Happi Jacks

[devildog1971]

I have a 2019 Northern Lite with the new style happy jacks the motor is mounted on top of the jack unlike the older model where the motor lay to one side. The passenger rear has a problem when I try to lower the camper onto the truck when that jack is activated there is a beeping sound that seems to be located near the board the jack works well raising the camper off the truck but I have been having to lower the one jack by hand crank, any suggestions?

[Joe417]

devildog1971

You can swap two of the motors from jack to jack. If the failure moves with the motor you know which is the problem.

If the failure doesn't move with the motor, you then have to swap the location of two of the jacks with motors. That will determine if the mechanical jack is the problem or the controller.

The new Happijacks are current sensing for control. When the jack reaches the max in either direction, the controller senses excess current and stops the jack by removing power from the motor.

It is common if the mechanical portion of the jack is bent slightly, the motor will pull more current. You are still able to operate the jack manually.

I have the old happijacks which have a clutch mechanism which slips(making the ratcheting noise) when the jack reached the maximum. If they draw too much current it blows a fuse in the controller.

I had two jacks on our TC doing this. Disconneted the motors from the jacks and they ran fine. I straightened them last year and all are working again.

[Bert_the_Welder]

Thanks for taking the time to write that out CW.
Pretty sad one has to do all that. Says a lot about build quality.
Atwood's on the old camper at 2 decades + with nothing more then a wipe off of the covers. Only just started making noise in the last few years, but still do their thing.
I wonder if you could cut the bottom off a bleach type bottle and slot it over top of them. Would give some UV protection too. (I think I saw that or buckets maybe, some body mentioned doing. Here or on another forum.)

[covered_wagon]

The older style electric motor covers have a small hole on the bottom. With an air nozzle you give a couple shots of compressed air into the hole and the cover slides down like a piston and comes off very easily.

When the cover is off you will see very small weep holes in the bottom of each motor housing. That is where you spray 3 in one oil using the spray straw, you press it as close and as well as you can on the weep hole until you see oil saturating the lower housing and weeping out the other side.

It's this lower bearing inside the bottom that invariably collects moisture (you can see a low point to the housing) where the bearing is and is important to sometimes blow with air if you suspect moisture has built up in there from neglect.

I do this every year and/or after camping trips in rainstorms. It has really helped to keep my jacks running smoothly.

It also helps to wipe on oil all over the motor housing to prevent corrosion too.

After oiling slide the motor covers back up in place being careful not to cover the hole with your hand so air can escape while pushing up. Always hold the gear head when pushing the covers back on so you don't stress the plastic gear cover on top.

After removing the white 'cup' covers each year I found the covers would begin to slide down on their own in extreme summer heat. So I applied ss clamps near the top of each 'cup' cover hiding the screw to the back.

I make winter covers during storage by using scissors to make cuts in ziplock freezer bags sliding them over the top and covering the gear head and electric motors.

I fasten the plastic ziplock bags against wind storms by stuffing packaging foam wherever it fits tight to hold the plastic cover I made.

[zulu52]

covered wagon wrote:
I've got the older type. New in 2003 with my camper always sitting outside, the HappiJacks still operate without a problem. I keep them covered and shoot 3in One oil to the electric motor bearings where the corrosion occurs. I found this corrosion in the second year and made covers for them and learned how to oil them in 2005.

This may be the direction you should go even with the newer style as the motor housings, end plate and shaft bearings are unlike metals to some degree, so need lubrication each year. How to access and remove the covers from the newer style electric motors I would have to see them to tell.

Where exactly do you put the 3 in 1 oil? Do you remove the cover?
Zulu

[JimK-NY]

I have lost 2 happijak motors due to water intrusion. CW, can you explain how you made covers? I have tried to seal the covers with gorilla duct tape. It seems to work but I have little confidence.

[covered_wagon]

I've got the older type. New in 2003 with my camper always sitting outside, the HappiJacks still operate without a problem. I keep them covered and shoot 3in One oil to the electric motor bearings where the corrosion occurs. I found this corrosion in the second year and made covers for them and learned how to oil them in 2005.

This may be the direction you should go even with the newer style as the motor housings, end plate and shaft bearings are unlike metals to some degree, so need lubrication each year. How to access and remove the covers from the newer style electric motors I would have to see them to tell.

[joerg68]

The issue sounds like an overload problem (maybe corrosion in motor or gears), but then it should cause more issues when raising the camper - lowering puts less load on the motor?

Have you tried switching the jack motor (or the whole jack) with another one to see if the issue moves with the motor?

If the problem stays at the same corner, it is an issue with the control board. Afaik there are only two wires going from the board to each jack, where the polarity is reversed for up/down. In which case a wiring issue would probably manifest in both directions.

The old ones were easy to remove and install, don't know about the new ones. The old ones were also very prone to corrosion issues, I had one seize after two winters. But I haven't heard anything about the new ones yet.