selecting a electric tongue jack

what is a high quality jack...and who manufactures it...????

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by bill s

what is a high quality jack...and who manufactures it...????

I highly recommend this Hi-Power Jack made by Barker and sold at Camping World for a very good price (only $215 if you're a member of their President's Club). This one has a light (for night use) and it lifts 3000 lbs (which sounds like overkill...but isn't if you use it as I do to lift the tow vehicle and trailer together to simplify WDH spring bar hookup). I've had zero problems after using it on dozens of trips since installation last summer. Fairly straightforward installation...the 2" model bolts right in; all that's needed is to run a heavy power wire (with 30 amp circuit breaker) from the battery. Makes hooking and unhooking a lot faster (especially the attachment/detachment of the spring bars)...and I no longer break into a sweat on hot days.

Originally Posted by bill s

what is a high quality jack...and who manufactures it...????

Atwood also makes good power jacks. Our 3124KS is equipped with an Atwood Lightweight, 1500 lb. capacity jack. We've had no trouble lifting the tongue as well as the rear of my Ford F-150 when attaching the spring bars of my weight distributing hitch. It's on sale now for $176+ at this website:
http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/r...ower-jacks.htm

sounds good...either atwood or barker...
but what about manual backup---is it easy or a pain????

thanks bill s

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by bill s

sounds good...either atwood or barker...
but what about manual backup---is it easy or a pain????

thanks bill s

On my Barker, manual is pretty easy...I always carry the handle in my truck along with the handle for the trailer's leveling jacks so I know where it is. To use the handle requires only popping the top off the jack's head unit...a 1 second, no tools job.

I had to use the manual handle one time when I popped the main fuse inside trailer's battery compartment while leveling on a steep (20%) slope...it took a lot of turns on the handle (perhaps 20% more than would have been needed with old manual jack) but the level of force needed to turn the handle was as low as, perhaps lower than needed for the old manual jack...even though I was also spinning the jack's motor.

After I got the trailer leveled so that I could open it, I rewired the supply wire to the electric jack so that it went straight to the battery (not through the main trailer fuse as I originally wired it)...I now depend solely on the 30 amp self-resetting circuit breaker in the jack's wire for protection. The problem is that the jack needs around 20 to 25 amps under some circumstances...and if the refer is on DC as it was in the situation above...the total current draw is over 30 amps. The battery can certainly supply over 30 amps for short periods but the 30 amp main fuse won't handle that.

I had an electric jack installed when I purchased my TM 3326. The jack is Atwood, it has light and an external backup crank plugs into the front with nothing to remove. I have used it about 10X and all is well. I tried the manual mode and find one is spinning the motor as well as raising the tongue but it doesn't take much effort. Worst thing about these jacks (IMHO) is they need to be disassembled 1X per year and re-greased. It installs in the same location as the manual using the 3 bolt pattern.