Ever upgraded landing gear or motor?

I gave up on the gearbox and slow/weak motors and installed the Bulldog Jacks. They are quiet and have no issues with my 40' toyhauler. They have separate motor controllers which is kind of handy if the ground isn't completely level. You can adjust each leg independently. I recommend them highly.

There is absolutely no need to remove the entire leg to replace the motor gearbox assembly. It can all be done by opening the front compartment.
Yes, I have rebuilt both and added a dual motor setup. Since my landing gear is made by Venture Mg I simply bought everything from them. Took me about an hour R&R of the curb side. Another couple hours to fabricwte my targets, instal the up limit switches and wire everything to a single 2 dollar toggle switch. Best mod I ever did. I also did a buddies fiver for him. Worth every penny.

Yeah, unfortunately with my rig, the gear box is sandwiched between the leg and the frame of the camper. I was hoping there would be wiggle room, but yesterday I took off everything to slide off the gear box, and there is only a 1/2" of space...and the box needs to slide about 3" to get off of the pin.
I have pictures, but for some reason this site doesn't let me post with my google pics, etc.

So I'm thinking I can release the top bracket holding the leg, and loosen the lower one...to allow me to tilt the leg back (or to the side of the camper)...giving me enough room to slide off the gear box, and put the new one on.

Do you have pictures or more detail as to what you purchased and installed for the second leg?
Does it raise and lower significantly faster with the dual set-up?

No pictures but. If you have Venture Mfg landing gear you can get the part number off the leg cap, call them and order everything you need to make a dual motor setup. Faster? No, but way less strain lifting the nose. I posted all about installing dual motors and up limit switches several years ago. Probably no longer available. But if you really want to do it, send me a PM. Will be glad to rely with a list of stuff I bought to do it and add up limit switches. Over travel is one of the main reasons gear boxes fail.
BTW take the top off the leg box. Pn the underside is a part number and serial number if there Venture parts. To get the legs out, support the nose with jacks, raise all the way. Take the two clamps apart. The leg will lift enough to take the snap clamps apart and the inner leg should fall out as you lift the inner leg.
My landing gear motors are both facing in. Sounds like yours is facing out. Easy to turn around when you put things back together.

When our landing gear developed problems (single Motor) the factory replaced with new landing gear with separate motors. Haven't had an issue in 10 years of use.

donn0128 wrote:
There is absolutely no need to remove the entire leg to replace the motor gearbox assembly. It can all be done by opening the front compartment.
Yes, I have rebuilt both and added a dual motor setup. Since my landing gear is made by Venture Mg I simply bought everything from them. Took me about an hour R&R of the curb side. Another couple hours to fabricwte my targets, instal the up limit switches and wire everything to a single 2 dollar toggle switch. Best mod I ever did. I also did a buddies fiver for him. Worth every penny.

You speak like EVERY trailer is made the same... Simply not the case.

Well I took a shot this morning to replace the gear box -- and no luck as it seemed impossible to take the leg out and get it back in correctly. So I put everything back together, and took it to the dealer. I got a call a few hours later say they are all done! Man I feel like an idiot.

So while at work today, I called Venture and E-Trailer asking about upgrading the motor I have. They both said they wouldn't advise it as the landing gear as a whole is only rated for 5,000lbs...and if I upgrade to a 6,500lbs motor, it could cause damage etc.

I guess I will see how the new gear box handles the old motor. And if its still not a good experience, then I'll have to research an investment into new legs and motors, etc.

I was dead set on upgrading mine to a dual motor setup (and probably will eventually). Mine was struggling to raise the trailer and occasionally overloaded the motor so much that it tripped my breaker and actually broke the shear bolt on the driven side of the landing gear a couple of times (now I carry several spares). I decided to try something I read in a post on this forum. I drilled holes in the outer tubes of the landing gear exposing the worm gear. With the trailer hitched on my truck, I ran the landing gear up and down as far as I could go while spraying some lithium grease into the holes I drilled. Now I do this before each season of towing and it's working great (no sheared bolts and no tripped breakers). The motor still strains more than I would like - but always gets there.

So I went to pick up the 5'r today.
Started raising the camper to put it on the hitch...I had about 1-2" to go, and then the clicking started. The tech that installed the gear box came out to help, and the clicking persisted trying to raise it and then trying to lower it. He was certain it was the battery. So he put his meter on the battery and it was fine. Then he put his portable jumper box on the battery, and the same clicking persisted and the camper wouldn't go up or down.
He ran a few more tests, and no change.

We ended by discussing options. He suggested I price out a new motor, and also price out a new landing system (legs and motor).
He figured if I am going to spend $150 on a new motor, why not spend a little more and get new legs too in case the issue is not just the motor.

I am literally lost with what I should do!
I wish there was a relatively easy and inexpensive hydraulic option I could go with. Or an eary dual-motor option. I noticed that my follow-leg (curb-side leg) has almost no room around it to add a motor or even go with a different kind of leg.

One nice thing about the Bulldog two motor system is that the motors mount horizontally, so you need less space around the leg.