bobby A]

It was my pleasure, Bobby. Great to see you again and glad we got it working. And you were unnecessarily generous, but THANKS! By the way, tell Lisa the banana bread is delicious!

We will keep in touch my friend and glad you likes the Banana Bread.

 

[williamandkelly]

We have an '07 Bighorn 3400RL and tThe rear stabilizer jacks are in the up position and will not extend using the electronic toggle switch. I tried using the manual crank, and the legs won't budge. Any suggestions?

Thanks in Advance
William

 

[JohnDar]

We have an '07 Bighorn 3400RL and tThe rear stabilizer jacks are in the up position and will not extend using the electronic toggle switch. I tried using the manual crank, and the legs won't budge. Any suggestions?

Thanks in Advance
William

Try grasping the feet and pulling them towards the ground, then crank them. Might have been retracted too far and jammed. Does the motor actually try to run or is it dead? Know, too, that it does take some effort to operate them manually. Other than the motor, it's a pretty simple scissors mechanism.


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