Anyone using Happijac 4800 jacks?

[Joe417]

I need to replace one jack. It's bent just enough that it's pulling a lot of current, and sometime blows the fuse for the right side. The jack works great with a hand crank but I want all 4 to work with the remote.

Currently have Happijac 4500's, rated at 1900#. They are ball screw jacks and handle the weight ok.

Yes, I know everyone calls them "Crappyjacs", but I'm not going to the expense of replacing all of them at one time. I want to wait till they need to be replaced and then add the heavier jacks.

The 4800's are rated at 2800# but are ACME screw.

I talked to Happijac. They said they are swappable, just a bit longer and heavier. They claim they are better even though they aren't ball screw. I would love to feel of them to make a hands on decision but there are no dealers near.

Would like to know if the ACME screw mechanism handles the weight as well as the ball screw.

I know the 4500's work better than the 4150s.

Has anyone had the opportunity to compare these two or have them on your camper?
If so, what camper are you lifting with them?

[sonuvabug]

Super_Dave wrote:
After reading the info in 54suds link, I think that I would personally stay with the ball screw for the mere reason that I could drop the jacks to the ground without power. The acme sounds like it needs power to do anything to overcome friction.

ACME screw jacks work awesome and do not need power to go up or down. Had one on a custom fabricated motorcycle lift on the back of our previous RV. Worked flawlessly. Going down was easier but raising the lift with the motorcycle on it was not difficult to do manually. I used an old drill brace to keep the noise down when camping.

The fella who built it was the same jack the marina's use to lift boats out of the water (one jack at each of the four corners).

[54suds]

it was a new one in 2001 it had just arrived I called them,( crappi jac )several times about their qc of coatings prep and the different type & grade of surface coatings & finishes and the necessary surface prep and they didn't have a clue of what they doing AND didn't respond like they cared at all.
. lippert / drew now owns the company " but" the original owners are still running the plant they didn't care about quality in the past and from reports it looks like they still don't

[wnjj]

54suds wrote:
that camper was a brand new purchase at Coos bay I then went straight to Alaska for 2 full months in Nov, Dec,Jan. returned to NY across Canada I year later the Jack's were like that !!!!!! I live in the foothills of the ADK mts and we get a fairly large number of snow storms BUT this was caused by poor to non existent quality control which is the norm for Crapi Hapi jack, that was then and it appears nothing really has changed, when it concerns quality /quality control they find ways to cheapen mfg costs while charging the end customer more !!!!! Thet were repaired by Bigfoot not Crapi Jack non existent customer support
ps I have a pile of worthless Crappies in my cellar left from earlier replacements , 4new spare motors also have many pix of hj I cut apart to examine causes of jams & problems ect

I wonder how long it sat at that coastal town’s dealer lot? Salt water air is horrible on equipment.

What year was that? When 3 of our 2007 jacks lost flakes of paint about a year later, I naively waited until our 2 year camper warranty was almost up. Even though my HJ’s were passed their 1 year warranty, HJ retubed all 3 and all I paid one shipping to them. They told me they had a run of bad prep resulting in failed paint during the time ours were built.

10 years later and still no issues with all 4, paint or mechanical.

[54suds]

that camper was a brand new purchase at Coos bay I then went straight to Alaska for 2 full months in Nov, Dec,Jan. returned to NY across Canada I year later the Jack's were like that !!!!!! I live in the foothills of the ADK mts and we get a fairly large number of snow storms BUT this was caused by poor to non existent quality control which is the norm for Crapi Hapi jack, that was then and it appears nothing really has changed, when it concerns quality /quality control they find ways to cheapen mfg costs while charging the end customer more !!!!! Thet were repaired by Bigfoot not Crapi Jack non existent customer support
ps I have a pile of worthless Crappies in my cellar left from earlier replacements , 4new spare motors also have many pix of hj I cut apart to examine causes of jams & problems ect

[Tamnative]

54suds wrote:
consider your self very lucky

this is my first run in with hj all four were just like this ( have many more pix ) less than 1 year old
hj denied any responsibility however Mark Holmes at Bigfoot stepped up and had them replaced when I showed them to him at the factory

I live less than a mile from the pacific ocean and I have never seen rust like that on anything I have let alone my camper jacks. What do you do that allows that to happen? I do see my share of rust but nothing like that.How long were they like that before you noticed?

