I've had my 2008 Sundance 2700 RL now for about one year. My first season of camping was very exciting. About mid way through the season, I started hearing a clicking sound coming from near the motor for the landing gear. The clicking would coincide with slippage. It seems to have started out at the extremes of the retracted and extended positions of the legs but now occurs throughout in the lifting scenario....not when retracting the gear. I contacted my dealer and he reaffirmed that "bowing" can cause the noise and bowing occurs at the extremes of the legs. I'm having problems throughout the range of motion but mostly in the fully retracted and fully extended positions. Late this year, I almost wasn't able to get the camper off my truck. I had to manually lift the trailer the remainder of the inch or two. Does anyone have any suggestions? .... Lubrication, gear replacement, etc, etc. Thanks in advance!

First you need to rebuild the motor clutch. Then you need to stop over traveling the landing gear.On the top of each leg there should be a cap. Pop it off and look on the under side. Write down the numbers then call Venture Mfg and talk to them. You can order parts direct from them to rebuild the clutch assy pretty reasonable

Most likely you have stripped one of the gears or the shear pin due to over extending/retracting the legs. The clutch usually survives much better than the gears. Re-building the leg is pretty easy. There are lots of PDFs on the Venture Mnfg. (maker of the landing leg) web site to aid you. Last time I looked a replacement shear pin was $0.25, gears if needed were around $35, and the entire leg (if you don't want to deal with repairing what you have) was around $150. The part number is printed on the underside of the cover. There is a difference between the left and right leg so order the correct one. There is only 21" of movement in the leg. Mark the leg so that you never use more than 19" of it and you will not have a problem in the future.

Landing gear ..........LINKBy over extending/retracting you have damaged the bevel gears

The clicking is probably from the clutch. One of your legs is probably binding causing the clutch to do what it is supposed to do. I had a similar problem. My left landing gear was going bad and I was occasionally getting the clicking sound. Didn't know what it was until the left landing gear completely jammed and would not move. Repairman found the shear pin sheared and replaced. Replacing the shear pin did not solve the problem. Repairman rebuilt the gears on top of the landing gear, but still didn't fix it. Bottom line is that it was a jammed inner tube causing the problem. Ordered a replacement landing gear from Venture and all is well.

Slipping/Clicking Landing Gear | Good Sam Community

Jetstreamer
Explorer
Oct 07, 2014
Well, basically, no matter what is happening with the motor drive and bevel gears, the actual thing that's holding up/ raising and lowering the rig are two big jack-screws incorporated inside the landing gear legs. So as long as that jack screw doesn't break a shaft or a strip the acme screw thread( probably not likely) the trailer isn't going to drop.

Picture any kind of a threaded bolt partially screwed into some sort of nut. Of course it's easy to take a screwdriver and thread the bolt into the nut but no matter how hard you could try and push the bolt through the nut it isn't going to thread itself any farther onto the nut due to the mechanical advantage of the screw threads.
jstaffon
Explorer
Oct 07, 2014
Thanks again for all your help. Since I got the trailer last year, I've not gone past the upper and lower extremes. I have the lower one painted, with room to spare, and I've never come close to the upper. I think the max that I've extended the legs are 12". No telling what the previous owner had done. One thing I've noticed is that when the gear slips raising the rig, it doesn't fall or lower slightly, it just stops going up. What keeps the rig from falling to the ground? Sorry for the dumb question.....
Old-Biscuit
Explorer III
Oct 06, 2014
Curious as to 'what they define as a slip clutch'

Motor is mounted to gear box. Has a pin in motor shaft that engages drive gear on gear box.
Drive gear (small diameter) engages larger driven gear which drives output shaft.
Output shaft drives bevel gear which drives another bevel gear that is connected to shaft which turns inside a fixed nut.

All gears/shear pins in assembly.......
Statement in manual doesn't mean squat.
Look at the diagrams of leg assembly/the gear box assembly/motor assembly OR tear one down for rebuild. No clutch....slip or otherwise

The clicking noise is the small drive bevel gear jumping teeth on the large driven bevel gear.
b_pilot
Explorer
Oct 06, 2014
Perhaps I should have said slip clutch rather than just clutch. Jetstreamer cleared up the clutch issue so I didn't have to explain myself.
Jetstreamer
Explorer
Oct 06, 2014
Right from the Atwood manual....
Venture is identical..

:S
Allworth
Explorer II
Oct 06, 2014
We have Atwood landing gear and there is no such thing as a clutch. Slideouts; yes. Landing gear; no.

There IS a thrust bearing just below the top drive plate in the tower (below the bevel gear). If it goes, the jackscrew shaft rides up in the housing and crimps the bevel gear against the drive shaft. the result is (usually)a chipped tooth on the crown gear. This will click and skip a bevel gear tooth each time it comes around, particularly under load. (i.e. gear going down) The landing feet will get farther and farther out of sync and/or the crown gear will finally shatter.

Full rebuild kit (for Atwood) consisting of thrust bearing, felt and steel washers, bevel gear, crown gear, both drive pins, and the drive shaft bushings was about $65, two years ago.
CANAMKID
Explorer
Oct 06, 2014
That's what I was thinking what clutch. I replaced the bevel gears
and all better:W
Old-Biscuit
Explorer III
Oct 06, 2014
What clutch:H
b_pilot
Explorer
Oct 06, 2014
The clicking is probably from the clutch. One of your legs is probably binding causing the clutch to do what it is supposed to do. I had a similar problem. My left landing gear was going bad and I was occasionally getting the clicking sound. Didn't know what it was until the left landing gear completely jammed and would not move. Repairman found the shear pin sheared and replaced. Replacing the shear pin did not solve the problem. Repairman rebuilt the gears on top of the landing gear, but still didn't fix it. Bottom line is that it was a jammed inner tube causing the problem. Ordered a replacement landing gear from Venture and all is well.
Old-Biscuit
Explorer III
Oct 05, 2014
Landing gear ..........LINK

By over extending/retracting you have damaged the bevel gears

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