Adding Electric Camper Jacks

mkirsch wrote:
I priced out electric jacks for mine and the jacks cost more than I paid for the entire camper!

Ditto that! Blew my mind, I'm a manufacturer and after seeing some of the prices for camper equipment I started researching the industry a little but quickly found out it is as much despair and the margins are as tight as the industry I already supply. Ill pass on supplying two soft sales industries. ;) Thats why they are charging what their charging.

Ed

Don't go chincy with the wires, I had to upgrade the wire that was used to run to the back jacks since they were the farthest away from the controller in the front, they would take forever to go up or down until I replaced the wiring. Mine were ran inside snaked through the cabinets and holes drilled right above the jacks for the connector plate. Not a hard job, just make sure you wire the polarity correctly.

I ended up using 14 gauge outdoor extension cord for mine to the back. Made it easy to snake through everything.

I priced out electric jacks for mine and the jacks cost more than I paid for the entire camper!

I wish I had saved the money, and gotten non electric ones. Only remove it once a year, and then use saw horses about same height.

JNichols wrote:
Sorry if this has been posted some where, I did a number of searches and couldn't find anything.

I have a 1993 Lance Squire Camper that I'm replacing the old crank jacks with new electric ones from Atwood. These are not remote control, the switches are on the jacks. The two front ones run in tandem and the two backs ones do the same.

I assume that the camper was not pre wired for electric jacks, though that would be sweet. Anyone done this before? Any tips on where to run the wires? I'm pretty handy, I just don't want to start drilling holes etc. Until and get some clarity on what is the best approach.

thanks,
Jeff

Yeah, I did this on my 74 KIT, I used #8 wire with a dedicated circuit and a disconnect along with two 40amp self-resetting breakers for the circuits. The front had their own and the back had their own.

I ran the wires on the outside of the camper's tub, using cable anchors to keep it all nice and tidy.

Our first RV was a 1986 Conestoga camper with hydraulic jacks. It wasn't set up for electric jacks but I was able to make a set of Reico-Titan's work. You will be glad that you upgraded!

I replaced my reico hydraulic jacks on our 1986 camper several years ago with
atwood electric jacks like you describe. Purchased them on ebay for $800.
Did not have a lot of trouble routing the wires, was able to conceal them all
interally in the camper hidden spaces. Had to run the right rear jack wires
under the door threshold. The left rear wires ran behind the shower but with
all the external access doors was able to fish the wires successfully. The fronts
were easily concealed running the wires on top of the freshwater tank. Be sure
to wire in a cutoff switch and fuses in the power lines.
The old jacks were torture compared to the electric ones.
Good Luck

I would run the wire outside, under the camper wings, and into the battery compartment, either crossing sides under the rear, or across the front wall outside.

On a older camper I would think it is not wired for electric jacks. First off all the wiring has to end up at the battery,so you will have to drill holes and fish wires behind cabinets or run wire molding on the outside to get to the battery. On my camper 3 corners I could fish wires but not the corner where the shower is. Good Luck on the project. PS. I did not do this But have seen it on a friends camper.