Electric Front Jack

Brittany Dogs · 09-22-2014, 06:36 AM

Well here's a tip that falls into the category of "don't do this."

I have an electric front jack on the tongue. I love it and find it a worthwhile option. From day#1 I protected this jack with a black bag made for this exact purpose. It has a nice drawstring opening and you basically put the bag over the jack and draw the string tight so that the wind does not blow it off. The bag was purchased at Camping World.

When I come back from camping, the TrailManor unit goes into the garage and the trailer gets a bath as well as the coolers and anything else that needs cleaning. The last step for me after the cleanup is to put the battery minder on the Bergman connector using the adapter I made and that brings the batteries up to full charge and floats once the last little bit of charging is done.

This time was different. The battery minder was not going from red to green after sever days of charging. Most times the batteries need so little of a top off that the minder often goes green in a matter of 4-8 hours. This time after several days it was still red.

Did I accidentally leave the refrigerator on DC? Nope, I did that once and I'll never make that mistake again.

I would turn on an outside light on the trailer and the bulb was bright so I didn't have a large current draw draining the batteries way,way down but figured something still must have been left on.

So during winterizing yesterday, (a short year for camping and I'm sad) I went searching for the current draw.

The propane detector is off on my unit when the bathroom wall is down, so that's not it. A check of current draw was saying 1.2 amps. Ahhh, clue, that's typically a light. The oven light was off, so that's not it.

So I started pulling fuses. The last of all the fuses was the front electric jack and the current dropped to almost nothing once I pulled that fuse.

Dog gone it, the front jack light was accidentally left on and never noticed under that black weather protection bag. The bezel for the lamp was slightly burned and melted a bit. We never used the light and well, time to put electrical tape on the switch to keep it from being flipped on again.

So if you use one of those black bags, and if your front jack has a light on it, I suggest taping it in the off position.

mecicon · 09-22-2014, 10:44 AM

Glad you found the source, nicely written.

tentcamper · 09-22-2014, 11:41 AM

Glade you found it. I have found a few time I have left the LED lights on the jack on. I don't notice it until it's night because they are not that bright.

If you'r keeping it in the garage, why put the bag on the jack??

09-22-2014, 06:57 PM

Read like a real mystery! Thanks.
Do you have a cut off switch on your electrical line?

RottieMom · 09-22-2014, 07:02 PM

Moaboy, what do you mean by cut-off switch?

funpilot · 09-22-2014, 07:07 PM

I see a battery cut off switch often mentioned. Is it easy to install? Is there a brand that you would recommend? Thanks

Ignore...saw videos. Too easy. This video I liked because it showed a way to do it without putting holes in the trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZYKZqEX6ys

shebantam · 09-17-2015, 05:35 PM

When we got to the campground the tongue jack wold not work, blown fuse, looked kinda corroded.

I just got back home was going to jack it up and take it off the truck...tongue jack not working again...this is getting old. Well I am getting old, putting up the table, climbing under, swinging the leaves out of the way and opening the converter box. swinging back the leaves, climbing out from under the table, and putting it back against the wall.

Second fuse in a week. I am ready to pull out the electric jack and buying a good old fashioned hand crank jack.

No the light is NOT on, I am not over cranking the jack, when it was up I let go of the switch.
there was an extra 15 amp fuse and a puller in the converter box, so I am wondering if the previous owner had a problem like this before.
This jack did not come with a bag when I bought the camper.

Any ideas? should I go ahead and buy a regulat drank jack like all m other trailers had?

Redtail Cruiser · 09-17-2015, 07:43 PM

Paula, my electric tongue jack came with a manual crank which has a half inch SAE socket. When the jack acts up, I use a three eights inch by six inch long extention with a half inch socket in my 18 volt battery drill. This works great when the jack won't.

Padgett · 09-17-2015, 07:45 PM

I have both (and a tow valet I need to install).

ThePair · 09-18-2015, 07:18 AM

For those with the batteries in the back of the TM (SL models), you can add a cut off switch like I did, inside the rear bumper compartment. I just drilled a hole through the floor of the trunk space into the bumper, ran the wires down, and wired in a marine battery cut-off (for waterproof-ness). Works great -- when I park the TM in my garage, the tail end is by the door, so I can just lift the bumper lid and cut the battery. When I need to pull it out, the very first thing I do is raise the garage door and re-connect the battery.