Hydraulic Leveling Jack Issues

1. IF you have a FORD chassis, the Parking Brake switch is bad at the foot pedal. COMMON problem on Ford Chassis's. REPLACE the switch
2. The odds are you have HWH as Winne used HWH in the 90's
IF the retract levers are in the retract indent(you must have either the 4 lever system (100 series) or (the 200 series Joystick system with 3 levers), AND YOU CANNOT force the jacks up even with a crowbar the Internal seals of the Jack is bad and the jack needs rebuilt or replaced with new.
3. HWH jacks, you CAN easily push up by hand, a jack to retract even if you have NO spring attached. You may need new springs, especially on a unit 16 years old. But even if you have weak springs, you can manually push the jack to full retraction without prying or using excessive force. Doug

Nancy,
No need to panic here. Leveling jacks frequently cause problems/issues. You're certainly not alone in the "malfunction" party here. As has been stated, one of the first things you need to do is, find out the make and model of the Jacks you have. You might have any one of top brands like, HWH, Power Gear, or Kwikee, and others. Then, once you find that out, try and find the model number.

Once that information is found, you can either look up the users manual on line, (if you don't already have one) and find out any particular operational characteristics. Most of the time, they're pretty straight forward in the operations. About 99.9% of them require the parking brake to be set, prior to initiating the Jack use. It's a safety thing.

Now, as for your tempermental brake switch issue, as has been stated, it sounds like it's just an adjustment thing. But, without diving into that panel to see the switch, the wiring, and the contacts etc. it's fairly hard to give an exact analysis. In any case, it's most likely not that hard to fix.

As for the retraction speed of your jacks, well, join the slow jack retraction crowd. The manufacturers sometimes put out a time chart that applies to certain size jacks with other criteria, that tells you the "supposed" time it should take to retract the jacks. But, there are so many variables, temperature of the day, (the colder the hydraulic fluid, the thicker it is), lots of bends in the hydraulic hoses and fittings, the solenoids that are used to control each jack may be acting up and not opening completely, any number of things can cause slow retraction, not to mention, weak or possibly broken retractions springs.

I have the HWH 625 system which is the automatic and/or manual jacks and it's a very nice system but, the jacks, especially the two in the rear act up quite often in terms of slow retraction. I keep a shovel in one of my compartments and use a leveling block on end for a fulcrum and leverage those jacks right up in no time. (that is when they act up).

And, some manufacturers of Jacks and or motorhomes, require the engine to be running for deployment of the jacks so the pump motors can get full voltage to pump the fluid to each jack. Ours is not one of those. But yours might be. So, first things first, find out what you've got in Brand name etc.
Scott

New springs and an adjustment to the parking brake switch. Parking brake switch is located on the parking brake arm or on the mounting bracket.They are usually just bolted on and can be adjusted. Get under the dash and work the parking brake by hand and you will be able to see the switch ( has two wires coming out of it) and how the parking brake arm pushes against it. You say you have mechanical experience so you should not have a problem. Because it does come on after many tries it is more than likely just out of adjustment, not defective. You may find that if you push as hard as you can on the parking brake the light will come on.

You probably need new springs.
If it's HWH, Here's a place to get new ones.

Find what make the hyd jacks are.
If HWH. They have a good web site to get help from.
Need make and model number.