What Can Damage The Internal Gears Of My 5th Wheel Jack?

Question:

I put a T46059 repair kit in my 5 wheel jack. Ran the jack up and down before I reinstalled in trailer. Put jack back in and reinstall lippert auto leveling motor and gears. Lowered the jacks picked up the trailer. Went to retract the jacks , jack would no retract. Pulled the jack out found all the teeth on the 16 tooth gear striped off. What would cause this?

asked by: Dan R

Expert Reply:

Though I could not find anything about the T46059 repair kit you referenced, but odds are the jack isn't rated high enough for the weight of your trailer. Or there is more than just the gears that need to be replaced. What you will probably want to do is replace either the leg, or what may be a better idea, the whole system.

For the leg, it will depend on if it is the lead or follow leg, but as the Lippert Venture Lead Leg Repair Kit # LC146059 is for the lead leg, you will need the Replacement Lead Leg # LC119102 (the follow leg is # LC119101 if you need it). As this set up with a single motor will be rated to 5,000 pounds (8,000 with dual motors), we do have heavier duty systems available.

The heaviest duty one we have will be the Ultra-Fab Deluxe Electric Landing Gear Set # UF17-943010. This is rated to 12,000 pounds, 6,000 pounds per leg, and includes brackets, switches, and everything you need. Most of the time this will not match the bracket locations from a Venture set up though, so you will most likely need to replace the mounting brackets to get something like this to fit. I included a picture with the mounting locations as well.

expert reply by: Lazer S