How to Troubleshoot Defective RV Leveling Jacks
RV Lifestyle & Repair EditorsRV leveling jacks are essential for a sturdy and safe stay in your Lippert slide room. If the leveling jacks on your slide-out give you trouble when you set up camp for the night, there are a couple things you should inspect when troubleshooting to find the issue and come up with a solution.
In this lesson, Steve Albright walks you through a quick demonstration to teach you what to look for in order to get your RV leveling jacks back in working condition. You’ll discover the difference between an electrical problem in the motor and a malfunction in the wiring, and learn how to go about making the proper repair.
In the event you have a jack failure, first thing we're going to do is check for 12 volts of the battery. We just use a simple 12 volt test light. We verify that we have 12 volts here. Next thing I'm going to do is check the motor solenoid. I'm going to have Dave hit the switch.
We can see that we've got voltage there but our motor isn't turning. So at that point, we know we have a potential problem with the motor. What I did was just took a couple of steps out of testing this process. I could have gone back and checked the fuse. Then I could've gone back and checked the switch.
If I wouldn't have had power there I would have checked the switch first and then gone back and checked the fuse. This is just a lot quicker, shortcut way of finding where the problem could be. If I didn't have power there, I would go back. Now in the event the motor did turn and the jack still didn't actuate. I would have to go back to the solenoid valve on the jack and verify that that was working, that it was opening and closing.
It should open on the motor rotates to let the pressure of the hydraulic fluid circulate through the system. And that would be the next spot I would look if the jacks weren't working and the motor was running. Now that we've verified that the solenoid valve on the other side is actuating correctly, we still don't have any power at the motor. We know we have a defective motor. So at that point you would need to take it in to an authorized service center, have that motor repaired or replaced.
And just to review what we've done we've tested the battery. We've tested the switches, the solenoid, the fuse. Everything checks out except the motor. So we know that we have a defective motor and that's going to have to be serviced or replaced.
We have Power Gear electric jacks on our '08 Gulf Stream, Yellowstone. We bought it used in 2014 and had trouble with the jacks even as we drove it home after the delivery. The system would go into error mode with the jacks extended as we began to retract them. Sometimes we could clear the error by following either manufacturers procedures. But, that didn't work every time. After much head scratching, blog research and many hundreds of dollars searching for the fix a repair tech working on it discovered the electro-magnetic brakes on each of the four jacks had varying degrees of rust with with one being completely disabled by it. Seems the rubber boots around the motors are designed to be installed with the open end of boot facing up and cinched with a hose clamp. This was not providing an adequate seal against water seaping down the motor body and into this cup shaped boot. The water came from the spray which occurs under the motor home while driving on wet roads during rain or after, before the road surface dries. We replaced all four brakes and sealed the top edge of the boots with butyl rubber caulk and rubber tape used by roofers to seal joints. It is a peal and stick tape that adheres to the rubber boot and steel motor body really well. Haven't had a problem since that repair, nine months ago. Note, Power Gear has gone out of business so finding parts for them will likely become more difficult as time goes on. Hope this is helpful to anyone suffering similar issues.