[burningman]

Yep, they’re longer.
I’m just gonna use some steel flat stock.
Put that between the jack and the mount, with it sticking up above the mounts a few inches.
Drill new holes in the desired locations and you’re good to go.
I’ll paint the steel, or if I really get excited I’ll drop it off at the powder coating place.
I haven’t decided if I’ll just use a small separate piece for the lower bracket on the rear corners or if I’ll run one long piece that reaches all the way down there.
I think I’ll try a small separate one and if it seems like it needs it, I’ll do a long one-piece adapter.
I thought about cutting the bolts off the new jack legs and welding them on where I want them, but then I’d have to do that any time I wanted to replace one... which is about every ten times you use a CrappiJac.

[_squish]

burningman wrote:
So here’s an unexpected development: the freakin’ HJ 4800 is about 3” longer than the 4160.
Hangs down a bit further than I’d like.
I can make some adapter plates to raise it some, but I’ll have to drill some holes in the nice powder coated brackets on the camper.

I just got mine today and discovered that the mounting points, put the jack way too low compared to the 4100 that were on my camper.

I have to figure out how to make them work now.

[burningman]

So here’s an unexpected development: the freakin’ HJ 4800 is about 3” longer than the 4160.
Hangs down a bit further than I’d like.
I can make some adapter plates to raise it some, but I’ll have to drill some holes in the nice powder coated brackets on the camper.

[burningman]

So, the camper came with the heavy duty 4800 series on the front but the light duty 4160s in the back. It’s one of those light duty ones that broke.
For now I’m just gonna upgrade the rears to the heavy duty model too, and see how that goes.

[burningman]

I’ve got an almost unused 2017 camper with an already broken 4160 on the rear.
It seems they quit making them already, which is annoying.
The camper has 4800s on the front. Maybe I’ll just put some of those on the rear.

Are the Reico jacks any better? I could see if I can sell these things to offset the cost of converting.

[Joe417]

Interesting, this popped back up after 3 years. I had quit thinking about replacing the jacks. I just didn't want to waste money replacing the 4500s with another jack that probably wasn't any better, and I know the 4500s aren't strong enough for my camper.

I still haven't replaced my HJs. Didn't get a wide spread warm feeling that the 4800s were any better than the 4500s despite the corporate bragging. A second jack failed in 2016, only working when unloaded, so I've been using a hand drill and the hand crank for 2 years.

Everything I read about ACME thread jacks said they were cheaper to make, but the 4800s cost more than the ball screws and both are quite a bit more than the Riecos.(jacks only) But then I'd have to buy motors if I went with the Riecos and the weight capacity is less. It's a big investment.

It isn't that much trouble to hand crank, but it would be nice to just push a button.

If I find some on a real sale someday, which I have never seen any discounted more than $10 or $15, I may buy them.

[JimK-NY]

I had 4600 jacks on a camper built in 2004. This Summer several of the jacks started out really stiff and making noise. Three seemed to recover but one failed entirely. I called Tweetys and they sent me a 4800 jack. I was very happy with the service. Jack was shipped that day from Georgia and arrived at my house on Long Island in under 48 hours. The 4800 jack is a few inches longer. I understand that is necessary because some truck beds are more elevated than in years past.

The Tweetys rep told me I should have run the jacks up and down about twice a year. I don't think I used them more than 4 or 5 times in the 8 years I owned the camper. I certainly never tried to take them apart and do any maintenance.

[bigfootgrey]

Replaced the front jacks with 4800’s two years ago. The camper is more stable when raising / lowering. The 4160’s would bind terribly. Very happy with upgrade so far.
Bob

[Clarryhill]

Replaced all four 4600's on my previous 10 yr old EC 850 with the then new 4800's. Son-in-law has it now and is doing well, but it has only been a year or so.