Front landing gear broke

[2001400ex]

I have a two year old Forest River stealth fifth wheel you hauler and the front landing gear broke yesterday. It is not attached to my pickup, so hopefully I can attach again. I do have a 3 ton floor jack so I might have to use that. It's just the front left side, and of course the other side will break if I'm not careful as it's sitting sideways some now.

Does anyone know if the landing gear is warrantied longer than the forest River standard warranty? It is a lippert frame and most likely lippert landing gear, but I can check that tomorrow. I'm in the middle of moving, so I don't have time to fix it myself. Reading online it looks doable to fix the gears,

Any thoughts?

[fj12ryder]

"Probably just broke the shear bolt in the tube that runs between the jacks."

Breaking a shear pin won't cause the trailer leg to drop an inch or two. The other leg will stop moving, but there will be no drop.

[B_O__Plenty]

fj12ryder wrote:
A 3-ton jack probably won't be strong enough to do the lifting. You might need a 10 or 12 ton jack to do the job easier. What and how did it break?

3 ton jack will be fine. Most of the weight is on the wheels. You are only lifting 1/2 of the tongue weight. Probably just broke the shear bolt in the tube that runs between the jacks.

B.O.

[fj12ryder]

2001400ex wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
Could you describe "broke the gears"? Which gears and how do you know they broke?

I just raised it up trying to get it off the hitch. Then the one side there was a loud clank and it dropped an inch or two. I'm not sure if it's the sheer bolt, or the gears, or what it is. I haven't had a chance to look at it.

The shear pin breaking would not cause the leg to drop, I would be looking at problems within the leg itself. And I definitely would not be using the stabilizers until the issue is sorted.

[Njmurvin]

On mine there is square tube that comes across from the drive leg (motorized) to the driven leg (presumably the one that's failing). The tube slides over the drive shaft of the driven leg. The shear bolt connects the tube to the drive shaft making the physical connection between the two legs. If something gets bound up in the driven leg, it can cause extreme stress on the gears in the leg, the gear box and the motor. To avoid damaging these critical parts, the shear bolt is designed to break before those other components do (analogous to a fuse in an electrical circuit). The symptom of this failure is that the drive leg turns and the driven leg doesn't. If your issue turns out to be the the shear bolt, make sure you get a new bolt with the same rating (stamped on the bolt head). Of course you'll need to remedy whatever is binding the driven leg.

I was having similar issues. I ended up drilling holes in the outer casings of the legs allowing me to squirt lubricant onto the screw gear inside the leg where mine was binding. I do this with lithium grease spray before every trip.

[phemens]

if it was the shear bolt, then the other leg would not be moving, right? The loud clank and loose leg to me indicate the gear inside the leg. That's what happened to mine. That can be replaced by disassembling the landing gear and opening up the leg.

[Allworth]

I was about to post that it sounds like a shear pin or bolt. (Not "sheet", the parts man won't know what you need.)

Pop the top off of the leg. If the crown gear turns when you hit the switch, but the leg doesn't move, dig around in the grease and find a pin (or broken parts of a pin) about 1/8" diameter and an inch long.

There is a hole through the gear and a matching hole in the top of the lead screw. The pin locks the two together.

The pin is usually broken when the landing gear is run too far up or down. The system can, however, keep working for some time until all of the parts work their way out of the holes and everything fails.

Good luck.

[2001400ex]

fj12ryder wrote:
Could you describe "broke the gears"? Which gears and how do you know they broke?

I just raised it up trying to get it off the hitch. Then the one side there was a loud clank and it dropped an inch or two. I'm not sure if it's the sheer bolt, or the gears, or what it is. I haven't had a chance to look at it.

[fj12ryder]

Could you describe "broke the gears"? Which gears and how do you know they broke?

[2001400ex]

Njmurvin wrote:
Are you certain it's the gear and not the shear bolt? From your description, the system was straining to lift the trailer. It's the shear bolt's job to break first to protect the gearbox, leg gears, etc. from excess stress.

It very well could be the sheet bolt. I haven't looked in there yet. If it is, I assume that's a cheaper, easier fix?

[Njmurvin]

Are you certain it's the gear and not the shear bolt? From your description, the system was straining to lift the trailer. It's the shear bolt's job to break first to protect the gearbox, leg gears, etc. from excess stress.

[phemens]

2001400ex wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
A 3-ton jack probably won't be strong enough to do the lifting. You might need a 10 or 12 ton jack to do the job easier. What and how did it break?

Thanks for the responses!!!

For the Jack, the right side works, so I just need the weight on the broken side.

I was just lifting it off my pickup in my driveway. I have the Anderson ultimate hitch which requires it to be lifted a long ways and it was struggling to get off the hutch for some reason then the one side broke the gears. I was able to get it off as it grabbed again but that's it.

I also have the Anderson hitch, which is why I decided to go with new legs that had more extension, also went with more capacity. Might be worth considering swapping out the legs completely.

[Super_Dave]

I would think that it might be difficult to control the speed of the side that works and the floor jack at the same time. 2 bottle jacks with alternating pumps as stated above sounds like a safe way to go. Bottle jacks at Harbor Freight are cheap price so would be an in expensive way to go as well.

[2001400ex]

fj12ryder wrote:
A 3-ton jack probably won't be strong enough to do the lifting. You might need a 10 or 12 ton jack to do the job easier. What and how did it break?

Thanks for the responses!!!

For the Jack, the right side works, so I just need the weight on the broken side.

I was just lifting it off my pickup in my driveway. I have the Anderson ultimate hitch which requires it to be lifted a long ways and it was struggling to get off the hutch for some reason then the one side broke the gears. I was able to get it off as it grabbed again but that's it.

[fj12ryder]

A 3-ton jack probably won't be strong enough to do the lifting. You might need a 10 or 12 ton jack to do the job easier. What and how did it break?