Leveling jacks

[ferndaleflyer]

Went out this morning and saw something under the DP and on further inspection 2 of the springs off of the front jacks are on the ground.....How in the world does this happen sitting still and not being used????? I just used it 3 days ago.

[ferndaleflyer]

Springs were supposed to be here 5 July----nothing. Called the place I ordered them from and was told "sorry they were back ordered but we shipped them today. You should get them next week". Great as I am supposed to roll out of here Wend morning......

[ferndaleflyer]

Ordered all new springs today---maybe they will get here before I get ready to ride which is around the 10th of July----maybe I could weld the broken ones back together--LOL--since I have a pretty good welder in the garage.....

[dougrainer]

ferndaleflyer wrote:
This thing has never been to the snow belt in the winter and it hardly has ever sat for a month without being used but it is a 1997 so I guess, like its owner, it is getting old. My question about the tubes might not be clear....if I don't activate the jacks will they stay up without the springs? I need to use this thing and don't want the jacks coming out while going down the road. Thanks for the advice.

The cylinders will NOT stay up without the springs. IF at anytime, a small air leak happens, the cylinders will drop. Just attach a coat hanger or some type of wire to both spring holes on the jacks pads and secure at the top spring mount holes to hold in place in transit. Then get new springs. Doug

[Gjac]

Seeing the springs are already off I would try to heat the last coil with a propane torch and re bend it into a C, re quench, and re hook it to the foot. If you are unable to do that I would just wire the jacks up just for safety but I believe the jacks would stay up by themselves.

[ferndaleflyer]

This thing has never been to the snow belt in the winter and it hardly has ever sat for a month without being used but it is a 1997 so I guess, like its owner, it is getting old. My question about the tubes might not be clear....if I don't activate the jacks will they stay up without the springs? I need to use this thing and don't want the jacks coming out while going down the road. Thanks for the advice.

[Doug_and_Cassi_]

They'll go down but not up. The plate on the bottom is only held on by the springs, too.

[wilco]

Not really unheard of for this to happen on an older rig. Depends a lot on how long it's been sitting ever it's life with the jacks extended, whether it's been driven in winter in salt country etc.. These will metal fatigue over time. It is probably pretty unusual for two to go at the same time.

Time for new ones all round I think. The good news is that they're not very expensive, and if they're HWH, they have improved them greatly.

The jacks will likely go down without the springs, but they won't come up and might not stay up if you pushed them up manually.

[ferndaleflyer]

Maybe! Finally got under it to look and one spring on each side is broken and the bottom part of the spring has separated from the pad and was laying on the ground.......My driveway is flat as a Flounder and nothing to hit them on yet there they are-----guess I need to order some new springs.....will those tubes extend without the springs attached?

[Executive45]

Maybe someone needed the jacks more than you and were in the process of removing them for you....:h.....Dennis

[Gjac]

Are the ends of the jacks rusted off? My friend had this happen to one of his jacks, the "c" hook at the foot end of the piston rusted and broke off.

[ferndaleflyer]

I think they are HWH. Its a Winnebago Luxor DP and although I use it almost every week end I hardly ever use the jacks----don't think I have had them down in more than a year----and they fell apart in my driveway???? We had a monsoon rain here yesterday so I haven't got a good look yet but I can see that both of them have a spring laying on the ground.......I'll let everyone know how this works out.

[2gypsies1]

We had that happen once and we have HWH jacks. It turns out that the original springs that HWH uses are too flimsy. We happened to be in the area of HWH mfg at the time and they replaced all of our with heavy duty springs. That was 7 years ago and they've been fine since. Good luck!

[Fishinghat]

Could you give us some additional information, such as make and model of your jacks, make and model of your coach, etc?

I'm going to assume the spring(s) stretched when you last cycled the jacks, and when the jack was retracted, the spring was now too long to remain connected. Or, debris collected in between the coils of the spring when the jack was extended and caused the spring not to collapse all the way when the jack was retracted.

[dougrainer]

If you still have the 1997, then the odds are the springs are corroded and finally rusted thru and fell off. Doug