Electric jacks manual crank

I had a Lance with Atwood jacks for 20 years. The only problems I ever had were with the wireless controllers. These are reliable equipment.
First off, the Atwood manual says to unplug the jack when you will manually (or with a drill) raise or lower it. You've obviously got that figured out.

More importantly, it seems like all four jacks failing at the same time is not a problem with the jacks, but with the controller. You can test the jacks by using jumper wires from the battery to the plug coming out of the jack. If that makes it move, the jack is ok.
Here's how I'd troubleshoot my jacks.

• Start at the beginning. Check the power going to the jack controller.
• 
  The jack controller should have fuses and/or circuit breakers. Check all those.
• the handheld part (wired or wireless) on newer controllers need to be paired and can lose their pairing. Try re-pairing the handheld controller
• 
  Check the power output at each of the jacks while they're supposed to be working
• Check the continuity of the wires between the controller and and each jack.

If none of that works, like others have said, you can replace the Atwood parts with Reico-Titan. They sell a complete replacement set, or various pieces. If the jacks worked by directly jumping each of them from a battery, those aren't your problem and you can just buy the controller setup.

mattyj wrote:

mkirsch wrote:
Well yeah, the motor is acting as a generator and you're trying to power something when they're connected.

does that mean I ruined the jacks by leaving them plugged in during extension and retraction??

You might have charged the camper battery a little bit, LOL.

If they’re the ones being discussed, the owners manual says it doesn’t hurt anything just harder to turn.
Our TCs had a lever to disengage the jack from the motor for manual cranking.
I don’t think you could hurt anything either way by spinning the motor manually.

mkirsch wrote:

monkey44 wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
^I’m pretty sure disconnecting the wires won’t make a bit of difference. Or am I missing something.

It does make a huge difference, Grit Dog ... personal experience. It sounds like it's turning the jack motors - some kind of friction thru the wires maybe, I don't really know. I do know it is much less taxing on the drill when the wires are disconnected. I just pulled the plug out of the camper for each jack and the spin rate on 18v Mikita drill greatly increased.

2008 Lance 845 ...

Well yeah, the motor is acting as a generator and you're trying to power something when they're connected.

does that mean I ruined the jacks by leaving them plugged in during extension and retraction??

mkirsch wrote:

monkey44 wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
^I’m pretty sure disconnecting the wires won’t make a bit of difference. Or am I missing something.

It does make a huge difference, Grit Dog ... personal experience. It sounds like it's turning the jack motors - some kind of friction thru the wires maybe, I don't really know. I do know it is much less taxing on the drill when the wires are disconnected. I just pulled the plug out of the camper for each jack and the spin rate on 18v Mikita drill greatly increased.

2008 Lance 845 ...

Well yeah, the motor is acting as a generator and you're trying to power something when they're connected.

Well, I stand corrected. Appears those don't have a disconnect from the motor.
Won't let me paste a snip of the manual, but unplugging the jacks disables the dynamic brake. Says no issue either way but easier to run manually when unplugged.
It's still turning the motor either way though.

Right, mkirsh, exactly what I was thinking, and exactly how it was acting. Thanks.

monkey44 wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
^I’m pretty sure disconnecting the wires won’t make a bit of difference. Or am I missing something.

It does make a huge difference, Grit Dog ... personal experience. It sounds like it's turning the jack motors - some kind of friction thru the wires maybe, I don't really know. I do know it is much less taxing on the drill when the wires are disconnected. I just pulled the plug out of the camper for each jack and the spin rate on 18v Mikita drill greatly increased.

2008 Lance 845 ...

Well yeah, the motor is acting as a generator and you're trying to power something when they're connected.

if you need to replace it. The Reico Titan is a 99% plug and play replacement. bolt holes are the same , motor speed is the same, capacity is the same. only thing you need to change is the plug receptacle on the camper.

monkey44 wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
^I’m pretty sure disconnecting the wires won’t make a bit of difference. Or am I missing something.

It does make a huge difference, Grit Dog ... personal experience. It sounds like it's turning the jack motors - some kind of friction thru the wires maybe, I don't really know. I do know it is much less taxing on the drill when the wires are disconnected. I just pulled the plug out of the camper for each jack and the spin rate on 18v Mikita drill greatly increased.

2008 Lance 845 ...

I did not notice any difference with drill on jacks plugged or unplugged Thank you all

Grit dog wrote:
^I’m pretty sure disconnecting the wires won’t make a bit of difference. Or am I missing something.

It does make a huge difference, Grit Dog ... personal experience. It sounds like it's turning the jack motors - some kind of friction thru the wires maybe, I don't really know. I do know it is much less taxing on the drill when the wires are disconnected. I just pulled the plug out of the camper for each jack and the spin rate on 18v Mikita drill greatly increased.

2008 Lance 845 ...