Surprising Danger experienced With My HappiJacks

Glad it turned out ok. Is it covered in the manual?

CW- good to hear you are safe.

You mentioned that the jacks are well lubed. I need to perhaps perform maintenance on my HJ's, but they are fully manual with no motor. Do I need to be concerned? The owner's manual (for mine)says to fully extend the jack and then to use lithium grease.

Do I need to be concerned on the manual jacks or do you think this situation applies only to the jacks type that you have with the motor?

d3500ram wrote:
CW- good to hear you are safe.

You mentioned that the jacks are well lubed. I need to perhaps perform maintenance on my HJ's, but they are fully manual with no motor. Do I need to be concerned? The owner's manual (for mine)says to fully extend the jack and then to use lithium grease.

Do I need to be concerned on the manual jacks or do you think this situation applies only to the jacks type that you have with the motor?

At this point I don't know but, my jacks acted like greased lightening and were going down on their own. Happened very quickly, had to act fast. If I chickened out and ran back out of the way I'm pretty sure I would have camper laying on it's side. Instead I forced the hand crank back in and engaged the motors ea. time. Second time I was ready for it.

Hoping this post will reveal more information as more add folks to it. There is nothing in the manual about this

I have 4500s with a heavy camper. They are the ball screw type. I have one that I've been using manually. I have re-greased them and they turn very easy. I haven't seen any issue like this with mine.

I've been thinking about upgrading to 4800s (acme screw) but haven't found a reasonable deal on them in the past year.

Reading all the rants on the forum, I've thought about switching to Reico's, but I'd have to change the whole system which they are very proud of. The 4800s are also rated for more weight.

You do realize we are starting a "mine are better than yours" rant.


Which model failed on you?

They are the 4500's. It's interesting that once I let the crank go it would continue to spin on it's own till I stopped it. Pulled out the crank when stopped and it got to lowering with the jack screw spinning inside on it's own. Scared the heck out of me but reacted fast to stop it and engage the electric motor for safety.

Wow thats scary. You'd think if having to disengage the motor to use manually and free wheeling likely if handle removed there would be some kind of warning.


I briefly looked at the parts pdfs and I'm not seeing how this wouldn't happen. Maybe lack of what most consider adequate lube there is enough friction to load the gears? Unless there was an internal brake I cant see greasing defeating self braking, but maybe.
Meaning whether or not you've lubed I'd hold onto that handle until motor reengaged. Which if camper raised on jacks and you need to swap motor--um? Does the 'lever' acts as manual brake (regardless if motor present)?
I would assume same possibility if jacks fully raised, motor disconnected they might unwind themselves? Wonder what comment HappiJack might offer.

Bottom line is the warning about disengaging the motor, removing crank (and control) when under load. Possibility of runaway shouldn't be dismissed.

I think with such issue you should contact the manufacturer immediately and make them beware of the incident.
Such thing not suppose to happen.
For example on my jacks hand crank will not disengage the motor, so it is always self-stopping.

Since mine are 12/13 years old I wonder if there is something like a tension washer to make them slow down that is worn. When I stopped the spinning there was a little resistance or braking in some spots to hold but, wasn't enough to hold.

I think HappiJack Corporation needs to machine the threading not so steep but they already operate slow enough. Or perhaps a governor brake. I don't know enough about it. All I know is they spun down like they were well lubed. It was the 2 front ones that acted like this.

The jacks have always been free fall in the down direction of the leg and is how I always deploy my jacks to the ground. I was always under the impression that this was a one way feature of the manual mode.

Super Dave, I'm saying the camper was coming down and the Jack was going up on it's own allowing the camper to start falling.