Camper jack would not stop

[billsnp5]

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

[bigfootford]

Just for some information:

Do not know about other jack controllers but the Hjac's will time out if any command is continuous for over 30 seconds and you will have to do a reset by depressing all up and all down at the same time.

Jim

[MN_Ben]

I told my wife about this. We will together look at the plugs tomorrow so we can somewhat prepair ourselve in an event such as this.

[billsnp5]

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.

[dakonthemountai]

My Attwoods also have a cut off switch, but it's just inside the main door to the camper. I like having it so folks can fool around with the switches on the jacks themselves. I've read about the remote issues also and that kinda scares me...
Best of luck! 🙂

Dak

[finaddict]

My aplenlite has the older style Attwood electric jacks (no remote) and occaisionally the switch sticks for one of the jacks. I will now take that apart and fix the switch, but if it "ran away" I would pull the connection at the jack. The camper also has a cut-off switch, but it is inside the camper and under the sink so it would be of little use in a runaway.

[Bedlam]

1. As others have stated, your problem is most likely a sticky relay contact on the receiver board.

2. Since Arctic Fox is made in our area and the dealers sell plenty of them, I feel they will be able to handle your repair quickly.

3. The main battery cutoff is under the sink, so this would not have helped you as the jack continued to drive the the camper at greater angle.

4. It may have been possible to shut off the jack enable switch in the exterior storage compartment if it is a transmitter fault, but this would not help a stuck contact issue.

5. The action you took was the best recovery from a possible bad situation.

[kerry4951]

billsnp5 wrote:
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

Tha dealer will most likely be clueless. Call Rieco Titan direct. They will take care of you.

[mark_be]

I have read this before on this forum.

[Led_67]

Gripnriprod wrote:
Never had that experience and hope I never do. Sounds like stuck contacts on the relay for that jack. It will be interesting to hear what Rieco has to say.

X2

[Gripnriprod]

Never had that experience and hope I never do. Sounds like stuck contacts on the relay for that jack. It will be interesting to hear what Rieco has to say.

[bigfootford]

I installed a 50 amp switch right by the back door to turn on and off the power to my jack controller!

I do not like the thought of the controller having power to it while I drive down the road.... With over 50 years of working in the electronics world I have reason to come to this conclusion.

Jim

[HMS_Beagle]

When I bought my first camper, it was raining during the delivery. The wired Happijac remote was hanging on the rear jack as we puttered around doing something - and suddenly one jack began to extend on its own. I saw it from across the parking lot, ran over and pulled the plug, which made it stop. Some drips of water had gotten into the plug, shorting one of the buttons. This was the original Happijac remote which is a very simple thing, just 4 buttons to ground. The newer wired and wireless remote use a serial comm protocol to communicate, it should be a lot harder to fool the controller into uncommanded motion, but of course things can go wrong.

If your camper has a battery disconnect, the switch is often right at the rear door and would disable the jacks. Might be a good thing to keep that in the front of your mind when you load and unload - it would be the quickest and surest way to stop a runaway jack.