Jacked Up!

Murphy’s Law also applies to RV’s

There are two legs on the front of 5th wheels that raise them up off the truck bed and then lower them to level position. Raising 6,000s pounds requires they have reduction gears and screw apparatus that make the movement slow but powerful.

Legs are essential to unwed the truck and 5th wheel as together they are long and bulky
Going for coffee in typical Starbucks parking spot won’t work married to 5th wheel.

Last Wednesday as Suzy was lowering the legs they froze up and parts started leaking out of the machinery. Shafts broke, gearboxes shattered and things stopped fast.

So we began a long stretch of having the truck married to home. Judy bailed us out with her car so we were able to buy a couple of 12 ton jacks for lifting it off the truck until we could get legs fixed.

Ordered the parts and believe it or not the factory that makes legs and parts is in Dayton, OH just 60 miles north of Cincy so when all the parts we needed didn’t show up in first shipment we were able to get rest of the parts in a couple days. It was a bit harder to get a mobile RV repairman out to help. He was on vacation and then he was busy, and then it was raining, and then Tom got tired of it all and decided to do it himself.

So disassembled it all and put on new reduction gear, motor and new gears and power take offs on the right leg. Got it all rebuilt and pushed the switch to lower, nothing, pushed the switch to raise, same. So deduced it must be the other leg. And sure enough, the other leg was frozen solid. Turns out, that is what destroyed the motor, gearbox and shaft on the other side. So instead of waiting for the part, we drove up to Dayton and the factory and bought a new leg from the manufacturer. They weren’t used to seeing people show up at factory for parts but were glad to help out. Threw leg in truck and continued on to Berlin, OH home of large Amish community. Had the new leg attached and working in less then an hour and we are 100% on two legs again.

As I have found in life so many times, if you want something done, often it is much faster to learn how to do it and then do it yourself rather then waiting on the rest of the world to get on your schedule. Besides now I am a certified jack over-hauler and installer. Jack of all trades, master of none.