Tongue Jack

16878 Views 16 Replies 7 Participants Last post by mailfire99, Apr 29, 2008

jb

Discussion Starter · Apr 13, 2008

We have purchased our first travel trailer this weekend. After arriving home, the first time we tried to reconnect it to the truck, the tongue jack seems to be stuck. It is not electric, but the old fashioned hand-crank. But the hand crank does not seem to raise the leg, so we cannot lower the tongue onto the hitch ball. Any suggestions?

1 - 17 of 17 Posts

ctfortner

· #2 · Apr 13, 2008

Hello jb,

So is your jack just freely turning and not doing anything, or is it just stuck, and you are not able to crank the handle up or down?

mailfire99

· #3 · Apr 14, 2008

Sounds like the gears have broken or something along those lines. Does your jack have a housing on it that you can remove? If so, this will allow you to look inside and see the gears and maybe see whats going on in there.

jb

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 16, 2008

My jack handle was turning but it is not moving the jack up and down. I did try taking the housing off, and the gears are not turning. I think there is a pin of some kind that should connect the handle to the gear on the side, and the gear on the side is supposed to turn the gear on the bottom.

The dealer says he will replace the entire jack. I'm going to try to support the tongue end of the trailer on the stablizer jacks and a tire jack and remove the entire jack assembly. Since I can't lower the jack onto the back of the truck hitch, I don't know any other way to replace it.

Any further suggestions? I appreciate everyone's help!

ctfortner

· #5 · Apr 17, 2008

Yeah I was figurin that. If your jack is just bolted on, this would be the easiest way, replacing the whole jack. If its welded on as some are, that is a different ballgame.

Are any of the gears stripped that you can see? You can also get new gears to install in there, but again if removing the jack is easier, go that route.

I havent ever had the experience of what your going through, trying to get one lowered. What your doing is exactly what I would be doing, but it may not be the best way.

I dont know what type of trailer you have, but your stabilizer jacks should support the weight if you can get it jacked up.

Not that I would do it, but my neighbor actually uses his stabilizer jacks to raise his tires off the ground on his travel trailer. Never seen anyone do that, but his tires are about 3 inches off the ground.

If you an get a tire jack under there to help, that would be ideal. A bumper jack would work good to.

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mailfire99

· #6 · Apr 17, 2008

You either have broken or stripped cogs (teeth) on your gears or a pin is missing.

Is there any way to use jack stands, so you could use your tire jack to raise it up enough to get jack stands under it, then you could remove the tongue jack easily. I do hope yours is bolted on. If not, raise it up and hacksaw it off, back the truck up and use the tire jack to lower it on the hitch. Take to the dealer and let me handle it.

Is this a new trailer, or used? If its new, I would seriously be asking them to send someone out there to your house to do this for you, but if its used, you may be stuck doing it yourself.

jb

Discussion Starter · #7 · Apr 17, 2008

The dealer who sold it told to never use the stabilizer jacks to support the entire weight of the trailer, which is why I was hoping that a car jack would take a big part of the weight.

When I removed the housing the gears are still packed with a fair amount of grease. I don't see any missing teeth, but it is hard to see everything, because the gears are not turning, only the handle.

I hadn't thought about asking the dealer to come to repair it on at my house. I was glad he at least offered to replace the entire assembly.

Being new at this, I wish I knew for sure if I had done something wrong, or someone made this happen -- we had the trailer for less than 48 hours when we discovered this! The dealer didn't talk like it might have been my fault though.

l2l

· #8 · Apr 17, 2008

It does not seem like you did ANYTHING wrong unless of course you tried to remove the trailer from the ball without lifting the latch that secures the ball (On your Hitch) to the trailer.

If by chance you did this not only were you lifting the weight of the trailer but that of your truck as well. If that did happen it sounds like you may have broke the codder (SP?) pin which is an easy fix.

mailfire99

· #9 · Apr 17, 2008

Yes, I agree jb. I would never support the entire weight of the trailer on the stabilizer jacks either. But I think it would work out using that with a tire jack.

