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tomseeley's avatar
tomseeley
Explorer
Oct 27, 2017

Power tongue jack weak battery

I've got an Atwood power jack on my tongue. It's hooked into the rv battery of course. Lately, when I'm hooking up at home for a trip, it seems as if the jack is very sluggish even though I know the rv battery itself is fully charged. I keep the rv plugged in full time at home. When I back up the truck and plug the rv into the truck battery connection the power jack works fine.

So is the problem likely with the connection from the jack to the rv battery? Not with the tongue jack motor itself, which does seem to work fine when connected to the truck and running off the truck battery? I just want suggestions where to start looking first for the culprit.

Thx.
  • take the battery and have it "LOAD" tested.. ask for the 100 amp LOAD test.. not the quick/easy one.
  • Try cleaning the RV battery posts and cable connections. It's free, can't hurt and I've had that happen to me too, and giving the posts and cables a good wire brush scrub worked for me.

    Good luck!

    Mitch
  • tomseeley wrote:
    So is the problem likely with the connection from the jack to the rv battery? Not with the tongue jack motor itself, which does seem to work fine when connected to the truck and running off the truck battery?


    That quote right there would tell me the connection is fine.

    What doesn't seem fine is your battery even though it is fully charged. Fully charged is not an indication of a battery that can pass a load test. Take your battery to a shop and load test it.
  • What type of battery? Sealed or caps on top? If it's a wet cell have you kept the electrolyte over the top of the plates? Are you going by the rv wall monitor lights when believing that it's charged? Do you know the voltage when you are operating the jack?