Extending front landing gear technique

[philtrains]

During the past year with my new fifth wheel when unhooking I always pulled the pin and dropped the front feet and then raised the trailer with the extend button. A couple of times I had difficulty manually lifting one of the feet up to store after hooked up. Thank goodness I ran into the right mechanic. He told me when unhooking to always electrically extend the feet 3" first AND THEN pull the pin to drop the feet. Since following this procedure I have never had the problem again. Has anyone heard this before. Hope this makes sense and will help someone out.

[laknox]

philtrains wrote:
During the past year with my new fifth wheel when unhooking I always pulled the pin and dropped the front feet and then raised the trailer with the extend button. A couple of times I had difficulty manually lifting one of the feet up to store after hooked up. Thank goodness I ran into the right mechanic. He told me when unhooking to always electrically extend the feet 3" first AND THEN pull the pin to drop the feet. Since following this procedure I have never had the problem again. Has anyone heard this before. Hope this makes sense and will help someone out.

I leave my landing gear extended about 12-14" when traveling (plenty of clearance). When I get to my spot, I'll run them out at least another 6-8", then pull the pins and drop the extensions. Extend with the motor until the pins snap into place (I'll bump the motor while doing this), then lift until most weight it taken off the pin. I've got a site that I like to camp at and it's fairly high in front. I'll run the legs out at about another 10-12", before I drop the extensions as I know that I've got about 16-18" to retract to get level.

Lyle

[wilber1]

newk wrote:
I always leave the outer legs extended to 12-15 inches from the ground, then just drop the inner legs when I unhook. There have been a couple times when I've run the outer legs down further when the parking spot sloped down towards the front, but that's been a couple times out of hundreds.

I agree, it depends on the slope. If you are parked on an up slope it can take a lot more than 3" in order to lower your trailer enough to level it after you have unhooked

[mnm_2]

We place a wooden cribbing block pile about 8 inches high under each leg the blocking helps spread the load over a larger area and keeps the legs shorter for more stability

[glazier]

nwtraveler2 wrote:
another reason to extend the legs a few inches first is
that the trailer can settle and depending on how soft
the ground is you might not be able to raise the rv high
enough to re hitch. which kind of sounds like what you
were experiencing.

The first few inches you run out gives you the ability to drop the nose to level by retracting the landing gear back up. I have saw people just drop the gear to the ground to start with, after that the only down leveling on the nose of the fiver will be what you lifted it to clear your truck hitch. I have done this, and saw it done, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you have to hook back up.

[newk]

I always leave the outer legs extended to 12-15 inches from the ground, then just drop the inner legs when I unhook. There have been a couple times when I've run the outer legs down further when the parking spot sloped down towards the front, but that's been a couple times out of hundreds.

[RV_wanderer]

I do exactly as you stated. I always lower the landing gear a few inches before manually deploying the tube that attaches to the foot. This way the mechanism won't run out of travel when it comes time to raise the jacks.

[biljo99]

All the stability of the fifth wheel is on the outside part of the leg.

You should let the outside leg down to at least the halfway point or more before you pull the pin and let the inner leg drop. This also gives you plenty of room for adjustment up or down as needed to level out the trailer. You should also notice a whole lot less rocking. The motors do go slow but I think you will appreciate the rewards of your patience.

[dave_smith1]

I take a different route which accomplishes the same thing: just raise the landing gear pads about 3" before slipping in the lock pins. Discovered this the hard way when my auto level system couldn't lower the front enough so compensated by raising the back high enough to lift the wheels off the ground!

[h2guy]

For optimum stability and long term durability, inner and outer legs should be near equal in length when extended.

Inner leg is the weakest one. More bent inner legs have been caused by "dropping" them first. Later, when you hitch up, you'll push back against those legs and eventually you'll bend one.

[nwtraveler2]

another reason to extend the legs a few inches first is
that the trailer can settle and depending on how soft
the ground is you might not be able to raise the rv high
enough to re hitch. which kind of sounds like what you
were experiencing.

[deleted-2]

Don & Carolyn wrote:
What is meant by "marked the max up and 3 inches down on the legs with a marker pen?"

I marked the front jack legs maximum up because if the stops were encountered the in-line fuse would blow.

The reason I marked the legs 3 inches before the mechanical maximum extension was because:
That's about the best place to stop the legs before un-pinning to let the feet drop onto my 4x6 blocks.

I found that when the jacks are electrically extended further than usual with the drop feet as short as possible the trailer rocks and rolls a tiny bit less.

I normally try to park in spots that are level as possible front to rear.
Doesn't always happen however.
Every trip is an adventure in leveling.

[TheAmRheins]

Try Tractor supply or other farm store for soft shear bolts ,they are common in drive shafts for farm implements.

[slarsen]

Marking the legs: I've never marked the full extension point, but the upper point: good idea. Twice I've run the legs up too far and have broken off a bolt. I've gotten a bit careless about watching the legs go upward, and most recently I let my wife run the legs up. Yep, went too far and broke the bolt, and just this morning I had to bum a bolt from my camping neighbor. Otherwise, I was going to have to use a nail or something just to make sure the leg didn't vibrate it's way down and contact the pavement, or something.

For OP: there are two bolts that act as safety shear pins if the legs are run up too far. There is a square tube that runs across the storage area at the front, which rotates as the gear drive operates. A bolt is at both ends. The shaft's purpose is to keep the legs extending at the same rate throughout the travel. Not too hard to fix, but I don't know where to get the factory shear bolts, and I'm concerned that the next incident may shear teeth off the gear drive, or something like it.

[Don___Carolyn]

WHAT IS MEANT by 'marked the max up and 3 inches down on the legs with a marker pen'??

Thanks!