I dont think you did anything wrong either, other than what l2l mentioned. Other than that, theres not much else to do wrong. It is good that they are going to replace the entire jack, since you just got it and wont cost you anything. That will, if nothing else, give you peace with it not happening again, whatever it was.

its hard to say without seeing whats going on, but depending on how high it currently is, if you had some tall jack stands I would try that. You could use the tire jack to jack it up, and slip some jack stands up under there near the jack itself on the frame.

And of course the other question is, does your jack extend high enough to jack it up off the ground, as it sits now?

So is your jack bolted on, or welded on? I assume its bolted, since your going to remove it??

Are you just going to try to remove it and then hook up to it and take it in? Then unless they have other equipment, they will have to work on it while its hooked to your truck. Or are they just going to give you another jack to take home and install yourself?

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happiestcamper

· #10 · Apr 17, 2008

I bent my tongue jack one time at a CG (lowered it while attached to truck to remove weight distributing bars, then drove off without putting it back up :smack-head: ). I was able to use the tire jack to move it up and down as needed until I got a new one. The CG had been clearing some trees, so I rolled a big log under the tongue - almost perfectly level.

The dealer out to be able to remove the camper from the hitch so they can fix it without you having to stick around.

cassiem

· #11 · Apr 18, 2008

happiestcamper said:
I bent my tongue jack one time at a CG (lowered it while attached to truck to remove weight distributing bars, then drove off without putting it back up ). I was able to use the tire jack to move it up and down as needed until I got a new one. The CG had been clearing some trees, so I rolled a big log under the tongue - almost perfectly level.

The dealer out to be able to remove the camper from the hitch so they can fix it without you having to stick around.

happiest, you really have some bad luck sometimes :comfort_:

happiestcamper

· #12 · Apr 18, 2008

cassiem said:
happiest, you really have some bad luck sometimes :comfort_:

If everything went the way it was supposed to, life would be boring.

That story got even funnier. My wife has an aunt that lives in the area, and we called her and asked where an RV place was. She said go down highway a and it's right before highway b. We found a place there - some run down garage that said RV repair on it's sign. Went in, he really wanted to sell me a power jack, but I got a hand crank one. Went back to the CG - the jack was too big to fit in my tongue. Went back, took the bent one inside - and after comparing it to every jack he had (at least all he had out front), the only one that matched was a power one. Took that one and installed it fine.

Several days later, figured out the aunt's intended directions. On highway b right after highway a, I saw a dealership with about 300 new Class A's out front - that's where we were supposed to have gone. :smack-head:

Oh well, at least I have a power jack now. Only problem - it's the power jack from that run down place - and it's not the kind I would have bought. I would've bought one that had a way to hand crank in an emergency, so if the motor in it ever goes, I'll have to pull out the tire jack again.

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cricket2

· #13 · Apr 24, 2008

jb, I have been keeping an eye on this, more curious than anything. How did things turn out with this? Did you get it replaced?

jb

Discussion Starter · #14 · Apr 27, 2008

The End of Of My Story

The car jack (with the help of the stabilizer jacks) supported the trailer very well and we had no problem removing the tongue jack. I took it back to the dealer, they replaced it no questions asked, and I installed the new one just as easily.

Since that time we are not using several blocks beneath the tongue jack, so that I do not have to lower it as far. If I did anything wrong, it might have been overextending the jack. I really don't think that was the problem, but it seems to provide a more stable base for the jack bottom plate anyway. It seems that almost everyone does that.

Thanks for everyones ideas.

l2l

· #15 · Apr 27, 2008

Glad to hear all worked out JB...

If you fully extended the jack WITHOUT putting cholks on your wheels that "COULD" certainly weaken the jack. Remember the more extended the jack is the less stability you have....

ctfortner

· #16 · Apr 28, 2008

Good news jb, glad you got it all worked out, and the dealer was easy to work with.

mailfire99

· #17 · Apr 29, 2008

good work jb, glad you got it resolved.

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