landing gear issue

[walker111]

Hi all
Own a 2014 Voltage 3305. This past weekend the landing gear seemed to cause me problems. When I was hooking up sunday to leave, the gear was very slow and would only run about 3-5 seconds and then stop all together. I would wait a minute and it would run 3-5 again and stop.
I ran the on board genset, I plugged in . Nothing helped. Batteries are fully charged. Was able to get the trailer up enough to hook on and then same issue at my storage facility.

Think the motor is done?? It has been slow for a while but not like this . Is the manual overide at the top pf the leg on the driver side of trailer?
Thanks for any response.

[walker111]

Thanks Wa8 for reply. Yeah, the 3-5 sec and shut off is strange. The motor is barely audible during this.
The legs are not bent but could use lube for sure. I will have to haul it home to work at it but Thanksgiving weekend up here and tearing out kitchen tiles so maybe next week.
Appreciate your positive feedback!

[wa8yxm]

3-5 seconds then stop.. pause and run it another 3-5 seconds pause and continue till it's fully retracted.

This indicates somethign
First: If for any reason the landing gear got "Torqued" (Bent twisted) and is jamming it's placing excessive drag on the motor and causing the motor to overheat or the thermal self-resetting breaker to pop or the control to sense "Too much current" and shut down (I an trying to cover every variation on how these systems work here)

Also LUBRICATION it may just need lubrication.

With shore power present (or a portable generator) and the Trailer supported by other reliable means (Attached to ye old tow vehicle?) run it up and down and LUBRICATE a few times.. Also read the fine manual on lubrication.

IF this works, great

There are bearngs and thigs in the motor and gear box that can "Gum up"
That costs money.

[walker111]

Grit Dog. Where did I mention dirt on landing feet as an issue???? Better read that one again!
Batteries are showing charge level rested at 12.96 in series.

Some issues within camper are not assumptions. They are facts. I do not get power to a lot of receptacles, water heater, or charging component for battery bank while on 30 amp. I actually get these on 15 and 20 amp. With 50 amp service, which I never seem to find , all works as it should. I never stated ALL circuits.

I still thank you for input!

[Grit_dog]

walker111 wrote:
Update

Pulled both batteries out ( trojan t 105 about 3 years old and brought them home. Checked water levels and noted the water was below the plates so added distilled to all 3 caps in each battery. Cleaned everything up and put them on a trickle charge. This morning they read 12.69 V ( but this is while they were hooked up) so they were not charged and lacking some water.
I hope this is my issue!!!
I will check after work today and that will have given them 24 hours and check strength. I think it should be around 13.4??????

Thought about running the jumpers to the motor like suggested to check for fun but delt with this first. That is how I run my genny during the winter months when going over to check things and exercise the genset.

I did see dirt piled on the tops of the legs so these will need me tending to them when I tow it home again.

Of note. My rig is a 50 amp service and I rarely ever find 50 amp. It is usually only 30 and works for a few days but I know some of my electrical draws are not on the legs of the 30 amp. Example is, when I am plugged to shore power 30 amp my batteries are not charging as per the indicator lights.

Weird but I did not wire the unit. My electric option for hot water tank does not work on the 30 amp either as well as many of my receptacles .
I may have to look into this .

I would have thought that running the genset would have lifted the trailer but in this case no with the batteries in the condition they were showing. The battery light indicators in the trailer were not the tell all.

Thanks all for replies. Again I hope this is the issue!!!!

There are several things wrong with your camper and your assumptions.

The least of which being dirt on the landing gear feet (whatever taht has to do with this?).

1. Depending how low the batteries were on water, they might be fried.
2. If plugged into any working charger and you check voltage at the terminals, it should be approximately the input voltage of the charger, which for smart chargers is about 13.2V on float mode and more the rest of the time. If you're reading 12.69V while charging, something is wrong.
3. Can't check battery charge level by voltage until the battery is at rest for a bit. IE charger unhooked or loads shut off.
4. If all your circuits aren't working, even plugged into a 30A service with an adapter, then your adapter is not working right or something downstream of that is wrong. 50A services are 2 - 120V services, essentially in parallel, not a 240V service. (Most RVs. I think some do have a bridged 240V circuit for maybe a clothes dryer or similar. High end units likely)
5. How the ____ do you charge your batteries if the converter doesnt charge them when plugged in to shore power (30A) while camping.

