Fifth Wheel Trailer Landing Jack Leg Lubrication
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 8 июл 2017
- A few years ago one of our Keystone Cougar fifth wheel landing legs completely failed. The leg no longer went up or down and couldn't support any weight. It ended up being a stripped collar nut in which the worm gear threads. We were on the road at the time, but I was able to order in replacement legs and do the repair myself.
See Fifth Wheel Landing Leg Repair Article and Video - www.loveyourrv....
I never figured out exactly why the nut failed, but one theory was a lack of sufficient lubrication. So, to help prevent failures and extend the life of the new landing legs I've decided to make sure they are well lubricated. This summer would be a good time to pull the legs, inspect and re-lube them.
Removing the Fifth Wheel Landing Jacks
Lucky for me removing the landing legs is relatively straightforward on my Cougar fifth wheel. First I have to remove the landing foot hardware and unbolt the inner extension legs spring locking mechanism.
Next, I unbolt the cross member that ties the lead and follow legs together. The lead landing leg is located on the driver side of the trailer and the follow leg on the passenger side. The only difference between the two is a longer shaft on the lead to accommodate the drive motor and gear box.
Then, I needed to remove two larger bolts that hold the landing leg to the fifth wheels inner frame. For the lead leg, an extra step is required. A small plastic collar gets removed and the gear box and drive motor slide off the landing legs drive shaft. Once all the hardware is unbolted, the landing legs simply slide out the top.
Lubing the Fifth Wheel Landing Legs
My primary concern is to get lubrication all over the long worm gear shaft that sits inside the leg. It's like a giant screw. The solution I came up with is to take a 1 1/4 inch piece of plastic irrigation pipe and cut it in half lengthwise. Then coat the inside with bearing grease. The half pipe fits inside the leg and wraps around the worm gear allowing me to coat it well with bearing grease.
Another location that needs attention is at the top of the landing leg where the input drive shaft and beveled gears are located. They are easily accessed by popping of a metal cap. I removed the old grease and pumped in a fresh batch packing it all around the gears and shaft.
To finish the lube job I took a can of silicone spray lubricant and wiped down the inner extension leg and sprayed some into the drive shaft bearings. While things were apart, it was also a good time to clean and lubricate the legs extension lock mechanism.
To test the leg for smooth operation and work the grease in I used my 1/2 cordless drill and ran the leg in and out several times. Before reinstalling, I retreated the legs in as much as they would go, backed them off a slight amount and marked the legs inner portion with a red sharpie. The red line will give me a guideline for max retraction. Many times landing legs are damaged by over retracting.
I reinstalled the legs by reversing my steps and was good to go with a set of smooth operating front landing jacks.
Love Your RV! - Products I Use Page - www.loveyourrv....
-----------------------------------
Follow our RVing adventures at www.loveyourrv.com and rvhappyhour.com
Connect with Love Your RV!
Pinterest ► / loveyourrv
Google+ ► plus.google.co...
Facebook ► / loveyourrv
Twitter ► / loveyourrv
Blog Feed ► feeds.feedburne...
Monthly Newsletter ► www.loveyourrv....
Don't forget to Subscribe! ► www.youtube.com... 
Хобби
And once again, you have to love those people that think that because you live full time in an RV, that every day is a vacation. ;) I hope some of them can catch the last 5 or 6 vids you've made to see what daily chores that are always waiting to be done. Cheers !
haha, yeah, alway something to do. :)
Bob Cannon you are not kidding but I still wouldn't go back to a house I am 41 married for 17 yrs . living full time for 6 and loving it . I will have a drink to living on our own terms . lol
At our young age choosing to live full time I have noticed people are very presumptuous .
No different than maintaining a house.
I hate to admit it, but my 17 year old 5th wheel has never had any landing gear maintenance. This is the first video I watched, helps alot to understand the parts... thanks!
I know it won't be a breeze keeping the RV maintained and running but, my hat is off to you for making my future hopeful LOL. Great job Ray, keep up the excellent informative videos.
Thanks, happy you find them helpful.
I once had a neighbor who had a boat that I would fish on regularly. The cleaning, upkeep and all that went with it convinced me to never buy a boat. You are doing the same for me when it comes to RVs... thanks I think.
