# Electric Tongue Jack Repair



## ajk170 (Oct 18, 2015)

so our 2015 316 RL electric tongue jack crapped the bed the other day while on the road. We stopped at a C-World on our way home desperate that they could fix it. They couldn't but they did help trouble shoot and checked the battery- turned out that the battery was good. But nobody was available and we couldn't wait. Consequently, we researched the heck out of it and concluded it was the switch. There isn't a lot out there on the forums, but the symptoms were, it would go up but not down and sparatically cut out. I took a chance and found a replacement switch on amazon (30 amp 12volt, 4 pin) for $16 bucks. When I took the housing off, I found the switches were exactly alike and replacement was rather simple. I did have to clip the wires and crimp 14gauge female couplers onto the switch but that's about as hard as it got.

I post this since it was a little hard trying to find anything consolidated and explaining what the symptoms were (jack would go up but not down and then act spastically) what could cause it (switch that activates the jack) and what to get (30 amp 12volt switch) where to find it (amazon).

Hope this helps-


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## ajk170 (Oct 18, 2015)

Also, I should say my jack is an "FIC 3500" which I think is a fairly generic one, the jack's switch is "rocker" type that requires constant pressure to go up, flips to off when released and goes down when pressed in the other direction. It is not a "toggle". It also has a separate light switch. After taking the broken switch out, I found that the little metal pieces inside the switch that the rocker makes contact were burnt-up and actually broken off and floating in the housing and the "up position" contacts black and slightly melted which explained why it would spastically make contact and sometimes just "click" as well as not go up at all. I assume the interior of the switch got wet since I found moisture underneath the boot when I pulled it off.

My simple solutions to keep the switch dry is 1)silicon around the edges of the rubber boot and hitch housing. I could see little gaps between the two on the light switch and the newly re-installed power switch for the jack. 2) Use a 5 gallon bucket with lid and bungee cord over the entire housing to ensure dryness. I cut a hole and a slit in its lid in order to snap it onto the bucket. The only time I'll open it up is when emplacing or breaking-down. I think this will help ensure the new switch lasts longer than 18 months like the last one!

I will say, I was prepared to put on a new jack until I started looking for what the symptoms might be caused by and how to fix it. The initial thought of opening this up and fixing it seemed daunting, but there really isn't anything to it.

Here is what i used

https://www.amazon.com/Rocker-Switch-Polarity-Reverse-Control/dp/B001PNIJM2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1476701130&sr=8-2&keywords=30+amp+rocker+switch+12volt

It is a perfect fit in the housing as well.

Only question I had, is the original switch 30amp? I found others that look exactly like this but 16amp. I suppose the larger capacity switch doesn't exactly hurt anything.

Also, the replacement didn't come wth a rubber boot so I used the original one and, once wired and snapped back in, I siliconed around the outside edges to seal it.

This was a cheap way to save the jack and not have to drop $400 like CW wanted when we were on the road!

I will suggest to inspect your switches and silicon around the boots where the housing and boot come together and anywhere else there appears to be an open joint on the housing.


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