Electric tongue Jack blows fuses

[Whangler]

New trailer came with a Barker VIP 3500 tongue Jack. It blows the fuse (30A) when I reverse direction. If I stop and wait a moment before reversing direction, fuse doesn't blow. Other than this, the jack works fine. This is my 4th TT with an electric tongue jack but this never happened on the others. Any ideas?

[Skibane]

jodeb720 wrote:
Like others have said, you need a backup - and the manual crank is that backup.

You'd be using that crank a lot less after installing a self-resetting circuit breaker.

[jodeb720]

I'm of the mindset that the gearing on your new unit is lower than in the past - probably to save money. If the drive motor is smaller, and weaker, how do you still lift the weight? Gear ratio is lower.

so when you turn release the Up and immediately are going down, the motor may still be spinning and that will cause the fuse to blow (like others have said, wait for it to completely stop).

Personally, that would annoy the heck out of me, but as long as I understood the "why" i'd just accept it and go one.

Like others have said, you need a backup - and the manual crank is that backup.

And don't let others fool you - my manual crank died many a year ago on my TT when I had just pulled into Yosemite and was ready to disconnect. The connecting pin either fell out or vibrated loose and I couldn't crank up to disconnect.

Eventually, I made it work enough to disconnect - and jacked the trailer up and lowered down under the tongue using wood. Once I did that I spent a wonderful afternoon completely stripping down the manual jack, re-greasing it and reassembling it and it probably is still working to this day...

The point is everything can and will break - but you need a backup.

josh

[Bobbo]

Goostoff wrote:
Dont think in all my years I ever saw a jack with a fuse. I just put an electric jack on my car trailer and the instruction had me wire directly to the battery. My landing gear on my 5th wheel has self resetting a circuit breaker in line but thats the most I ever saw

Mine has a fuse. The only thing that I know of that is not supposed to be fused are the breakaway brakes.

[ktmrfs]

bgum wrote:
The fix is easy. Just don't do it. Electric tongue jacks are unreliable. I have a new jack in the garage that was replaced by a manual crank type. The Electric all are subject to moisture intrusion in the switches.

25 years of use of electric tongue jacks, probably 50-100 times/year, two trailers= 50 "trailer years of use" Electric tongue jack failures= Zip. Can they fail? yes, but I'd hardly put them in the "unreliable" category. And when I have 1500 lbs on the tongue, manual jack is NOT to my liking.

[valhalla360]

bgum wrote:
The fix is easy. Just don't do it. Electric tongue jacks are unreliable. I have a new jack in the garage that was replaced by a manual crank type. The Electric all are subject to moisture intrusion in the switches.

Odd, never had one or been around one that failed. That's about 40yrs of experience...(my Dad suddenly upgraded about 40yrs ago once the last of us teenage boys graduated high school and he had to do the cranking).

And as long as you don't throw out the backup handle, it's not a big deal even if it does.

But as you say, it's an easy fix. Just pause for a couple seconds when reversing direction. Usually, I only reverse direction after doing something (like connecting the WDH bars or the latch on the hitch), so there's typically at least a few seconds of pause built into the process.

[bgum]

midnightsadie wrote:
bgum I could use that jack. you,re just to far away.

It is very heavy and postage would be prohibited.

[midnightsadie]

bgum I could use that jack. you,re just to far away.

[bgum]

The fix is easy. Just don't do it. Electric tongue jacks are unreliable. I have a new jack in the garage that was replaced by a manual crank type. The Electric all are subject to moisture intrusion in the switches.

[ktmrfs]

Whangler wrote:
What y'all are saying makes sense.... But,this is my 4 tt with electric tongue jack over 20 years and this never happened. This isn't some new behavior of mine that suddenly appeared. 2 Atwood jacks and an ultra-fab 5500 prior to this Barker. If the other jacks had behaved this way, I wouldn't have this this **** habit. I guess this is a character builder, eh?

The atwood I had on another trailer behaved like the Barker. change direction quick before it completely stops= blown 30A slow blow fuse.

[ktmrfs]

Goostoff wrote:
Dont think in all my years I ever saw a jack with a fuse. I just put an electric jack on my car trailer and the instruction had me wire directly to the battery. My landing gear on my 5th wheel has self resetting a circuit breaker in line but thats the most I ever saw

I've had 3 different electric jacks over the years, all came with a 30A fuse wired into the pigtail.

[Goostoff]

Dont think in all my years I ever saw a jack with a fuse. I just put an electric jack on my car trailer and the instruction had me wire directly to the battery. My landing gear on my 5th wheel has self resetting a circuit breaker in line but thats the most I ever saw

[Whangler]

What y'all are saying makes sense.... But,this is my 4 tt with electric tongue jack over 20 years and this never happened. This isn't some new behavior of mine that suddenly appeared. 2 Atwood jacks and an ultra-fab 5500 prior to this Barker. If the other jacks had behaved this way, I wouldn't have this this **** habit. I guess this is a character builder, eh?

[Skibane]

If you get tired of replacing fuses, you could install a 30 amp self-resetting DC circuit breaker instead.

[NamMedevac_70]

My electric tongue jack failed me in very cold and wet freezing rain when wind chill was below freezing and my crank handle was missing so I later removed the jack and relied on only hand cranking with better results anyway with no more worries or hassle. Hand cranking was good for my health and increases already really good character and patience. Cheers to common sense.