The only good thing with an RV, when you drop your tool it doesn't sink to the bottom of the marina. :)
Great demonstration on how those work. As a RV Tech I’m changing the bevel gears on a landing gear tomorrow. Just brushing up on my landing gears when I saw this.
This one saved me alot of work I wasn't sure what to do
Thanks to your video, I completed this job this morning. I never would've tried this had it not been for your video. It went so smoothly. I used a 1" piece of conduit for the worm gear lube which worked great. Thanks so much for the effort in making this video!
Awesome, you are welcome, Cheers, Ray
Nice tips and tricks Ray, my landing gear cratered like yours did about three years ago and I decided to go with the Bulldog #500161 dual motor independent leg upgrade and before I installed them I disassembled the legs to inspect the worm shaft and they had very little lubrication on them. The shaft was able to come out of the housing so I could apply a healthy amount of Super Lube synthetic grease. I have to admit, I love having the landing gear legs independent from each other for more accurate leveling and you can wire up the motors for either more torque or speed.
Looks like a sweet upgrade.
Love the way you do preventative maintenance. Nicely done Ray.
Thanks, I'm always curious how things work, sure saves time and sometimes money down the road if something does break.
We are hoping to make this trailer last. Cheers!
A much easier way to lubricate landing leg jack screws without wasting nearly 2 tubes of lube: lower the legs about 4 inches, then drill an 1/8" hole 11 inches from the top of the landing leg tube in the center of an accessible side of the tube. Now simply spray lithium chain lube on the jack screw through the hole by using the straw that comes with the chain lube can. It doesn't take a lot of lube to properly lubricate the screw, you certainly don't have to pack the threads full of lube because the nut will scour 99% of the that lube from the screw, causing issues down the road when you try to service the landing leg years from now.
Very informative Ray. Love the way you do preventive maintenance just to keep everything in working order.
I always wondered how you would grease up the landing gear on a fifth wheel. Good info for sure. THANKS. I see Angie is hanging in there.
Thank you! Now is now every about Rv jack.
Great job on this video. Very useful since I'm getting ready to service my Keystone Everest landing gear.
My Sabre 5th wheel has Zirc fittings on the leg braces, two on each leg, but they are almost impossible to access and they were painted over! I replaced all four zincs, but wasn't sure how much grease to put in each fitting. Seeing your video showed me that I will have to go back and add quite a dollop of lube grease. Thanks for the heads up and for all your excellent advice.
i have the same thing, but seem easier to get to, but are also painted over. ours is only 4 months old so i haven't worried to much about lubing them yet.
I tried this and only time will tell. It seems every year I have a problem with my motors on my landing gear. It is now out of warranty, so when I have to do something I will look and see if you have done it . Keep up with the great videos and cheers. 😎 PS say hi to Angie.
Very helpful Ray. I hope your next project will cellphone booster. Thank you.
Nice video. Much much better than the other ones. Not trying to sell me anything, just helping.
Thanks.
nice ideas thanks for sharing angie was on break on work
Thanks Ray, good job
Hi great video and grease is good but for the worm gear and nut I would recommend using anti-seize high pressure lubricant it will make your worm gear and all your other gears last a lot longer than grease, just a thought you might want to check into.
Thanks, I just used the same grease I used for my wheel bearings, figured that if it can handle the pressure of that job it should do well with the landing leg gears. Do you have a specific brand you recommend?
Thanks very helpful
Great Ray, now I think I van tackle that job. Thanks
Great job Ray as always. Thanks for sharing!
You're welcome Charles, Cheers!
Love Your RV Cheers
great video
Great video, thanks for showing us how to repair and lubricate the landing gear. How long had the landing gear been in service before the first problem's showed up??
A little under 4 years, here was the video - www.loveyourrv.com/repairing-my-broken-fifth-wheel-landing-leg/ We are not at nine years and the second set of legs are still working well.
Nicely done! Look forward to more :) Thanks
What kind of grease, or is it RV specific? TIA
I just use regular wheel bearing grease, nothing RV specific.
