# Electric Jack Problem



## Water Witch (Jun 8, 2009)

When un-hooking yesterday, the electric jack decided to not co-operate. Just goes "rrrrrr" and doesn't move up or down. It is an Ultra, and when I checked on-line they are pretty cheap, so if it's toast, it's toast. Do these things have a fuse or something I should check before I toss it and order a decent one? If not, any ideas on how on earth to go about changing it out? What to use to prop up the TT? I'd tow it somewhere and have someone change it for me, but I had to unpin the hitch and drive off to get the camper unhooked from the TV, and I don't think reversing those actions is do-able. (Actually I KNOW it's not do-able for me, anyway). Any and all ideas will be greatly appreciated!


----------



## hautevue (Mar 8, 2009)

Changing out an elec. jack is very easy. The difficulty is supporting the TT while you do it!

****Chock your tires!!! Be safe, and put 'em on both sides of the TT and on both the front and back (4 chocks required)!**********

If you're unhooked now, you might use a floor jack (like the gas stations use) and some wooden blocks and jack up the TT hitch frame (but not too close to the jack or you'll block youself).

If you're not unhooked, leave things alone and put the floor jack under the TV big hitch assembly and jack it up a bit to take the load off the broken jack. You need to be able to pull the jack vertically and take the shaft up through the hole in the TT hitch frame.

Replacing the jack: disconnect the power wire from the jack to the battery. Mine has an in-line fuse, so just twist the connector and remove the fuse. Then get your socket wrench and loosen and remove the three bolts holding the jack to the top of the TT A-frame. Remove the foot pad that is at the bottom of the jack shaft--it's the metal that sits on the ground when the jack is being used. The jack then is removed by pulling/lifting it vertically.

Install the new one by following the directions provided. I add a separate ground wire--the jack is grounded to the frame by the mounting bolts, but corrosion often interferes with the ground. So I put a crimp ring onto a piece of #12 white wire (white is ground on a TT and you want to stay consistent). Put that ring under a bolt, and then run the wire to the battery. I chose to put the battery end of that ground wire directly on the minus terminal so that even if the battery disconnect switch is "off", the jack will work.

Tighten the bolts nicely (hard but not a crying strain). Hook up the hot wire to the jack per the installation instructions...

As I said above, figuring out how to support the TT while doing this is the PITA. Good luck and let us know how it came out!


----------



## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

When I installed my electric jack I put the tongue on jack stands. It was nice a stable that way.


----------



## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

a 1 or 2 ton bottle jack would also be plenty powerful. They are short, so you'll have to build up a steady base with a few 4x4's. I'd also either put down the front stabilizers or some secondary form of support since the jack will be on a raised platform (No, the stabilizer's aren't made to lift, but they would at least allow for a slower fall if the worst happened. Anyway, just get the jack off the ground and unbolt and replace.


----------



## ED_RN (Jun 25, 2006)

Agreed, it's an easy fix. It's not the fuse or it wouldn't make any noise. Sounds like one of the gears went south. Have you tried to manually crank it? If it's a gear and there is anything left you may be able to support the tongue in the position it is at and manually crank the leg up enough to replace it.


----------



## Patty (Mar 4, 2010)

I agree with all of the above. It is an easy fix but not inexpensive. My Ultra went south a couple of weeks ago getting ready to go camping. I was already hooked up and the support post for the jack just dropped out. I used a bottle jack and a jack stand. It was a PITA to get it high enough to lift off the truck and then back to level for camping. I bought a Barker and used the inline fuse from the Ultra, splicing it to the new wire. I would have gotten the Atwood but the trailer supply place had Barkers. It went on easy. If I can do it almost anyone can. *Make sure you have your tires chocked when raising and lowering.*


----------

