Forum Discussion

campn4walleye's avatar
Jun 10, 2013

Happi jac issue

Hello All,
We took the TC out for the first trip of the year. Just a short trip to our property in Northern WI. We left it on the truck. Never did that before. It was a good test of all systems. Here's what we learned:

It appears that when dry camping, the fridge must be perfectly level. We were "almost" level, so we thought all was good. However, a while later, the fridge was making a fast clicking noise. We re leveled, and it was happy. Worked like a champ. Images of last yr's fridge drama appeared.

When we went to retract the jacks, the L driver's side would not retract. We sent them all back to HJ last end of season as they were under warranty. HJ sent back new jacks but same motorheads with a note that said they were "benchchecked" and found to be fine.

That jack did sound different when we loaded up, but they've always been noisy. DH manually cranked it up and when we got home, he took it apart to find that it is completely stripped. WHAT the @#$%!

We'll call them this A.M., but aren't expecting much help.

Anyone out there ever replace the drive gear in the motor? Do we have to buy a whole new head?

Other than that,(and about 50 ticks), we had a great time.
  • DH spoke with HJ today and was pleasantly surprised by their customer service. He explained the situation and they are sending out a new motor head. They'll send a return label to return the broken one at their expense. They made us pay the shipping to them for the 4 jacks the last time.

    It seems that they have had many issues, and a recall of the brushes (?) is underway. Hoping this will be the last problem with these.

    As for bashing, I wasn't. I just expected to get the run around. They were very understanding and apologized for the inconvenience.
  • I've had good response from happijac, send your defective motor and you have the choice of rebuilt or new motor. At different prices of course.
    SkipJ
  • I would give Happijac some time to respond. I have had excellent service from them when I called. I sent my jacks back to them and they sent out new jacks minus the motors. I had one motor that sounded bad so sent that also and they rebuilt it and sent all back to me. One jack got damanged in shipment so I called and they sent another out to me and then I returned the damanged one. I also had one of my levers that busted at the same time in shipment and they shipped the upper end (all the gears and everything but I just needed the lever) so I now have some spare gears in case I have this problem.

    What I have been doing is I carry a 18V drill with me all the time and I got a bolt that fits the Happijacs and instead of using the slow motors. I unloack them and use my drill. On speed seting 2 it really cranks them down fast. If I need to crank them down more I switch to speed 1. This is so much faster and quiter than using the jack motors. I guess I'm saving my jack motors for the next owner of the camper:) The motors well be new but the jacks well probably be wore out.
  • I had one of my Rieco Titan jack motors fail within the first year of ownership. I called them and they sent out a replacement head at no charge. They didnt even wait for me to send back the bad one. The jacks were under warranty but they never asked for proof on date of purchase to confirm this. They just took me at mt word. RT has a two year warranty. Maybe your Happijacs do to. Even if its not under warranty Im sure they will help you out. Its very common for TC owners to have one of their jacks fail on them. Atleast thats what I have read on this forum.
  • Don't condemn them before you've at least tried to ask for help.
  • I had the same experence with a happi jack motor used on the lift mechanism of our Outfitter. Bob Ward sent me a replacement, said Happijac get some bad motors from their Chinese source.
    SkipJ
  • Hello,
    I am sure if you contact Torklift, Jay, they will fix it for you, seems pretty rare!
    I had problems with previous Fold Up TC with Rieco Titan Jacks.
    I have just bought 2012 Ram 3500 Laramie Crew DRW Longbed 4x4 diesel 4.10 and lov,n it.
    Had it for a week, just driven 4,000kms from Sydney to Perth, Australia.
    Was pleased with my 2011 Chev 2500hd Longbed Supercab diesel, even happier with DRW Ram.
    Cummins engine, very impressive! Cheers.
  • Happy Jack has a flat fee for repair. Call them to find out what it is. They rebuilt the head on one of mine. (just mailed the head unit)