I have Attwood electric jacks with switches on the driver side on our 97 Lance Squire 9500. The jacks on the passanger side raise/lower at a slower speed than the driver side. Anyone else notice this? Is this because of the added distance the electricty has to travel from the switches to the far side of the camper? On average, for about 3" of distance up or down, I have to go an extra 1/4" or so on the far side. Just wondering it this was common. I've gotten used to counting seconds when I raise/lower and then add a second or two to the far side.
Chris
Electricity travels at the speed of light. Electrical wires have resistance, the longer the wire the greater the resistance. Therefore, for the jacks with the longest wire runs, a greater percentage of the available power goes to heating the wire and not raising the camper. The solution, replace existing wires with ones of heavier gauge or just live with it. …Mike
* This post was
edited 07/11/08 01:01pm by Heavy_Hauler *
2004 GMC Sierra 3500 4x4 D/A EC LB DRW
Ride-Rites, RS9000X, TorkLift, Fast Guns, Superhitch
2007 Lance Max 1181
Heavy_Hauler wrote: Electricity travels at the speed of light. Electrical wires have resistance, the longer the wire the greater the resistance. Therefore, for the jacks with the longest wire runs a greater percentage of the available power goes to heating the wire and not raising the camper. The solution, replace existing wires with ones of heavier gauge or just live with it. …Mike
I'm thinking that's not all that is going on here: The jacks also have different weights on them and the speed difference is a function of the available power and the weight it has to move for each jack (i.e. F=MA)
I notice this most when lowering. The jack by the battery will retract faster and I end up with only 3 jacks touching the ground. I have Reico's. After the problems I had with the first set of Reico's, I'm just happy the motors work on these. It takes forever to get these things up and down manually with a wrench!
2002 Ford F-350 CC LB PSD
2007 Travel Lite 960rx Ultra
1998 Starcraft Superfisherman 170
I'll go with VanBikeHorse... the speed of raise/lower is proportional to the amount of work being done.
When you do your check, let us know whether the fastest one down is the slowest one up. The most weight should fall the quickest, but the most weight should be the slowest to lift too.
Mike and Carole
2000 Ford F350 SC PSD "Newman"
1994 Snowbird 8'10" "Rosietoo"
2005 16.6 Double Eagle
Artum Snowbird wrote: I'll go with VanBikeHorse... the speed of raise/lower is proportional to the amount of work being done.
When you do your check, let us know whether the fastest one down is the slowest one up. The most weight should fall the quickest, but the most weight should be the slowest to lift too.
However, I noticed this same thing happening last night when I unloaded my camper. The one that 'lowers' the fastest, completely left the ground and continued to increase it's "lead" after coming off the ground. It was no longer being 'helped' so to speak by the weight on it.
I'm going with the wiring quality/distance/gauge as the most likely cause.....
I have a feeling its wire/gauge. The driver side is always faster up/down or w/ or w/o load. When I put the jacks down to take the camper off, the driver side beats the far side by 2". Raising it off the truck or up to put back on truck, I have to watch my levels side/side, because the far side doesn't go up as fast and will lean that way. The TC didn't have any level gauges on it, I put some on after the first time raising it back up to go on the truck "WOW, its really leaning one way". Thats not good. lol.
I don't think it is the load placed on the jack. I have one that will always go faster going up or down. It is not closest to the battery but on the same side as the battery.
'01 Dodge 3500 CTD, Lance 1121, Air Bags, Rancho 9000, All Wheels Under Power When Needed, A Few Engine Mods For Increased HP
Burning Grease, 800 ft/lbs. of torque from something you throw away.
I have the Happyjacks with a control for front left and right mounted on the left jack housing and the same for the back.
The ones in the front travel almost at the same speed. The ones in the back travel at different speeds. The leads from the switches are the same for the front as the back. If it were distance then you would think that my fronts would act like the back ones. Besides, it takes a lot of difference in the wire length to really make a difference in performance.
More likely to effect performance would be the quality of the electrical connections. Especially with DC it really doesn't take much to effect the flow of electrons through a bad connection.
I also think the motors just get tired meaning they require more or less energy to operate or the gears just have more or less friction on them, or a combination of the two and that has a great deal to do with it.
If anyone comes up with an actual cause and correction for it I would be very interested. The DW usually handles the back jacks and generally gets pretty upset with one always leaving the other behind. Another reason I like handling the front.
PJ
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