Atwood jack not working

Hi all,

So this weekend we hit Mohican State Park in Ohio (wonderful weather by grace!) and I noticed something unpleasant when I went to raise the trailer to hitch up -- the jack no longer works (thank God above I keep the jack handle in the back of our TV as a backup!)

What's more, the little light on the jack barely lights up -- sometimes it takes as long as ten seconds to even begin to light up!

First thought -- battery must be on the way out -- however, fwiw, the battery was able to keep the fridge fan running for the 1.5 hours we were on the road (granted, it probably takes little or no juice, right?), and the panel in the trailer says the battery is "good" (which I assume means the voltage is sufficient, saying nothing of the amps?).

So, I went out with my multimeter and little or no knowledge of how to test this silly thing and checked the voltage/amps across the battery: 12.36V, .165A. If I'm not mistaken, though, while the voltage is good, my reading of the amps is meaningless, right, given the meters not asking for anything significant in the way of amperage?

So, how on earth do I test this setup to determine if a) my battery is shot, or b) something else has gone haywire? One more tidbit -- a couple of weeks ago I did install a blade fuse on the battery's hot wire (32V30A ATM), replacing that nasty glass fuse that was always failing to make good contact. I can't imagine, though, how that would have any impact?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer!
John

[Kwantau]

More thas likely you have a bad ground to your jack. I had the same problem with my brand new 2720 this year but I have a swinghitch which increases that problem. The first mod I did was install a braided ground strap between the swing hitch and trailer main frame. No more juggling the hitch to make the jack work.

Where can I find the ground wire for the jack? I took the top off, but it was not immediately obvious how it was grounded...

Bit more info -- I pulled the jack motor and checked the voltage and amps while toggling the ext/ret button: 13.08V/.075A (or .75A - I can't remember which). That amperage seems WAY too small, provided I'm checking this right...

Oh -- and I noticed that the motor does _try_ to rotate the shaft when hooked up -- however, it only moves as much as the slop in the gears allow it to, stopping abruptly after...

[Kwantau]

First question first. Do you have a swing hitch. If so, it could be a grounding problem. The jack is grounded through the jack itself to the frame and a swing hitch makes a lousy ground to the mainframe . You only have one wire and that is for power. If that is not your case the problem could be alot more involved. Try a search for the jack and you will probably find a lot of info. Maybe someone fore experienced with the jack can come up with some other suggestions.

No swing hitch involved, just the jack bolted to a fixed frame...

[Bill]

Originally Posted by HappyWDWCampers

I noticed that the motor does _try_ to rotate the shaft when hooked up -- however, it only moves as much as the slop in the gears allow it to, stopping abruptly after...

Oops! That seems to suggest that the shaft is jammed. Have you bent the jackstem - not hard to do? Has a pebble or something dropped down into the gears - harder to do? Can you crank the jack down halfway with the manual crank? If so, does it crank down smoothly, or do you have to muscle it all the way down, against heavy drag? Does it hang up at some point? Once it is down part way, try the motor.

If you leave the UP/DOWN switch on for too long at the end of travel, I think it is possible for the motor to drive the jack so hard against the end stops that it jams. If this is the case, manual cranking should release it. And then of course be quicker about releasing the switch in the future. There is no need to slam it into the end stops.

I have not disassembled one of these, but it can't be too hard. I think that may be your next step.

Bill

Actually, it moves wonderfully when cranking manually (which I am extremely thankful for -- ironically, I've decided that while manually cranking is tedious, it's not so bad that if the jack were truly dead electrically I'd likely just use the hand crank for the rest of the season) -- it just won't budge when I try to use power...

[mjlaupp]

Originally Posted by HappyWDWCampers

.....when I went to raise the trailer to hitch up -- the jack no longer works.....

What's more, the little light on the jack barely lights up -- sometimes it takes as long as ten seconds to even begin to light up!.....

The fact that the light is very dim suggests that you have a ground problem or a loose connection between the battery and the jack. I doubt that there is serious problem with the jack itself.

Get a wrench and loosen and re-tighten the bolts holding the jack to the frame. This should fix a ground problem unless you have a swing hitch. Others have suggested fixes for a swing hitch.

On my 3326 (battery in the rear) the wire for the jack is run along the inside of the curb side frame stringer. and there is a connection under and behind the front frame cross member. Also check the wire connection at the jack.

There's a manual crank handle for the jack? That would be good to have! Would someone mind posting a photo or a link?

We bought our TM new but we didn't receive a handle.