This is a first for me. I put the battery back on the camper the other day. This afternoon i was planning on moving it out of storage in the back corner of my lot. I tried the tongue jack and it did not work. No light no nothing. I triple check my battery connections and made sure the fuse was good. I even checked continuity to the fuse and that was good. After a few hours of troubleshooting i found that i had lost the ground between the jack and the A frame of the trailer. Even with the star washer in place it still corroded just enough to lose the ground. I guess that should be one of my periodic maintenence checks every so often.
1 wife that loves to camp
2008 Cirrus 27CRB
2011 Silverado
Good troubleshooting tip, I'll remember that one (I hope)!
Chuck
Wonderful Wife
Australian Shepherd
2010 Ford Expedition TV
2010 Outback 230RS Toybox, 5390# UVW, 6800# Loaded Not yet camped in Hawaii, 2 Canada Provinces, & 2 Territories I can't be lost because I don't care where this lovely road is going
I used to use a power wheelchair and had a hoist for it in my truck. It quit working so I bought a replacement,$1200.00, and installed it. It worked intermittently. After much head shaking I finally thought of the ground. Sure enough, that had been the problem from the start.
Old Navy Chief (AOC) Retired Aircraft Mechanic/Inspector
2007 29' 27FBV Trail Bay V Series
2007 Dodge Ram 1500 Mega Cab 5.7 V8 3.92 Rear End
Reese Strait-Line Dual Cam Hitch
Another thing I just noticed. I had downloaded the barker owners manual to see if there was something in there that would help. I found that they recommend periodic dis assemble down to the gear box to check and replace the grease on the two gears as needed. I never would have thought of that.
Our jack began having the same problem this season... installed last year. After cleaning the ground and getting it re-assembed... we shot it with a couple coats of spray paint to try to seal it up. Time will tell if this is successfull.
I am having the same problem with my electric tonque jack. I have checked the battery, replaced the fuse, etc, but I am a newbie at all this. If any of you can further describe how to go about fixing the ground or other trouble shooting with the jack, I would greatly appreciate it.
gwhiz wrote: I am having the same problem with my electric tonque jack. I have checked the battery, replaced the fuse, etc, but I am a newbie at all this. If any of you can further describe how to go about fixing the ground or other trouble shooting with the jack, I would greatly appreciate it.
The ground for these jacks is one of the three bolts that mechanically hold it on the tongue. The only difference between that bolt and the other two is a toothy star washer that gouges through the paint into the metal to complete the ground through the frame and save running an extra ground wire back to the battery.
The disadvantage is that gouging the paint encourages the frame to rust right where contact is made. Rainwater tends to collect in the tiny gaps left by fitment. This can be aleviated by embedding the washer with a small gob of grease when installing it, and filling all the tiny gaps with something other than air/water. Dielectric grease is made for this task but ordinary axle grease works fine. Even such a protected joint will eventually need cleaning and fresh grease as even axle grease slowly evaporates. Dielectric grease may last a little longer.
Grounds are the most common electrical problem in older automobiles because water can infiltrate, and then corrode, connected frame pathways so easily. Newer cars usually wire a separate ground wire directly to devices. As a matter of fact most bulbs on newer vehicles now have a full 12 volts all the time and the device is then turned on/off by interrupting the ground path. It has the advantage of only few total hot wires needed and any short in the ground merely turns a device on although the switch is off. This is much better than a short that gets red hot and starts a fire.
Wes
...
Days spent camping are not subtracted from one's total.
- 2000 Excursion V-10 - 2004 Cougar Keystone M-294 RLS, 6140# tare
- Hensley Arrow - Champion 4000w/3500w gen
- Linda, Wes and Quincy the Standard Brown Poodle
...
Ok, I have a weird situation with my LCI tongue jack.
I have an LCI tongue jack that most of the time does not work - until I tap the shaft of the jack with a hunk of metal - then it works every single time.
I usually tap it with the safety chain hook or the pipe for raising the load distributing bars. Hitting it with my hand, knuckles or shoe does not work.
I wonder if this is a symptom of a loose ground connection. The trailer is 2 years old and has had this problem since before I bought it 8 months ago. The guy I bought it from said that was just the way it worked for him.
Or could it be a bad switch? or a stuck gear?
Any simple suggestions about how I could diagnose the root cause?
I guess I could just run a ground wire to figure out if it was a ground issue. Or maybe use my ohm meter to check the resistance between the internal jack ground and the trailer ground.
Suggestions based on experience, knowledge or intuition are appreciated.
eb145 wrote: Ok, I have a weird situation with my LCI tongue jack.
I have an LCI tongue jack that most of the time does not work - until I tap the shaft of the jack with a hunk of metal - then it works every single time.
I usually tap it with the safety chain hook or the pipe for raising the load distributing bars. Hitting it with my hand, knuckles or shoe does not work.
I wonder if this is a symptom of a loose ground connection. The trailer is 2 years old and has had this problem since before I bought it 8 months ago. The guy I bought it from said that was just the way it worked for him.
Or could it be a bad switch? or a stuck gear?
Any simple suggestions about how I could diagnose the root cause?
I guess I could just run a ground wire to figure out if it was a ground issue. Or maybe use my ohm meter to check the resistance between the internal jack ground and the trailer ground.
Suggestions based on experience, knowledge or intuition are appreciated.
Ed
It might be a ground connection. I am not familar with the LCI brand.
But another thought is, does the jack have stop switches in it? In other words does it have an internal switch that keeps it from going too far? This would be in close proximity to the shaft and a jarring blow may make it intermittent. This owners manual indicates a jack with clutches in it, so if that matches yours, it would have no internal switches. Unfortunately, it has no troubleshooting guide included.
All jacks have some mechanism to keep them from breaking something when they reach the end of their travel. A common Barker has an over-running clutch that clicks loudly when it slips for instance. But other Barkers have internal switches, I believe.
The fuse holder was the culprit on a couple of these jacks. The stories sound promising.
The LCI jack doesn't have a very good rep on this RV.NET thread. Maybe their fuses were corroded?
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