Electric Tongue Jack Problem

Hi, and thanks for the great info on this site. It was the most helpful site I came across in doing research for my new (to me) purchase.

I just purchased a used 2008 3124KB. This is my first trailer so it is a completely new experience. I do not have a lot of knowledge regarding electrical systems.

The rig has the electric tongue jack and it is extremely slow, as though it does not have enough power to raise up or down. I have only towed the trailer home, and raised the jack up once to hook up, and lowered it once to unhook. Both times the trailer was hooked to my TV but not shore power.

I have not yet tested the batteries, but aside from that, shouldn't the jack work fine if connected to the TV?

Thank you in advance!

Power tongue jacks are not fast movers. Given that this is your first trailer, it may just be an expectation thing. Do you have any indications from other systems that you are under powered. (I didn't have a power tongue jack with my TM, but got one for my new TT.). If you remain convinced that you are under powered, I would check the tongue jack's ground connection. Some jacks ground directly through their bolt on connection and paint/corrosion may be affecting conductivity

I think I might have been expecting a little quicker, and I can totally deal with it being slower than expected. My only guess at it being underpowered is because when I unhooked, the tongue barely cleared my hitch and then ceased moving any further.

Is being attached to my TV supposed to provide enough power to operate the jack?

To operate the jack manually if there is a failure with the electric jack, do I have to disassemble the jack to crank it?

Thank you!

[MudDog]

If the motor sounds weak and if batteries and ground check out, you may also want to check the switch on the jack.

I have a Barker jack I installed a couple of years ago and a few trips ago lowering the trailer (bringing the foot of the jack up) started getting REALLY slow, and then sometimes would quit completely. The other direction in my case worked fine. It eventually got to the point where I had to use the manual handle to raise the jack and the switch to lower it.

I called Barker and they sent a replacement switch at no cost. It was real easy to replace and now the jack works fine.

If the motor sounds like it is getting enough power (over-worked) but the jack is still too slow, you may want to make sure the tube is not bent. Maybe try the manual crank to see how much resistance it is giving when cranking up and down.


EDIT - just saw your response - most jacks have a manual crank backup. If you provide the make/model of your jack someone should be able to tell you if it has a manual option and how to access it. I would check out the TM batteries as a first step.



--jim

[mjlaupp]

Originally Posted by h2oskicwgl

....The rig has the electric tongue jack and it is extremely slow, as though it does not have enough power to raise up or down. I have only towed the trailer home, and raised the jack up once to hook up, and lowered it once to unhook. Both times the trailer was hooked to my TV but not shore power.

I have not yet tested the batteries, but aside from that, shouldn't the jack work fine if connected to the TV?....

Was the Expedition running while you used the tongue jack? Ford trucks have an isolation relay that disconnects the TV battery from the trailer when the engine is off. This prevents the trailer from draining the TV battery. If the truck was off, then you were operating the jack on the TM battery only.

[Kwantau]

Plug the TM into shore power and see how the jack works when the converter is supplying the power to the battery and TM systems. The jack should be able to lift the TM up as well as the TV when hitched up helping you in hooking up the WDH depending of the load capacity of the jack.

If you have a swing hitch, I suggest adding a ground wire between the front section of the swing and the main TM frame. My jack uses the swing portion of the tongue as the ground point, then completes the circuit through the tongue/main frame interface, This area is subject to wear ( paint is worn away and metal rusts with exposure) resulting in a very high resistance ground connection. Easy way to check this is use an automotive jumper cable and clip one side ( doesn't mater what color) to the point where the tongue jack attaches to the frame. Clip the other side of that color to a good ground point on the main frame of the TM. If jack operates better, that was your problem.

So my dad has been working on my TM due to my lack of electrical knowledge, and it boils down to this:

Jack is working great and w/o issue.

When plugged into shore power everything works great.

When using solar everything works great.

However, when plugged into shore power, the battery fuse blows everytime. Yikes! He is thinking it might be the converter that needs to be replaced, but he isn't completely sure.

I referred him to this website for info. I'm hoping I relayed everything accurately...it did go from my dad, to my mom, to me

Anyone else experience this problem? My daughter and I will be mostly dry camping with our TM, so I am pretty dependent on the batteries working.

Ok, looks to be a converter problem. Shore power runs fine. When the converter is removed, solar and battery power runs fine. When converter is hooked up, shore power blows the fuse. Luckily my first trip with the TM is plain old dry camping, so we can set it up without the converter. Thanks for all the advise!

In another old thread it was suggested NOT to run the electric tongue jack WHILE plugged into shore power. They said a big power demand/surge goes thru the converter and can destroy it or as you noted – blow the fuse.

(Some jacks draw more amps than the converter can supply.?)

So I have gotten in the habit of simply unplugging from shore power when I am going to use the jack. The onboard batteries can handle the demand. My jack is wired directly to the batteries on the front (with it’s own fuse).


Found the old 2002 thread which may explain it better: http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...read.php?t=403


More recently 2010:
Down in post #50 page 5 http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ad.php?t=10619

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