Ive had issues with jack before. Had him fixed. Now first time to use after a winter of non use and nothing. Light goes on so i believe its getting power. Plugged shore power in and light go a bit brighter but still nothing. Took off cover and made sure wires were tight. Its not wet. Anyway resorted to socket to turn the square manual piece and It doesnt budge in either direction? whats up with that? Rusted? locked up? went to try bigger tire socket wrench but didnt have the right adapter. Worker fine before. I need to move this tomorrow up to the dealer who can take it from there. I need help so i can overide this baby in the morning. Any ideas? Bless you.
Hello Randy. Did you have your batteries out for the winter? There is a yellow-termination wire that connects to the positive on your battery. This powers the jack directly -- the jack is not powered through the inverter. So you have to have a good battery(s) to operate the jack. There's also a fuse inline on the wire that goes from the battery to the jack -- it's in a pull-apart (may route under the A-frame, so get down low if you don't see it right off) and has a 20A glass fuse if I recall correctly -- easy to check visually -- standard blow; not slow blow. You can find it at an automotive store.
Other problems I've heard of may happen if one has set the jack at full extension. It might not mesh properly next time you try to retract.
Loosen the allen screws and pull the head. Connect a ground between the head and the trailer chassis. See if the motor turns when it is off the jack screw.
Now see if the jack screw turns. I find a small flat crowbar has a nice broad flat edge that fits in the slot at the top of the screw works well. See if you can turn the jack screw. If it really is stuck, contact the OEM and see if they have any ideas about how to loosen it. Maybe try banging the lower part with a hammer or giving a good wiggle with a pipe wrench, maybe try to run some degreaser or cleaner through from the top, - see if you can figure out what has got the screw trapped.
If you get both the jackscrew and motor working, find the instructions for the auto shutoff adjustment. This is usually a case of turning the jack screw up till it stops then down two turns. Then run the motor up until it stops and place on the jackscrew then tighten the allen screws to hold it in place.
Depending upon which jack you have the particulars might differ but the principles are the same.
I've got an original 70's era jack where the roller pin holding the top of the jack screw to the slotted adapter went. It doesn't have an auto shutoff. Then I also have a new model on another rig with the light and auto shutoff that seems to have a stripped gear. They both work about the same way.
Our jack takes a 30 amp slow blow fuse. You should have a manual crank to operate the jack if it won't work electrically. It should have come with it and the instructions explain how to reset it. Once you have taken the head off, it has to be reset or it won't work correctly. When you put the head back on, make sure you get the allen screws very tight or the head can twist around.
It's not hard to blow the fuse. At least it wasn't hard for me to do it.
i pulled the fuse and it was intact, however had white corrosion on the filiment. Could that screw me up? The light is working, shouldnt that mean im getting juice? Maybe just not enough. The light is dim. U pulled the batteries over the winter but didnt trickle them, left em in the garage. I dont think they froze. The have some charge it appears i switched the store and use switch inside and the light were on both times? or is that not really testing the batteries. I have no doubt they are not on their best. Have been plugged in since the thaw but maybe they are toast.
the thing is last time this happened it was nothing to turn the square manually with a socket to raise and lower, but now its like its froze solid. Was torquing the wrench so i stopped.
Ill pull the head and try and see if its getting juice.
I can buy that the batts are somewhat dead but that wouldnt explain the non turnability in the manual fashion right?
Wondering if non use for the winter has it gunked up, rusted or ?
May need to floor jack it up to take weight off the post to see if that helps or if i can hitch it to my truck in that state, see how high up the post is and see if its towable to dealer?
Ugh, why wont manual fashion turn. dang. stuff to try in the morning i guess. thanks for the tips.
That fuse looks different than lower amperage fuses—sort of like spring. It may be ready to blow and is just hanging together. I don't know why the jack won't move, but it sounds like a pain to take it apart to find out. The jack is directly wired to the batteries, so the battery disconnect shouldn't matter. But it doesn't hurt to put in on "use". The light stays on both ways strangely enough and why is a mystery that has been discussed on another thread last year. When you pull the head, it can be hard to get a good ground without wires with alligator clips at each end. I just raised the head almost off the shaft and that grounded it. I can't understand why a jack that new should a problem, so I can understand your frustration. Maybe in the morning it be easier to deal with.
Spray some Fabulous Blaster down into the head of the jack, drink coffee, then try manually again. If it breaks loose manually then try with electric power. Fuse needs to have corrosion cleaned off and tested with continuity tester. Just because light works does not mean there is enough juice getting through to power jack. Charge batteries. Drink 2nd, 3rd, and maybe 4th coffees. Try switch again. Can also hook up to tow vehicle with jumper cables to jack power wire and see what happens.
Godspeed,
Trent
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should i assume that if i can crank it manually that its binding somewhere, or froze up, corroded, ruster or otherwise? when i flip the sitch it makes no sound as if its even trying. Could be lack of power, the light is weak. But im thinking even if i jump the battery what does it matter, i cant get the thing to turn myself. And after a coffee my battery is doing just fine. ha. Ok im off to see what i can do. Back in a bit.
Take a floor jack and take the pressure off the electric jack,make sure the trailer is Chocked. Then turn the screw with a socket. To see maybe if the screw is bent and go from there. If the light is weak U may have a bad ground.
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Roger & MaryLou
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F350 CREWCAB SW LONG BED
7.3 liter Power Stroke Diesel
1977 27ft OVERLANDER KA8LMQ AIR # 22336
My your roads be straight and smooth and may you always have a tailwind!
O.K as long as we are talking about super jacks, why did mine work fine for the three weeks that I have owned my 08 safari and now it keeps blowing fuses. Any ideas? I have checked wires nothing seem to be shorting anywhere. I can take it apart and run the motor as long as I like but when it gets reassembled it blows the fuse. Manually I can jack it up or down so its not stuck, I really do not want to drive 150 miles round trip for warranty.
Mine blew a fuse after I had been raising and lowering it a lot to set up my WD hitch. I hope that was because it had overheated from all that use. Since I replaced the fuse and reset it, it has worked in the few times I have used it.
The instructions say to check that the parts are greased annually—which I had not done. So maybe it was the grease. The grease in the head was spread around from the gears throwing it, so I reapplied the grease to those little plastic gears that don't look like they could raise much of anything.
I tried to reset mine as per instructions, raised the jack, backed off three turns and than grounded motor and pushed the switch to retract until motor stops, but the motor never stopped. I ran it for a long time and it never stopped, is this normal?
Bob, doesn't sound normal. Maybe the motor won't stop if the gear is not engaged. My instructions said to back off the jack one turn (or maybe half a turn—I did this about a week plus ago). When pushed the head back down the shaft, getting it the last 1/4" requires lining up the two parts properly and pushing it down hard once you do. Then I had to tighten those allen screws quite a bit, and the head still wanted to twist, so I tightened them some more though I was worried about stripping the screws.
I'm assuming you have the same jack since we have very similar trailers and from the same year. Mine is a Super Jack by H&H Engineering. Some jacks came with a leveling bubble on the top of head and others didn't that year, but I think they were otherwise the same.
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