Power jack quit working

[Scotty033x]

It has been working fine. The PO had some Jerry rigged wiring around the jack and safety disconnect, but connecting a battery to two wires at the jack would operate it. Now it's just dead. I have a crank, but would like the jack to work of course. Any troubleshooting tips? Also, if everything is wired correctly would the jack run off on board battery or TV connection?

[joshjack]

Should be a fuse somewhere to protect things.

If wired correctly the TV should charge the onboard battery; but I'd rather have the current capacity of the onboard battery and not rely solely on the TV connection.

[paiceman]

Have you run a line check to see if it's getting current? As Josh said there should be an inline fuse and it should be wired directly to the battery.

[DreamStreamr]

Like Josh and Paiceman say, check fuse first 'cause it's easiest. Our fuse (2005 Airstream with Barker 3000 jack) was in an inline holder, bright yellow, on the jack end of the wire. The other end of the wire goes into the battery box and connects directly to the positive post of the battery. The negative or ground connection is solely through the bolted flange connecting the jack to the A-frame.

I've seen one other configuration, where either the factory or someone afterward installed a automatic resetting 30a circuit breaker just outside the battery box, then the 10 gauge wire runs to the jack. So if you don't find an inline fuse, or if you do and it's good, then check voltage between the fused wire and ground. If no voltage then look for another fuse or circuit breaker between that point and the battery. But if voltage is okay to the inline fuse, then need to check voltage at the terminal strip in the jack's head cover.

If power all the way to the jack's terminal strip, then I'd check the limit switches and hope one of them is holding it out.

Okay, I'm out of ideas and going back under the trailer to fix the leaking fresh water tank drain valve. Again. . .

[Goal15]

If it is the fuse and it keeps blowing, look at the wire that goes to the battery box. It often runs under the propane tank cover on a plastic flexible wire cover. Ours had rubbed through the wire cover and into the wire causing a short. Insulated the wire and no more problems.

Dana

[dmbecke]

It runs off your rv batteries. Many jack issues are related to a poor ground
Find where it's grounded to trailer and scrub that ground and reattach

[Scotty033x]

The wires were cut at the jack by PO. I currently connect a battery with alligator clips directly to those wires to operate so no inline fuse and it's getting juice. Just for some reason it quit working.

[Lumatic]

What brand of power jack? Are you saying there is no response at all when you switch on the jack? In addition to the inline fuse there are microswitches in the jack head that are prone to burn out. The jack should be wired to the on board battery as is the safety breakaway disconnect. Why did the PO cut the wires?

[fwjumper]

How old is it? Does the light work? (If it has one)
Make of the jack?

[kleimanr]

All the above first, then push switch up or down and at the same time to one side or the other. If anything happens bad switch. Also could be one of the micro switches used to limit travel. And lastly bad switch. Best advice from above. See if the light works. If yes you need to take it apart.

[rvb]

Check to see if you have juice on the jack end of you jumpers after hooking up to the battery.

Also check the battery cable connections. Our Minuet had a new battery installed a year earlier (by an RV dealer) and the terminals looked fine but the tongue jack would work when hooked to shore power and half the time not work when on battery. I finally pulled the cables off to clean them and the positive was so oxidized it was black and so loose I could just twist it and pull it off. After cleaning the terminals and bolting it on correctly it works fine.

Another thing to check if the wiring has been messed with is the emergency braked actuator on the tongue is usually wired to the 30A circuit that also goes to the jack. Check power to it. If there if no juice to it you have no emergency brakes.

[splintair]

I learned a long time ago, fix it right the first time and be done with it !

[WestieHouse]

The fuse must be a 30 amp "slow blow" fuse, otherwise it goes out often. They are a little difficult to find. NAPA had them last I checked.

[WestieHouse]

Also, Barker folks were very helpful when I blew out a limit switch. They sent me one and I replaced it within an hour.

Fortunately, I was pleased with how easy the manual jack worked while waiting for the switch to arrive at our next camp site.

[Air4563]

If your jack is grounded thru the mounting bolts, you might try pulling the bolts one at a time, cleaning the bolts and the contact area on the jack plate and using some dielectric paste on them. If the trailer is an older model, it could be that the ground from the battery to the frame is not good. To check this try running a wire directly from the negative post of the battery to one of the jack mounting bolts and see if this helps.The jack draws more power than most of the other electric devices and while the lights, etc. might work, the jack might not.

[graysailor]

I have had fuse issues and a wire came loose inside the jack once. The loose wire was what was blowing the fuse. As I recall they use some ridiculous fuse that is hard to find in the store. Be patient and look around the problem is usually an easy fix once you discover the problem.

[Scotty033x]

It's direct wired to a battery I have fully charged and sitting in the back of my tv. No inline fuses, verified voltage with meter at battery and at connection to wires on the jack. It has to be something internal to the jack. It's probably an original "powerjack" to my 1976 as. I may have just hand cranked it beyond the limit switch at this point so it won't work. I'll back it off and try again. The hand crank does work easily so it's not a show stopper.

[Lumatic]

If it is original it is probably a Barker. My bet is on they microswitches. Parts are still available. But a 40 year old jack is living on borrowed time you can get a new one for less than $200.