electric tongue motor failed

[BullHalsey]

I have a new Rockwood 2503S. We have used it three times and are pleased with it. However something came up today that is lain weird. We hooked up the trailer and left the campsite. 20 minutes later I stopped for ice and made a quick walk around the truck and trailer and all was well. Two hours later we stopped for lunch and as I walked past the back of my truck I heard a loud noise. I quickly learned that the electric tongue motor was running. I hit the switch (it was in the off position) and cycled it a couple of times. The motor quit running. Of course the gears are shot and when I got home I had to use a floor jack to raise the trailer to remove the swaybar/load leveler and then to remove the trailer from the truck. Anyone ever hear of this happening?

[rsdata]

probably due to something mis-wired and giving the motor voltage and it should not have been. My electric jack is fused and will trip the re-settable fuse if I try to run it after it hits the mechanical stop, either up or down. A friend was helping me setup once and ran the jack all the way closed and failed to stop quickly. He then found it would not go down and called me over. I was sick as this was probably my third time out with it. I tried it 10 minutes later and it worked again... lesson learned.

I have heard of some that got rain-water inside and not running at all.

So you are saying that now on yours, the motor will run but the jack will not go up or down?

Fortunately since it is new it should be a warranty item.

[BullHalsey]

Originally Posted by rsdata

probably due to something mis-wired and giving the motor voltage and it should not have been. My electric jack is fused and will trip the re-settable fuse if I try to run it after it hits the mechanical stop, either up or down. A friend was helping me setup once and ran the jack all the way closed and failed to stop quickly. He then found it would not go down and called me over. I was sick as this was probably my third time out with it. I tried it 10 minutes later and it worked again... lesson learned.

I have heard of some that got rain-water inside and not running at all.

So you are saying that now on yours, the motor will run but the jack will not go up or down?

Fortunately since it is new it should be a warranty item.

I tried to use the hand crank and I could not get it to turn either up or down. Then something gave and the entire column and the foot pad fell out on the ground. The good thing is this happened on the way home and I was able to cut some 4x4's to use to hold the trailer up after using the car floor jack to raise and lower it. I hope it is under warranty or I am going to be one upset camper

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by BullHalsey

I tried to use the hand crank and I could not get it to turn either up or down. Then something gave and the entire column and the foot pad fell out on the ground. The good thing is this happened on the way home and I was able to cut some 4x4's to use to hold the trailer up after using the car floor jack to raise and lower it. I hope it is under warranty or I am going to be one upset camper

Perhaps it was over retracted and jammed the gears. If you turned the hand crank the wrong direction, in this case, breaking the column drive gears.

Obviously if it is under warranty you should get it repaired by your dealer or service center. Here is a good source for parts for a home repair:

https://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Acc...ear_Parts.aspx

[BullHalsey]

Originally Posted by Herk7769

Perhaps it was over retracted and jammed the gears. If you turned the hand crank the wrong direction, in this case, breaking the column drive gears.

Obviously if it is under warranty you should get it repaired by your dealer or service center. Here is a good source for parts for a home repair:

https://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Acc...ear_Parts.aspx

The weird thing is the Motor was running when I walked by the back of the truck. The switch had to be cycled several times to stop the motor. And it was not running when we left the campground 20 minutes before. Both my wife and I made a walk around and would have noticed that. It was fully retracted though. That is one thing I noticed

[TheWolfPaq82]

Originally Posted by BullHalsey

The weird thing is the Motor was running when I walked by the back of the truck. The switch had to be cycled several times to stop the motor. And it was not running when we left the campground 20 minutes before. Both my wife and I made a walk around and would have noticed that. It was fully retracted though. That is one thing I noticed

My first guess would be the switch shorted out or got something in it and when you cycled it, it returned to normal, but a little too late and the damage was done.

[KyDan]

Originally Posted by TheWolfPaq82

My first guess would be the switch shorted out or got something in it and when you cycled it, it returned to normal, but a little too late and the damage was done.

What he said. Since the switch is an integral part of the jack I don't see how
it could have been miss wired.
The jack comes with 2 wires. Hot and ground. If they are reversed it would
just run backwards.

It's a bad switch and now probably bad gears. It's possible the unit just
over cycled and dropped the foot.
Hopefully your dealer will simply replace the entire jack and you'll be good to go. Please post a follow up and let us know how this works out.

[youroo]

Originally Posted by Herk7769

Perhaps it was over retracted and jammed the gears. If you turned the hand crank the wrong direction, in this case, breaking the column drive gears.

Obviously if it is under warranty you should get it repaired by your dealer or service center. Here is a good source for parts for a home repair:

https://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Acc...ear_Parts.aspx

Isn't this just a Tongue jack on a "Rockwood Mini Lite 2503s TT"? Youroo!!

[kedz]

Same thing happened on our 2018 Rockwood Signature Ultralite 8310ss. Picked up unit in May 2018. July of 2018 came home from work. I use cinder blocks under front of A Frame to keep weight off of tongue Jack. The tongue Jack had extended fully by itself . Called selling dealer. Said bring it in to look at. They looked at it and replaced under warranty. Had to use handle on top of Jack to bring it back into housing. Old one was a Lippert. New one is Stromberg Carlson.

[BooBoo23]

I just replaced my longue jack due to water intrusion. There is only one wire going to the battery, they use star washers under the mounting bolts to insure a frame ground. A little hard to miswire that.

[KyDan]

These (fill in your favorite brand) are notorious for switches going bad due
to water intrusion.
Sheesh- it's made to work OUTSIDE ON THE TONGUE but the switches are NOT water proof or even water resistant. Many of us use some sort of cover. I sewed mine out of fabric backed vinyl (we used to call it Nagahide in the old days). It's 3 years old and the cover is starting to show some cracking so I'll have to make a new one. I suppose heavy sail cloth like they make boat covers out of would work. I made a grill cover out of black sail cloth many moons ago and it lasted 10 years.
Some folks just up-end a bucket over the jack but I'm leery of wasps who LOVE to build nests in places like over turned buckets!

IF you get yours replaced do cover it some how. I don't recommend a plastic bag as they tend to sweat inside and might not be as dry as you'd hope.

Good luck!