Help! One of my jacks won't retract or extend!

Grit dog wrote:
Unless you know how to repair it, want to tear it apart and learn the quickest and easiest way I surmise is buy a new jack, jack up that front corner and replace it.
Or jack up 2 corners and swap one from the rear.
That’s a bit more risky as I’ve not loaded ours with only 3 jacks. I just know it will float a rear jack regularly and seems to support well that way.

When you say "jack up that front corner", how do I go about doing that? What kind of jack do I need to lift just that one corner? Is it better to just raise the other 3 to get that one off the ground and support it underneath with my telescoping jacks? These things are rated for 6,000 lbs but they scare me a bit. Especially because I have them in their extended-most position.

Thanks for your responses guys.. I've calmed down a bit but I have couple of questions. For the record - I'm at work, where I live on-site. So I DO have the time to keep the camper stationary and work on it but I have a real paranoia about not being able to pick up and go at any moment. So the sooner the better for this.

1- if I take the busted jack leg off AND another to swap it out, am I okay to have it sit like this? With two legs off? I have those EAZlifts underneath like I said, but is this enough support? They only hold up the flat belly of the camper and don't go back to the overhang or out to the side as far as the jacks do. I'm guessing the best jack to take off to replace would be the back-left (the front-right is the busted one).

2- Am I REALLY okay raising up the camper on 3 legs only?

3- I might be too chicken to risk this and since I seem to always have issues with the front jacks, I might just need to suck it up and replace them. But I have concerns about sticking with HappiJac. Should I just invest in a whole new system? Or should I just buy two new front happijacs? Cost is definitely a concern and while I technically can afford a new system, I am really trying to save money. What do you guys think? 2 new Happijacs? 4 new Reico-Titans (I've heard better things)? Stable-lift (don't love the look or the price but intrigued by ease of loading)?

Unless you know how to repair it, want to tear it apart and learn the quickest and easiest way I surmise is buy a new jack, jack up that front corner and replace it.
Or jack up 2 corners and swap one from the rear.
That’s a bit more risky as I’ve not loaded ours with only 3 jacks. I just know it will float a rear jack regularly and seems to support well that way.

So it’s unloaded and you’re in some random spot that need to load it back up now or???
Agree you can use one of the rear jacks in front. Likely anyway. Mine will raise on 3 jacks.
You don’t need to have it on the truck to remove a jack.
You cannot move it with one missing front jack. And you cannot load it without both front jacks. Either jack up that front corner a bit and remove and replace that jack (from a rear jack if it will hold or a new one) or repair the one in place if possible.
Check what bedlam said probably the shear pin if you let them get corodded up.

We had lots of problems with our 4600 jacks. Finally replaced both fronts with 4800 ‘s. They are a bit longer than the 4600’s and greater lifting capacity. Check with happijac for rebuilt vs new. When Gary was still there he helped us out. Don’t know who does his job now. If you can get the 4800’s it’s worth it

I only load and unload about once a year. As I understand it lack of use is hard on the jacks. I have also never tried to lube them. Last year trying to load for a trip, I also had one jack fail. I ordered two jacks. They arrived within a couple of days. Replacing the broken jack took only a half hour or so. I now have a spare just in case.

BTW, you should have no problem using the 3 good jacks to raise the camper and allow you to replace the broken jack. Just don't wait until you have two fail.

If you can support the camper enough, take one from the back and put it where the broken one is. You should be able to load with 2 front and 1 rear jack but not the other way around.

There is a shear pin between the jack leg and gear. You must have snapped it when cranking so hard. You wil need to use the three other jacks to get the camper high enough so you can load it on the truck or shore it up higher on the saw horses. Then you can take the bad jack off and see if it can be fixed or you need to replace it.

Yah, had the same problem on the Titan? Ticor? whatever jacks and discovered that the electrical cord pin/connector was broken, easy to do .. had to replace/splice a new plug on it. It happened accidentally when moving stuff around the front.. might check that just to be sure..
Hope that helps...

You might get away with raising the other 3 jacks and slipping the truck underneath, just a thought.. I had one time where the ground sank under one jack and had to use 3 to bring it up. Take them to the max height or until it clears the bed. I'm on a Flatbed so it might not work correctly, just a thought..
Good luck but sounds like you're way past fixing it... sigh hang in there..