Forum Discussion

biggjb's avatar
biggjb
Explorer
Oct 02, 2017

Atwood electric Camper jack

I bought an old 1999 Fleetwood Elkhorn and it has 4 Atwood electric jacks. over the past couple weeks one of the jacks has started to skip when i was raising to unload the camper. i took the cover off and the electric motor is connected directly to the jack. Is there a way to tightn the motor, lubricate it or even replace it. If I have to replace the whole jack i think it might be better to buy 4 new ones, but that is over $1500. So trying to get this one working would be a much cheaper option. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Truck Campers

11 Replies

  • BradW's avatar
    BradW
    Explorer II
    Oct 06, 2017
    gregchambers wrote:
    Or maybe E-trailer wisely thinks that perhaps 18 year old jacks might be all a bit worn or perhaps the capacity, gear ratios, etc. are not worth the risk of messing with. If it were me and I was planning to keep the camper long term, I'd replace either a pair or all four, much like tires!


    The Atwoods which came on our 1996 Lance are 21 years old and are still working. But I have been thinking about replacing all 4 of them anyway because I don't want to wait for a catastrophic failure to happen. Nothing lasts forever.
  • work2much's avatar
    work2much
    Explorer
    Oct 05, 2017
    gregchambers wrote:
    Or maybe E-trailer wisely thinks that perhaps 18 year old jacks might be all a bit worn or perhaps the capacity, gear ratios, etc. are not worth the risk of messing with. If it were me and I was planning to keep the camper long term, I'd replace either a pair or all four, much like tires!


    Good point. Might also be wise to replace the fridge, water heater and furnace as well. They are probably also 18 years old and a bit worn. I bet etailer would recommend it!
  • gregchambers's avatar
    gregchambers
    Explorer
    Oct 05, 2017
    Or maybe E-trailer wisely thinks that perhaps 18 year old jacks might be all a bit worn or perhaps the capacity, gear ratios, etc. are not worth the risk of messing with. If it were me and I was planning to keep the camper long term, I'd replace either a pair or all four, much like tires!
  • burningman's avatar
    burningman
    Explorer II
    Oct 05, 2017
    That's what I'd do - replace the bad one.
    Telling you you need to replace all four sounds like some salesman is working on commission.
  • work2much's avatar
    work2much
    Explorer
    Oct 05, 2017
    biggjb wrote:
    I bought an old 1999 Fleetwood Elkhorn and it has 4 Atwood electric jacks. over the past couple weeks one of the jacks has started to skip when i was raising to unload the camper. i took the cover off and the electric motor is connected directly to the jack. Is there a way to tightn the motor, lubricate it or even replace it. If I have to replace the whole jack i think it might be better to buy 4 new ones, but that is over $1500. So trying to get this one working would be a much cheaper option. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


    Why not just replace the bad jack rather than all 4 if they are working fine? Do you leave the camper on the truck while traveling? If a second one fails at a latter date you could just order another jack. We had a jack fail on our previous camper. I replaced just it and the other three worked just fine until we sold the camper.
  • BradW's avatar
    BradW
    Explorer II
    Oct 04, 2017
    56Jeff wrote:
    In a pinch I have contacted eTrailer. eTrailer has answered several questions and suggested fixes for me. Crazy enough, they seem happy to help.

    https://www.etrailer.com/question-27738.html

    FWIW
    56Jeff


    I have bought a lot of stuff from etrailer over the years. They are top notch folks. I have always received great service and advice from etrailer. They also go the extra mile by putting a lot of very helpful info on the internet.

    Brad
  • biggjb's avatar
    biggjb
    Explorer
    Oct 03, 2017
    56Jeff wrote:
    In a pinch I have contacted eTrailer. eTrailer has answered several questions and suggested fixes for me. Crazy enough, they seem happy to help.

    https://www.etrailer.com/question-27738.html

    FWIW
    56Jeff

    Thanks for the tip 56Jeff. I contacted etrailer and the following is the response. It appears I need to replace all 4 jacks as one of them is stripped.

    http://www.etrailer.com/question-254566.html?fb=yes
  • biggjb's avatar
    biggjb
    Explorer
    Oct 02, 2017
    gregchambers wrote:
    When you say "skip" do you mean mechanically or just cutting out electrically? One of our Atwood jacks was working intermittently over a period of months and then just stopped altogether. Tried checking all the usual suspects. Turned out to be extremely dirty contacts on the plug. Used a 3/16" SS bottle brush to clean the female side and a SS tooth brush to clean the male side then coated with dielectric grease and all is well!

    When I use the jack it works up to a certain point and then mechanically skips as if the gears/teeth are slipping and I am concerned it will strip the gears.
  • gregchambers's avatar
    gregchambers
    Explorer
    Oct 02, 2017
    When you say "skip" do you mean mechanically or just cutting out electrically? One of our Atwood jacks was working intermittently over a period of months and then just stopped altogether. Tried checking all the usual suspects. Turned out to be extremely dirty contacts on the plug. Used a 3/16" SS bottle brush to clean the female side and a SS tooth brush to clean the male side then coated with dielectric grease and all is well!

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