Landing gear failure

laknox wrote:

Dave H M wrote:
So how do you determine the design max up and down?

Easiest way is to use the hand-crank so you can feel when you hit the stop. Those small motors, geared down, have a =lot= of torque.

Lyle

dang why didn't I think of that, thanks Lyle

TucsonJim wrote:
I had the same thing happen to me with my cheaply built Keystone product. I replaced them with these:

Bulldog landing gear

It's nice to have independent control for each leg. Makes leveling much easier.

Yes. That control is nice. As long as, you don't get into a situation where you do not cause any frame twisting. It is for that reason that many systems always move two jacks at the same time. A foolproof design feature. Many inexperienced owners can really cause significant frame damage if they are not careful.

Lippert Auto leveling designs are like that. Because they want to protect their frame warranty.

I had an experience when hooking up to leave a campground. When raising the landing gear after hooking up, only one leg would come up (common drive for both legs on my rig). I found that the input shaft for the leg farthest from the drive motor had sheared off where the connecting bolt attached the cross shaft. Lucky for me, I carry a 1/2" drive cordless drill which fit the broken off stub. About 3 years later, the shaft on the drive side broke in a similar manner. I now carry a spare of each, as well as installing spacers to allow a good tight fit to prevent the through hole from being worn through.

donn0128 wrote:

Then again, why worry about all that and just add up limit switches to the system to stop up travel before damage occurs? One trip to the repair shop and you will more than pay for the parts necessary.

Can you lay out what you did? What you used?

Dave H M wrote:
So how do you determine the design max up and down?

Easiest way is to use the hand-crank so you can feel when you hit the stop. Those small motors, geared down, have a =lot= of torque.

Lyle

My old trailer had the red tape about 2" above the foot pin. I will be painting the new trailers legs so anyone else raising them will see where to stop.

I also use the paint method and it always works

TucsonJim wrote:
I had the same thing happen to me with my cheaply built Keystone product. I replaced them with these:

Bulldog landing gear

It's nice to have independent control for each leg. Makes leveling much easier.

x2

A little masking tape and a can of red spray paint.

No need to explain anything. Even DW understands it.

That only works if you have fifteen digits free at one time, and learned your math in the old days. Otherwise you would have to have a calculator designed for the new math to figure it out.

Then again, why worry about all that and just add up limit switches to the system to stop up travel before damage occurs? One trip to the repair shop and you will more than pay for the parts necessary.