Tongue Jack broke

Question

Yesterday when unhitching, the tongue jack started to crank harder than usual both up and down. This morning while hitching it was the same thing, hard up, hard down. This evening while I was cranking up the tongue and truck to loosen the torsion bars to unhitch, the jack let loose and stripped it way down the shaft.

Now it will not crank up or down. I assume there is some sort of worm gear and nut in the crank tube and wondered if this can be replaced.

We have been touring for the last three plus weeks and have hitched/unhitched more than a dozen times with no issues whatever.

Fortunately this was our last stop before we head home so we were able to use the truck jack to unhitch. When we hitch up again, we will be home before we need to unhitch and I have better tools at home.

I had planned to buy and electric jack but have not done my homework yet and wondered if I can fix this unit.

jerem0621 · Answer

rbpru wrote:Yesterday when unhitching, the tongue jack started to crank harder than usual both up and down. This morning while hitching it was the same thing, hard up, hard down. This evening while I was cranking up the tongue and truck to loosen the torsion bars to unhitch, the jack let loose and stripped it way down the shaft. Now it will not crank up or down. I assume there is some sort of worm gear and nut in the crank tube and wondered if this can be replaced.We have been touring for the last three plus weeks and have hitched/unhitched more than a dozen times with no issues whatever.Fortunately this was our last stop before we head home so we were able to use the truck jack to unhitch. When we hitch up again, we will be home before we need to unhitch and I have better tools at home.I had planned to buy and electric jack but have not done my homework yet and wondered if I can fix this unit.Mine did the same thing and I ended up just going with a reman electric Ultra Fab tongue jack from eBay. I think a new manual tongue jack is about $30-40.00/// not sure about repairing them. Thanks!Jeremiah

jjbirish · Answer

most do have gear kits and can be repaired… not always cost effective…

opnspaces · Answer

I would take the cover off and take a look at the gears. It might be something simple like a sheared off roll pin. You can buy a replacement in the bolt aisle at Home Depot.

danager · Answer

I broke a castle nut on one last year.  The rebuild kit was $5.00 less than a replacement.  Oh, and it had to be ordered...  I need to keep up on my cardio when camping, so I stuck with a manual jack.

royb · Answer

They certainly are easy to replace. Just three bolts I think. The trick is to leave the trailer connected to your truck ball mount. Then you can remove and replace very easy.

I would want at least 3500lb rated model. Mine is still manual crank but the electric ones sure are nice looking units. You see some guys with pocket remotes for them haha... I would at least like the hand-held wired in remote type...

I was moving my trailer the other day getting ready to start checking things out for this season and drug the bottom foot of it - didn't crank it up high enough... Didn't do any damage however... Almost was thinking it would have been great to damage it as then I would get a electric model haha... Might try that trick again in a few days...

Roy Ken

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Tongue Jack broke

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