Mechanical to Electrical jacks upgrade

Question

Our Livin Lite camper came with mechanical jacks. As we bought it initially to take a long road trip down into Mexico and Central America, we liked the idea of the truck camper being harder to steal. (not sure if this is actually the case though...)

Now that we are back in the US, we would like to have electrical jacks so it's much easier to take the camper of the truck on campgrounds.

Short of paying an RV shop to install the electrical jack piece that goes on top of each jack, run the necessary wiring and the controller, is there an easier solution?
E.g. do removable electrical jack 'heads' exist?

lwiddis · Answer

If theft is off the table after visits to Mexico and CA, would the additional expense be appropriate?

bob__b · Answer

Another Thread LinkYou might want to look at the Stable lift system.  I was going to put one of those on our old camper that had hydraulic jacks .... but that camper also had an east/west bed and we got tired of it as we got older.

artum_snowbird · Answer

Either you see yourself having this camper for five or six years into the future, or the money does not care, you just want them.  In either case, a retrofit is not cheap, but campers with electric jacks are a lot more common.  You could find yourself moving up into a much nicer unit with electric jacks most likely for better value than doing it on your present rig.

jack_hart · Answer

Easy solution: use a cordless drill to run the jacks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bYSZm4Da7U

You don't say what kind of jacks you're using. If it's Happijac, the conversion kit will run you around $700, and the installation is relatively easy. Here's a video that may help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArPzf6cswlQ

nralifr · Answer

According to the Livin Lite website, all of their truck camper models are pre-wired for electric jacks. The electric jacks shown in their TC pictures are Rieco Titan brand, so I'd bet your manual jacks are as well. Rieco makes an electric conversion kit for their manual jacks, so I'd recommend taking a look at that. It's not an inexpensive kit, but after several years of hand cranking the jacks on two heavy TC's in the past I'd never do that again.

:):)

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Mechanical to Electrical jacks upgrade

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