Down to a decision, give your vote on electric tongue jacks

[luvmydogs]

Okay so I'm down to making a decision on 2 Electric tongue jacks.
One is a Barker® 27295 - White 3,000 lb Hi-Power Tongue Jack and the second is Jack Quick HH-3500-WHITE PLASTIC COVER 12-Volt Brute Power RV Electric Tongue and Trailer Jack - 3650 lb. Capacity
The Jack quick is 126.40 and the Barker is 138.00. Is one much better or would either be good? Help!

[luvmydogs]

We bought a Ram. Not put it on yet but the price was pretty good.

[Ron3rd]

I have an Atwood and it works fine. Barker's are great too from what I hear on this forum.

[tkoden]

luvmydogs wrote:
Okay so I'm down to making a decision on 2 Electric tongue jacks.
One is a Barker® 27295 - White 3,000 lb Hi-Power Tongue Jack and the second is Jack Quick HH-3500-WHITE PLASTIC COVER 12-Volt Brute Power RV Electric Tongue and Trailer Jack - 3650 lb. Capacity
The Jack quick is 126.40 and the Barker is 138.00. Is one much better or would either be good? Help!

When I go to the link the Barker is $334.

[luvmydogs]

We wound up buying the Ram. Just came today

[pappcam]

Blue Hill wrote:
I may be late to the dance, but I have the Husky Brute 3000. It has some great features that many of the others don't have like a "Ball Screw" design for less metal to metal contact on the jacking screw, auto shutoff etc. here's a link to a video I put on YouTube that gives a review.
wHusky Brute 3000 Power Jack

I've had the same one for 2 years and it works great and I've never had an issue with it.

[Blue_Hill]

I may be late to the dance, but I have the Husky Brute 3000. It has some great features that many of the others don't have like a "Ball Screw" design for less metal to metal contact on the jacking screw, auto shutoff etc. here's a link to a video I put on YouTube that gives a review.
wHusky Brute 3000 Power Jack

[BubbaChris]

luvmydogs wrote:
One last question. I've read alot of people have trouble with these electric jacks getting in the way of the lift gate. So am I better off with one that is straight up or one that is off to the side, or, does it not matter?

Some jacks can often be rotated for installation (to create more tailgate clearance). It might put the light on the side, but I've yet to need/use the light.

[YamaDooed]

If you purchase a 24" the head is located higher up on pole and not even a factor in the tailgate opening radius...

[luvmydogs]

Wonderfull info from you all thank you so much. We are going to go measure to see how much clearance there is. Thank you so much. It's overwhelming trying to get everything ready on a new trailer to take off.

[atreis]

luvmydogs wrote:
One last question. I've read alot of people have trouble with these electric jacks getting in the way of the lift gate. So am I better off with one that is straight up or one that is off to the side, or, does it not matter?

For me, it didn't matter. The lift gate just barely cleared the hand crank (by about a quarter inch) and wouldn't clear any of the electric jacks. Lift gates vary some. You'll likely have to measure to see if any will allow it to lift. IMO, after getting used to it, it's not that big a deal to not be able to open the back fully while hooked up.

My 6 yo Barker 3500 just keeps cranking. I'm very happy with it.

[SoundGuy]

luvmydogs wrote:
So which is more apt to hit the tailgate, one straight up or on the side?

While there may be some tongue jacks on the market that will allow rotating the head only partially I'd want one that allows rotating the head a full 180 degrees. Here's a pic of my UltraFab 3002 mounted normally on our TrailCruiser hybrid and as you can see the head is offset to the front of the jack. As soon as I mounted it I realized the forward mounted head would prevent my Silverado's tailgate from lowering fully but after a quick examination I discovered I could remove the four main head bolts and rotate the head a full 180 degrees so it would instead be sitting aft of the tongue jack shaft, as shown in this pic. When we sold the hybrid I kept the UltraFab and mounted it on our much heavier KZ Spree 240BH-LX, again with the head facing aft as shown in this pic. This proved particularly advantageous when I later began towing that same trailer with a Chevy Avalanche which has a much higher cargo box and therefore a much higher tailgate than the Silvy. I can't say whether it's even possible to rotate the head (whether partially or fully) on the two tongue jacks you're considering because I've not owned either but doing so with the UltraFab is particularly easy. In this CW ad you can zoom in and see the four main head nuts ... simply undo the nuts, remove the bolts, rotate the head 180 degrees, put the bolts back in, tighten the nuts, and you're done. Doesn't take but a couple of minutes. :B Apparently for some this isn't a concern but having personally had this problem of tailgate interference but being able to easily solve it by rotating the tongue jack head my thinking is if you can have this advantage then why not? ... if you don't use it, nothing lost, but if you do ever run into this situation you'll have a ready solution to the problem.

[luvmydogs]

So which is more apt to hit the tailgate, one straight up or on the side?

[Huntindog]

luvmydogs wrote:
One last question. I've read alot of people have trouble with these electric jacks getting in the way of the lift gate. So am I better off with one that is straight up or one that is off to the side, or, does it not matter?

Only if you want to be sure that you can open the tailgate.
Seriously, why set yourself up with a jack that will have cursing the tailgate interference on every trip?

[dclark1946]

luvmydogs wrote:
Well thanks for the tip. When I pull this model up other places it doesnt look identical. Not sure why that would be unless it was a knock off of some type. Not sure how they could sell it as Barker, but now I'm leary. I think the other one will win.

Call Barker and they can help you determine if the jack was made by Barker.

Dick