Faster Landing Gear

I did a visual of the wiring and it looks good but will also try the jumper cable thing. Not holding out much hope though.

No its not the batteries. They are good to go, and even when on AC power there is no difference in the landing gear speed.

I was able to find a label on the top if the gearbox and it confirmed Lippert PN#142178. Says it good for up to 5Klbs on single motor. I'm probably less than 1/2 that.

N-Trouble wrote:
Finding I would like the landing gear on my 5er to be a bit quicker. It struggles at times even on full battery charge if I have the trailer heavily loaded.

Have you happened to have load tested the battery? The only reason I ask is the battery itself was my problem. I bought a used 5er (my 1st 5er by the way) 2 weeks ago. On the maiden voyage it seemed like the landing gear was ridiculously slow. Then other things started adding up. Interior lights were dim and the fridge didn't want to operate on gas.

I started poking around and found strong sulfur odors in the front compartment. Upon inspecting the battery I found the voltage was down to 9.5V and the cells were only 1/2 full of water. It seems the previous owner kept it plugged in all the time and had cooked the battery. I filled the battery and tried to charge it, which made it EXTREMELY HOT. At that point I decided it wasn't worth risking a fire or other damage and just bought a new battery. Once installed the jacks and all other 12V systems in the trailer work like a charm.

KJ

N-Trouble wrote:
Resurrecting an old thread. Greased the heck out of the landing gear last weekend but absolutely NO change in speed. Still slow as a snail... Manufacturer confirmed it is a Lippert setup and its a single motor. I just think its undersized.

Might see if you can pull the motor and find a larger one with the same bolt pattern but a bit more umph to it. 'Course if the gear ratio in the legs' heads is too low, it won't change speed much, just work easier. Might have to re-wire with heavier gauge wire for more amperage...

If you switched to hydraulics, Bulldog has just come out with a "high-speed" landing leg, that's much faster than other mfrs' legs...according to the ad I saw.

Lyle

It could be a bad wire connection somewhere. Can you test with jumper cables supplying power? Check your ground connection?

Ed

But My 5er is only 12klb GVWR. So I dont put it in the "heavy" category.

And you think correctly. Too weak of a motor for heavy 5th wheels. Poor design.

Resurrecting an old thread. Greased the heck out of the landing gear last weekend but absolutely NO change in speed. Still slow as a snail... Manufacturer confirmed it is a Lippert setup and its a single motor. I just think its undersized.

justafordguy wrote:

I've considered drilling access holes for lube also. How did you determine where to drill the holes?

I just picked a location a few inches down from the top, where I had good access with a drill. It was below the mounting saddle clamp. Used a 3/8" drill bit. Just big enough to get the spray lube straw in there and bend it around. Location isn't critical, because you are going to have the trailer hitched up to your truck, and you will be running the landing gear legs in/out repeatedly to spread the lube through the follower nut and along as much of the leadscrew as possible. In my case, I could easily hear the difference when the lube first penetrated the follower nut.

And for what it is worth, I don't see any point in lubricating the inside/outside of the telescoping square tubes. They are a sloppy slip fit, and they will never gall between themselves unless the legs get bent.

Yeah, Dewalt is good stuff. I was given a set of the 20V cordless tools when I retired. It all works great, and the batteries last.

fj12ryder wrote:
If it took that much effort to move the landing gear, then a drill isn't going to work very well unless you have at least a heavy half-inch corded drill with a support handle to help as a lever.

Cordless drills are the cat's meow when it comes to stabilizers, but this sounds like it's way too much for that.

During a very large, whole house tile project we tried using various 1/2" multi-geared 120v drills to mix 5-gallon buckets full of thick, heavy grout. I burned up two of these drills in the early part of the project before finally trying/using my DCD995 Dewalt 20v brushless drill for the remainder of the project. There's no way our hands and arms could out overpower this drill. Had a neighbor friend who almost broke his wrist when he understimated the power of this thing. When used with a 4 or 5 amp battery pack IMO it's pretty much unstoppable.