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RVhiker's avatar
RVhiker
Explorer
Aug 08, 2015

How to grease landing leg worm gears?

This post (link) about a failed landing leg worm gear got me to thinking about the maintenance needed by fifth wheel landing legs. Mine are made by Atwood, and the maintenance in the Atwood manual is minimal:

"2. ONCE EACH YEAR:
a. Extend landing legs as far as possible, clean drop tube and inner
ram tube. Coat exposed surface of tubes with silicone spray lubricant.
b. Coat inside of handle alignment tube with silicone spray lubricant.
c. Oil shaft bushing in gear box and leg gear heads with SAE 30 oil.
d. Lubricate gears in gear box and landing leg gear heads with
extreme pressure grease.
3. For Electric Drive Motor Landing Legs, twice each year, check wiring
connections at battery. Clean terminals with a solution of baking
soda and water. Cover with a thin coat of grease."

Not a word about greasing the worm gear which actually carries the weight of the trailer. Looks like greasing the worm gear would not be a simple job. Anybody every greased your worm gears? How did you do it?

Here is a video that shows a failed worm gear, and how to install replacement landing legs: Repair Video Here

5 Replies

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  • jodeb720's avatar
    jodeb720
    Explorer
    Aug 08, 2015
    it's so ironic that Daamarc posted this.

    A couple of weeks ago, I started to hear a squealing sound from my passenger jack on my 5ver. Furthermore, he mentioned that the jack has a sheer bolt - which isn't documented with my trailer.

    So I'm wondering what/when mine will fail.

    After watching his video I know where to put the Zerk fittings to inject the grease in the correct spot before it fails.

    All it would take is an access port and a rubber plug to insert the grease and it would be easy to maintain.

    Hopefully I can make it back home before it fails as I'm on the road for the next week and a half!

    Thanks Daamarc
  • fj12ryder's avatar
    fj12ryder
    Explorer III
    Aug 08, 2015
    I think there's no mention of lubing the screw because it isn't an easy operation the way the legs are designed. It could be made relatively easy, but that would require some redesigning of the leg design.

    "I took the snap cap off the top of the tube and flooded the tube with sae 70/90 gear oil.let it run out the bottom and cleaned up the residual oil."

    That might work depending on the particular model of leg. On some it will just run down the leg and not get on the screw.
  • aruba5er's avatar
    aruba5er
    Explorer
    Aug 08, 2015
    I took the snap cap off the top of the tube and flooded the tube with sae 70/90 gear oil.let it run out the bottom and cleaned up the residual oil.
  • RVhiker's avatar
    RVhiker
    Explorer
    Aug 08, 2015
    I like the idea about the angle iron. I think I will get a piece of 1/2" and fill the channel with wheel bearing grease, and reach up from the bottom as suggested. Hopefully I can press the angle iron over the worm gear and then rotate it to spread the grease around.

    I searched this forum in archive mode and found only a few threads related to worm gear (or the top nut) failure. Also, the Atwood manual makes no mention of greasing the worm gear. Are mechanical landing legs so robust that generally no maintenance is needed?
  • fj12ryder's avatar
    fj12ryder
    Explorer III
    Aug 08, 2015
    If you have the legs that have a separate motor for each leg, and separate controls, then it wouldn't be too bad.

    You could raise the trailer as far as necessary, then support one side while you run that leg back in. Then drop the inner leg and remove it. With the outer leg all the way up the majority of the screw is now exposed inside the leg. One member suggests putting some grease on an angle iron and reaching up with that to grease the screw. That would work very well.

    If you have one motor for both legs it becomes a bit more, okay a lot more, of a hassle, in that you'd have to do both legs at the same time.

    An alternative is to have a hole in the outer leg, and a hole in the inner leg that will align when the inner leg is most/all the way at the top. Then you could use a spray grease to lube the screw. I would think you'd want to use grease rather than a relatively light oil. Maybe even two different holes so you could also get some lube on the thrust bearing too.

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