Anyone had their electric jack(s) fail?

[Grandmabette]

Got home from a long car trip and went to check on the truck camper which we leave mounted on our truck. Anyway, one of the electric jacks was fully extended, actually overextended, and now won't retract manually or electrically. We have no idea how this occurred. Has this happened to anyone and do you have any advice on how to fix it? Can u imagine if this had happened going down the road?!

[trail-explorer]

I've never had Reico electric jacks, but I've had Reico hydraulic jacks on 2 campers and pop had them on his camper too. On all the Reico hydraulic jacks I've used, they have 2 safety features to keep them from extending on their own.

There is a wire bail at the bottom of the jack that you flip down and fasten around the jack foot.

Electric Reico jacks don't have that old skool wire bail on the bottom

[billsnp5]

Yes it has happened to me. I did a post on this back in May of 2013. I copied and pasted my experience. below. Very scary. I did turn out to be a bad remote control, had nothing to do with the jack itself. It is also a Rieco system and when I first called them I also got "we have never heard of this happening before" but after further investigation that was BS. Let me know if you would like more info.

I did search on this but could not find anything.
Have a 2013 AF 990 bought new in January. While trying to load the camper to come home late this morning I the pushed the 2 front lift buttons to raise front of camper. When I released the buttons the front left jack would not stop, CAMPER JUST KEPT GOING UP! TALK ABOUT PANIC! I have a very good mechanical aptitude but all I could think of is to keep pushing buttons but nothing seemed to stop the jack from raising. Just as camper was getting way out of shape I thought about the plug on each jack, so I unplugged that jack from the camper which did stop it.
Has anyone had this happen? I will call dealer in morning to see what they have to say but I wanted to post this so everyone will be aware of what can happen. If I had heard of this happening I would have known what do do immediately. It was a scary experience. Some times I have my wife lift camper and get it ready to load while I'm doing other things. If she would have been doing this and I was not around, I do not know what the outcome would have been, but it would not have been good

Called the dealer service department and he said he had heard of it before and was most likely the remote control. He said he needed the remote serial number and would get a new one ordered. I decided to call the manufacturer to get their take. I got the "I don't believed I had heard of that before" and was told it was most likely the remote. I gave her the serial number of the remote and they are sending me a new one.
When I got the remote out of the camper to get serial number I tried to make it do it again but the remote would not do anything so I believe the remote just kept sending a signal and discharged the battery in the remote. I will get a new spare remote battery, put it in the old remote and make sure that was the problem. I will post later on what definitely was the problem.


When this happened I had never dreamed that one jack would just keep lifting camper up. Like others have said the battery disconnect was under the sink and I am not going in a camper that might flip over or fall any minute. And the remote has no power off switch and there are 4 screws you have to remove to get to battery. So the only quick option you have is to unplug the jack or jacks.

This is just one of those things that now that you know can happen, you can be a little prepared to keep from having a major catastrophe.

[AnEv942]

Good deal, Rieco suggesting a fix, is this permanent or interim? Hopefully as easy as it sounds and works for you. Also hope you take lots of pictures, could prove invaluable for others.

Though all brands somewhat similar, curious & unsure of nut location and not having Rieco-Titan jacks I looked around, Not much. Which just left me with more questions. Does the suggested repair require disassembly of jack to access? I'm gathering the scenario is tube filled with water, froze hard enough (or enough times) to expand the tube enough to allow 'nut' to become free. Wow

[bighatnohorse]

I've had water intrusion in HappyJacs - a hairline crack formed in the cover on top of the motor.
You might want to get a ladder and check to see if you see anything like that.

[bobndot]

Grandmabette, thank you for getting back and posting that info. It may very well prevent someone else from a similar experience.

[Grandmabette]

Again, thanks for all your input. The Reico tech asked if the jack that failed was located under a "downspout". Sure enough, when it rained water poured off the roof on top the jack. Ok, guess that's how the water entered the jack and we'll rig something up to deflect the rain. He also said to drill a couple of holes on the jack legs an inch from the bottom to allow any new water to drain. At the top of the leg/inner tube is an acme nut that is staked/crimped. He said to drill a hole thru the inner tube into the nut and pin it with a set screw. This should fix the broken jack. Hope this makes sense.....

[SoCalDesertRid1]

I've never had Reico electric jacks, but I've had Reico hydraulic jacks on 2 campers and pop had them on his camper too. On all the Reico hydraulic jacks I've used, they have 2 safety features to keep them from extending on their own.

There is a wire bail at the bottom of the jack that you flip down and fasten around the jack foot. There is also a set screw at the bottom of the main jack tube that you tighten against the slave tube, to keep it from slipping down. Neither feature is completely fail safe by itself, but when both are used together, they are effective at keeping the jacks from falling on their own, in my experience.

How effective either of these would be against a rogue electric motor forcing the jack down, I don't know.

I think if I had electric jacks and I was afraid they might go rogue and start extending or retracting by themselves, I would cross drill both tubes and install safety hitch pins to keep them in place, whenever I'm not right there operating the jacks purposely.

[btggraphix]

Funny how troubleshooting via throwing some ideas to 'get you started' might actually hit on the right answer (good guesses anev942!). Sounds like the ice might be a plausible scenario. I do seem to recall someone having a problem with a jack falling down while drivingat least once. Some jacks do have ability for fast dropping to help get them down quickly and some designs "can't" really drop like that unless something majorly failed. Based on the number of people on this forum it seems exceedingly rare for a failure to happen but they certainly can.

[Grandmabette]

The jacks are Rieco; they came with the camper. My husband took the jack apart and it was water intrusion. It was obvious because the water had frozen and there was a long icicle filling the tube of the jack (at least that's how he explained it to me). He removed the icicle but the jack still won't retract. We have no idea how water got into the jack, there was no obvious crack or other entry point for the water. He has a call into the Rieco manufacturer so we'll see what they say. Thanks again for your replies.

[KD4UPL]

I've never had a failure with my 11 year old Attwood jacks. What brand are yours?

[Grandmabette]

I really appreciate your prompt replies! I'll pass along your thoughts to my husband and get back with you soon. My husband is now trouble shooting our house furnace which isn't working correctly and it's 22 degrees outside!! Going to Florida for a month has it's consequences!!

[Grandmabette]

I really appreciate your prompt replies! I'll pass along your thoughts to my husband and get back with you soon. My husband is now trouble shooting our house furnace which isn't working correctly and it's 22 degrees outside!! Going to Florida for a month has it's consequences!!

[campn4walleye]

Yep, we did. They weren't even a year old. We've had problems from the start. We sent them all in to HJ and they refurbished them. Then, 1 stopped working completely. We sent the motor head back to them and they sent us a rebuilt motor. It works perfectly and is quieter. Can't say that for the other 3. We're waiting for them to fail too.

Customer service was great though.

[AnEv942]

Yes, only offering a start. Our electric jacks have external manual switches-as unlikely as I think it is, water 'could' short one.
Bobndots suggestion is the only response I recall of jack falling.
That and more specific info might help finding a more specific answer.

But you did say jack was 'overextended'. How did it do that without lifting truck? Jacks don't reach the ground when camper on truck?