elec tongue jack 101

[mosseater]

My hand crank jack is in need of bushings and gears. Was thinking I could get parts but there's no info on it. Am now considering replacing with elec jack. I haven't even started down the road of looking. Are most of good quality? Any to avoid completely? Tongue scales around 1100 lbs. Guessing 2000 lb would be plenty. Thoughts and opinions welcome. Thanks, folks.

[LarryJM]

DesertTracker wrote:
Good info here since I have been undecided on an electric jack for quite some time. Being primarily a boondocker, I'm concerned about using up a chunk of battery when I unhook for the weekend (still mostly a weekend warrior)and having enough juice to hookup at departure. I have a gen, but rarely use it and sometimes while preparing for leaving, there is not much battery left. How much juice does a jack use? I'm wondering if it would make a noticeable difference with the way I camp and require more genny use.

To solve your power issues simply start your TV and hook up 7pin connector when using jack or retracting/extending slide outs. That's what I do when pulling into a CG for the nite. This makes extending the slide out a little quicker. I leave TV running and connected until my slide out is extended and I am hooked up to shore power and then I turn off TV and then turn on shore power breaker to trailer to switch between power sources.

Larry

[DesertTracker]

Good info here since I have been undecided on an electric jack for quite some time. Being primarily a boondocker, I'm concerned about using up a chunk of battery when I unhook for the weekend (still mostly a weekend warrior)and having enough juice to hookup at departure. I have a gen, but rarely use it and sometimes while preparing for leaving, there is not much battery left. How much juice does a jack use? I'm wondering if it would make a noticeable difference with the way I camp and require more genny use.

[mosseater]

After this year's rotator cuff surgery, I lost my taste for that much extra PT, LOL! I finally did what I should have done 10 years ago. Better late than never I guess.
Grandma used to say, "Too soon old, too late smart!"

[CavemanCharlie]

mosseater wrote:
After a short study on jacks, I decided on the Barker 3500. Thanks for all the input folks. Hope I picked a winner. My shoulder feels better already.

But, think of the exercise that you are not getting ! 😉 I counted on my TT and each time either up or down with my manual jack is approximately 40 turns. I am a weekend camper that goes out often in the summer. That is 160 cranks a weekend. In a summers time that works out to be about 1920 turns of the crank. :E

These numbers are all approximations of course.

I keep using the manual jack because I am to cheap to spend the money on a electric one. Besides, my old TT is barely worth spending the money one.

[mosseater]

After a short study on jacks, I decided on the Barker 3500. Thanks for all the input folks. Hope I picked a winner. My shoulder feels better already.

[JaneSiver]

I have an Ultra-Fab Electric A-Frame Jack I bought from eTrailer a couple years ago. It is on my 2010 North Country 30BHS. It has worked well up until today. The saw will not go up or down. But the side lights come on. I have cleaned the connections, but still nothing. You can hear the switch, but not the motor. Any ideas or suggestions.

[deltabravo]

Here's my jack installation

I went with an Attwood, because that's what Northwood has been using for a while.

It was just a few weeks ago I saw that the jacks disappeared from Attwood's website. I found something indicating that LCI bought them, which is sad because LCI already has jacks of their own.

LCI seems like a big gorilla that keeps swallowing up other companies.

[mosseater]

Some very info here, guys. Thank you! The last thing I need is to not be able to jack the tongue because I bought a poor quality jack. Hmmm.....Thinking.

[Huntindog]

ScottG wrote:
Our new trailer came with an Atwood 3000 Premier and it ins't long for this world. It's very noisy and skips or slips the gear sometimes.

The last TT we had was equipped with a Barker 3500. I beat the krap out of that jack. I never lubed it and often lifted the back of my truck with it because the hitch would stick. After 13 years of this abuse it still worked like new when I traded the trailer.
I should also note that I bought a cover for the Barker directly from the company. After ten years the cover was worn out by the sun and rain. When I called to purchase another, they looked me up and simply sent another one for free. Great customer service there!

When the new Atwood dies, I will replace it with a Barker.

The skip or slip is the clutch. It is supposed to do that when approaching an overloaded condition. It is a good thing.

Not all jacks have that feature. I owned an UF that did not. It became stuck in the extended position. That was a pain.

[ScottG]

Our new trailer came with an Atwood 3000 Premier and it ins't long for this world. It's very noisy and skips or slips the gear sometimes.

The last TT we had was equipped with a Barker 3500. I beat the krap out of that jack. I never lubed it and often lifted the back of my truck with it because the hitch would stick. After 13 years of this abuse it still worked like new when I traded the trailer.
I should also note that I bought a cover for the Barker directly from the company. After ten years the cover was worn out by the sun and rain. When I called to purchase another, they looked me up and simply sent another one for free. Great customer service there!

When the new Atwood dies, I will replace it with a Barker.

[myredracer]

Have had two UltraFab jacks that have failed within a couple of seasons. One froze solid over the winter despite having a jack hood and a cover on the TT. Even a socket on a breaker bar wouldn't budge it. Would never buy one again, 'nuf said.

Get a ball screw type like Barker or Husky and one with a higher rating. Some jacks are pretty noisy too.

Choose wisely! 🙂

[Vintage465]

Lynnmor wrote:
Atwood jacks was purchased by LCI (Lippert), so another quality product bites the dust.

Not sure when the Lippert take over happened but my Atwood Jack sounded like it had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peal when it was new in 2015. I removed the top and found no grease in it. I packed it and it sounds much better now! If I was going to get a new one, I'd be looking for something better.

[Lynnmor]

Atwood jacks was purchased by LCI (Lippert), so another quality product bites the dust.

[SoundGuy]

Bigbird65 wrote:
I would get a 3500 lb jack. Remember you are lifting the tow vehicle when you hitch up. Bigger is better in this case.

I'd agree, but of equal import is the size of the tongue jack's lower shaft, either 2" or 2.25". Not much sense in buying one with a larger lower shaft if the hole in the trailer's A frame is just 2". The OP would also be wise to decide whether he needs a tongue jack that can be rotated to better clear a truck tailgate when lowered. I've used several brands of tongue jacks on the various trailers we've owned and on our most recent installed an UltraFab 3502 3500 lb jack which unlike most brands is all metal construction and has extra holes in the base plate which allows rotating the jack so the head clears the truck tailgate. It also has a 2" lower shaft so it will fit either size hole in the A-frame.