Quote:
Originally Posted by flbradjr
I took the upper cover cap off and the motor housing. Then I see two gears at 90 degrees to each other - which I greased before leaving home. You reference ACME or ball screw. How do I get to whichever one I have? Inside the jack post!!
|
Hi flbradj,
Sorry this took so long, I have been tied up. I hunted this morning for the pictures of when I had my Atwood jack all apart to grease the screw. I cannot figure out which year I did it in, thus I'm at a loss to finding the pics.
But I recall the basics of how the jack tube and screw came apart. You have to take the head of the jack apart. Yes, you will see the two bevel gears that make up the gear drive for the hand crank out the front. You need to remove the 2 bevel gears. If I recall right, the gear on top of the jack tube has a pin holding the gear to the center jack shaft. You remove that pin, this then allows the ACME screw or ball screw pending the jack you have, come out the bottom of the long jack tube. Then with the jack screw out in the open, you can cleanup the threads and grease it. This is where a lot of the drag comes from. This jack screw area is where all the lifting force comes from. When it gets dried out, dirt etc then the motor has to work harder to overcome all the friction.
To your next question about a jack replacement. I went through this about 3 years ago. Many of the power tongue jacks are made off shore now. Sadly, Atwood sold out like you said. I have a very heavy loaded camper tongue weight on our big T310SR and unless you have a good working jack, it is bad news hooking up a WD hitch.
I went with Barker Manufacturing. These guys
https://www.barkermfg.com/power-jacks.html
They are one of the few, maybe now, only, USA made power tongue jack for camper use. In my case I got the Delux Hi Power 3500 jack due to the heavy tongue weight of my camper. I have bought 3 of them now since, for myself and other friends I was helping them with their camper. In my view, if you still want a USA made jack, you will not be disappointed with the quality and performance of any of their products. And they stand behind them if there is a warranty problem. They used to make a lot more smaller sizes, but I now only see the 3 listed ones. Here is a flyer on the 3 of them
https://www.barkermfg.com/uploads/5/...hure_final.pdf
These jacks cost a little more, but in this case you get what you pay for. On your camper, the 3000 # rated one will work well. While your loaded tongued weight is not that high, when hooking up the WD hitch you have to lift the back of the truck too. You really cannot have too much jack power, too little yes and then the too small jack gets beat up when lifting the truck.
Shop around on price. The last Barker I bought about 2 months ago, the prices were all over the place. Some double... Covid has made the pricing on RV parts or most anything, nuts. I found a new Barker from an Ebay dealer for what things used to sell for on 2019 while other places were 2X
Hope this helps and let us know how you make out.
John
PS. Make or get some kind of cover, to cover the jack head when you are not towing. It keeps the sun and rain out of the jack head and prevents many ill effects. I use 2 1/2 gallon used plastic oil jug with the top cut out of it. It fits great. Others have made up a vinyl bag with a draw string on it.
__________________
Linear Mode
