Elec. Stab Jacks Came Down on Their Own!

[jbklein]

On our way home from our maiden voyage with our new Hemisphere Lite 346qbud....we were about 30 miles away from the campground when a man pulls up beside us and tells me that my rear jacks "just went down"!

I immediately pulled over and sure enough my jacks were sitting on the pavement....but just lightly scuffed so I believe the guy actually saw the jacks come down. They raised without any issue and I checked them several times on my way home and they stayed up from that point on. There is absolutely no way I left the campground with the jacks down or they would have been torn to shreds.

Adding to the confusion...these jacks are slow as snails to raise and lower so I wonder how fast they came down? The guy who stopped me didn't pull over so I didn't get a chance to ask what he saw.

I contacted Lippert and of course they've never heard of anything like this. Anyone here ever heard of such?

[BarryD0706]

My guess would be a bad switch (eg, that they came down slowly). On my RV, the latch on the door that covers that switch might be able to press it if it was left in the wrong position.

[jtstromsburg]

I had my rear elec jacks freeze up in my driveway the day after i got it home from the dealer. Tried to lower jacks first thing in the morning and they didn't move. Came home from Church two hours later and they were not only on the ground, but had significant weight held up? I think, in my situation, that possibly they are controlled by more then a simple momentary on/off switch and while i held the switch for a while, somehow when a reset happened, it remembered that time and they went down accordingly? Maybe?

[Gregg Willow]

I've read about this on another forum. The TT was a Crossroads and the owner said the electric stab jacks came down on him and even picked it up. This was while he was driving. Not sure if Lippert is under a Crossroads or not. It does sound like it would be switching. Not sure if I would ever want these. Scary

[VinceU]

Originally Posted by jbklein

On our way home from our maiden voyage with our new Hemisphere Lite 346qbud....we were about 30 miles away from the campground when a man pulls up beside us and tells me that my rear jacks "just went down"!

I immediately pulled over and sure enough my jacks were sitting on the pavement....but just lightly scuffed so I believe the guy actually saw the jacks come down. They raised without any issue and I checked them several times on my way home and they stayed up from that point on. There is absolutely no way I left the campground with the jacks down or they would have been torn to shreds.

Adding to the confusion...these jacks are slow as snails to raise and lower so I wonder how fast they came down? The guy who stopped me didn't pull over so I didn't get a chance to ask what he saw.

I contacted Lippert and of course they've never heard of anything like this. Anyone here ever heard of such?

How about install a knife blade or rotary battery switch in the pos battery cable to that system. Promise they will never move again till you allow them to.

[papamcgown]

I did not get the electric jacks on mine, was standard on 2012 model but dropped on the 2013 model when I ordered mine last spring, since has been added as option....if problems show up may be glad I didn't get those. Love our 2013 346 QBUD though and look forward to a lot of camping trips.

Glad to see others showing up with the Salem Hemiphere 346 QBUD as can exchange information when needed.

[DDC]

Originally Posted by VinceU

How about install a knife blade or rotary battery switch in the pos battery cable to that system. Promise they will never move again till you allow them to.

Don't think this would be a good idea, the break-away brakes would not come on if the battery power is disconnected.

The switch is probably bad on the jacks.

[h20ski]

Are they remote? Could it be another source of a frequency? Just a thought. I had a garage door that would go up and down at will all by it's self. Middle of the night, while I was at work. It was the circuit board. Good Luck.

[Mozzy n Boob]

I had that happen on a Crossroads TT. The toggle switch was in the front storage unit, went over a set of train tracks, something shifted and ever so gently touched the switch. Fortunately heard the rattle asap, pulled over no damage was done. From then on I used one of my hollow chok blocks to protect the switches. Dumb place to put them, really low in a storage area. Oh well live and learn.

[VinceU]

Originally Posted by DDC

Don't think this would be a good idea, the break-away brakes would not come on if the battery power is disconnected.

The switch is probably bad on the jacks.

Just a safety idea. Loads larger than 25-30 amps DC are fed with a separate feeder (and circuit protector) than the Power distribution panel. Examples are hydraulic systems and electric slides. 12 VDC power jacks are normally included in the category. I suspect the brakes are also direct feed for safety reasons.

[cobiker]

I've got the opposite problem where the rear stabilizing jacks wont retract. The motor works fine but the screw rod doesn't move to retract them. Is there like a shear pin that needs to be replaced? Found this out when we went to leave on a trip last weekend, so had to manually crank them up. Thank god for the manual crank. :-)

[jbklein]

Turns out it was a bad switch! I verified this by unplugging the harness....let is sit for a day or two....plugged the harness back into the switch and the jacks started lowering without me even breathing on the switch.

I contacted Lippert....they were helpful but would only allow the dealer to replace the switch since it was under warranty!

Dealer said they have seen several of these switches go bad which is surprising since this could have really been a safety issue had the jacks sheared off my 5er while I was driving down the road! Maybe Lippert needs to take a closer look at these and possibly issue a recall!

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by cobiker

I've got the opposite problem where the rear stabilizing jacks wont retract. The motor works fine but the screw rod doesn't move to retract them. Is there like a shear pin that needs to be replaced? Found this out when we went to leave on a trip last weekend, so had to manually crank them up. Thank god for the manual crank. :-)

There is a double roll pin in mine that is in the coupler that connects the motor to the screw. Don't know how it would drive the legs down and not retract unless it sheared at the end of the downward travel. I think the roll pins are a 1/16" driven inside a 1/8". Could be drilled out to 3/16" and put in a #10 stove bolt & lock nut.

[cobiker]

Thank you for the reply back, unfortunately it's not functioning for both retract and extend. I've take a couple of pics to better show the problem, but it looks like the screw rod has pulled out of the sleeve that connects to the motor. I've attached a pic here, so it might better show the issue.

Thanks,
Scott

[cobiker]

Originally Posted by cobiker

Thank you for the reply back, unfortunately it's not functioning for both retract and extend. I've take a couple of pics to better show the problem, but it looks like the screw rod has pulled out of the sleeve that connects to the motor. I've attached a pic here, so it might better show the issue.

Thanks,
Scott

Pic

[OldCoot]

The coupler is pinned to the screw and the motor shaft floats in the coupler. If the coupler is disconnected from the screw, just drive the pins out and install new ones.