I think you just saved some money. Looked like the old grease was about gone. 👍🍺
how do you know where to mark the leg when lifting legs? is there a limit also when extending as well? thanks for your informative vids
I marked mine when they were out and I could manually extend them to the end point. Doing it with the motor can be tricky because too far too fast can jam the gearing and blow a motor fuse. Usually, if you bump the switch slowly near the end you can find where it stops moving.
You could always look up the specs if you can find your leg model.
ie. www.strombergcarlson.com/product/replacement-landing-gear-legs/ 19 7/8” stroke
Nice relaxing video. Reminds me to lube the stabilizer jack screws. Do you repack your own bearings? Recently repacked my boat and camper trailer bearings. Messy but satisfying.
No, that's one thing I haven't done. Like you say, messy. :) I'm thinking about replacing the trailer brakes, though. You can buy a whole new brake assembly pretty cheap and bolt on.
that's what I did few months ago, replaced original brakes with self adjusting brake assemblys also replaced hub, hub come with new bearings and seal also, around $90 per wheel from www.etrailer.com
I just replaced my shear pin, Ray,, guess I should've made of video I was in to big of a hurry LOL about how many inches from the top to where you think the caller nut is? think I'm going to put a grease fitting,( Zerk fitting) in my leg..... on the RV... my legs fine....thanks again Ray
Take a look at this video where I completely disassemble the leg - ruclips.net/video/jL12JJ5Fmis/видео.html
Also, check this thread. A friend of mine Eddie drilled a hole about 6 inches down. - rvhappyhour.com/forums/topic/5th-wheel-landing-leg-repairreplace-experience/#post-45462
got it will do it.... thanks
you make that look so easy and painless! I need to do this but I'm pretty sure it's going to involve a lot of swearing. do you find the elephant feet add any side to side stability to the front end? or just keep you from sinking into soft teerain.
I'd say there is a marginal improvement, especially when it gets really windy. I like them for parking lot pavement, don't have to worry they might damage the surface so don't need wood blocks. Cheers Ray
Thanks for another great how to video. I noticed your ladder by your slide, I’m looking for that kind for sweeping off my slide. What kind and length is that?
Thanks, it's a Werner telescoping folding ladder. I bought it about 3 years ago, has been great. Here is a close look - www.loveyourrv.com/finally-picked-myself-up-a-proper-ladder-for-fulltime-rving/ Cheers, Ray
hello,
we have a 2018 jayco eagle ht 26.5 rlds. our landing gear isn't working right. we cannot remove our legs, they are welded to the frame of the rv., even the clamps that the carriage bolts run through are welded to the outside of the legs. we can't even take the caps off the top of the legs(screwed on) it looks to us to be a major project with the removal of tons of other stuff,icluding the battery box. do you have any suggestions? thanks!
Wow, can't believe they welded them! I'd head over to the Jayco Owners forum and see if anyone has run into this problem and has a solution - www.jaycoowners.com/forums/
great video but i have never seen any videos about removing fifth wheel legs for lube. is there a way to do this without dismantling?
You can get to the top gears pretty easily, for the worm gear you could use a flexible tube with grease in it and shove it up from the bottom.
Love Your RV whats the worm gear?
Hi I’m really learning a lot from you videos. Have a question what is that shock looking thing on the front hitch of of your 5the wheel?
Its a special type pin box that helps smooth out the ride for the trailer and prevent harsh jolts. Here is a video I did on it - www.loveyourrv.com/lippert-air-ride-pin-box-review/ Its worked well over the years. Cheers, Ray
Very helpful hey do you guys ever make it over to the east coast .
We did the east coast from Newfoundland to FLA Keys in 2011. Hope to return one day but it's a long trek over, especially loved summer in the Maritimes but we are kind of partial to the west. Little more open land, mountains, and less expensive. Cheers! Ray
Hello Ray! How's often you do gears grease?
I'm thinking of doing it every 2 years.
Why no "share" button? Need to send to my friend.
I see a share button, not sure why it's not there for you.
Love Your RV Huh! It's there now. Thank you! Had no idea this procedure was needed and judging previous owners lack of care to the unit I now own I'd bet this hadn't been done and it's an 02...scary! Lol
Torque amplifier.
Total waist of time. Better off using using a hose with a grease fitting
I do mine ever year and works great
Kanye west!