In short, your batteries definitely needed charged, if they are still viable even and not destroyed.
And you have other electrical issues with the camper.

[RRinNFla]

One other consideration is the switch. I have a four point leveler and the stabilizers are run by front, rear, left, right controls. Sometimes the switch does not make good contact. I should probably replace the control panel, but so far I have been able to press the buttons hard enough to make it work.

[walker111]

Update
Well when I went to storage yesterday I went to poke around and check batteries and all with my eyes and not go by the indicator lights. I had some green crud on one of the posts. Trailer would not go up at all when I turned the battery disconnect on.

Pulled both batteries out ( trojan t 105 about 3 years old and brought them home. Checked water levels and noted the water was below the plates so added distilled to all 3 caps in each battery. Cleaned everything up and put them on a trickle charge. This morning they read 12.69 V ( but this is while they were hooked up) so they were not charged and lacking some water.
I hope this is my issue!!!
I will check after work today and that will have given them 24 hours and check strength. I think it should be around 13.4??????

Thought about running the jumpers to the motor like suggested to check for fun but delt with this first. That is how I run my genny during the winter months when going over to check things and exercise the genset.

I did see dirt piled on the tops of the legs so these will need me tending to them when I tow it home again.

Of note. My rig is a 50 amp service and I rarely ever find 50 amp. It is usually only 30 and works for a few days but I know some of my electrical draws are not on the legs of the 30 amp. Example is, when I am plugged to shore power 30 amp my batteries are not charging as per the indicator lights.

Weird but I did not wire the unit. My electric option for hot water tank does not work on the 30 amp either as well as many of my receptacles .
I may have to look into this .

I would have thought that running the genset would have lifted the trailer but in this case no with the batteries in the condition they were showing. The battery light indicators in the trailer were not the tell all.

Thanks all for replies. Again I hope this is the issue!!!!

[Dave_H_M]

I vote for the lube job. It sure helped mine but I put more than two pumps in.

Also The top cover can be popped off and some gear oil added there to get things started faster. It just seeps out the bottom and helps with the rust on the feet. 😉

[schlep1967]

JRscooby wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:
If it's like mine there should be 2 wire nuts about 6 inches from the motor. Take those off and separate the wires. Hook your jumper cables directly to those wires and your trailer battery.

Warning! Yes, it will make a spark. Better to hook the cables to the battery, then to the wires. It will still spark, but the spark not be right at the battery. Much less chance of a explosion.

Thanks for the clarification. I also connect to the wires second.

[JRscooby]

schlep1967 wrote:
If it's like mine there should be 2 wire nuts about 6 inches from the motor. Take those off and separate the wires. Hook your jumper cables directly to those wires and your trailer battery.

Warning! Yes, it will make a spark. Better to hook the cables to the battery, then to the wires. It will still spark, but the spark not be right at the battery. Much less chance of a explosion.

[schlep1967]

If it's like mine there should be 2 wire nuts about 6 inches from the motor. Take those off and separate the wires. Hook your jumper cables directly to those wires and your trailer battery. Positive to one wire negative to the other. It will spark when hooking up. To go the other direction switch the positive and negative.
This will tell you if the motor is the problem. If it runs strong with the jumper cables the motor is fine and either lubrication or poor wiring is your issue.

Mine started blowing fuses when it ran slow. My guess is you don't have a fuse inline or it would be blowing. It sounds more like the motor is hitting it's heat maximum and shutting down. Definitely look up how to lube the landing gear and check the wiring connections.

[JRscooby]

Also make sure all connections are clean (ground too) If the wires are marginal, a weak connection can reduce voltage for a motor to run slow. And low voltage can kill a DC motor in short time.
Just for snots and grins, use a good pair of jumper cables to by-pass all the factory wiring. Bet the motor runs much faster than new.

[walker111]

I will go to storage compound today or tomorrow and update

Thanks for info Jerry

[MFL]

Have you ever lubed the legs (screw drive)? When mine run slower, I added a couple lever strokes to each one, per manufacturer recommendation. Doing this perked them right up, motor run faster. Mine has zerks on the legs about 8"s or so from top of leg.

If yours need lubing, it may add extra load to motor, causing solenoid/breaker to shutdown, and reset.

Jerry

[walker111]

I doubt fuse also for that reason. Mine has always been slow for raising the trailer. Could need a new motor.