Ground Control 3.0 Front Jack Broke

[tgodrich]

I was recently camping in Plymouth, CA. Upon initiating the AutoLevel sequence, I dropped the front jacks, disconnected the truck (this is a 5th wheel 303 RLS), raised the front to be higher than level, and then hit the Auto Level button. The front jacks began to retract until I heard a loud bang, at which point the right front jack dropped completely down. I initiated a panic stop, and then attempted to raise the front back up. The left front jack raised the front of the trailer, but the right front jack did not move at all. I could hear the motor in the right jack, but no movement. Obviously the jack broke internally. The left jack would lift the trailer nose, but it also was lifting the right jack off the ground since it was not moving. I decided to reconnect the truck, since if the left jack decided to fail, I would have no way to raise it up to reconnect the truck. Once reconnected, I manually dropped the rear and left front jacks and was able to get it level, with the support of the truck too. So we finished our camp trip.
The trailer is now at the dealer to fix the front jacks.
I am just curious if anyone else has had a catastrophic failure of a jack before. I was unable to find anything on the forum to that effect.
I have had problems with the Ground Control system off and on over the last 5 years, and when I take to the dealer they never find anything wrong. But the jacks randomly lose their way and either will not raise all the way up, or will not lower all the way, thinking they are out of travel (they are not). I end up having to re-zero everything to get it right. Wondering is these problems might have been a precursor to the broken jack..
Any thoughts?

[ncitro]

I was recently camping in Plymouth, CA. Upon initiating the AutoLevel sequence, I dropped the front jacks, disconnected the truck (this is a 5th wheel 303 RLS), raised the front to be higher than level, and then hit the Auto Level button. The front jacks began to retract until I heard a loud bang, at which point the right front jack dropped completely down. I initiated a panic stop, and then attempted to raise the front back up. The left front jack raised the front of the trailer, but the right front jack did not move at all. I could hear the motor in the right jack, but no movement. Obviously the jack broke internally. The left jack would lift the trailer nose, but it also was lifting the right jack off the ground since it was not moving. I decided to reconnect the truck, since if the left jack decided to fail, I would have no way to raise it up to reconnect the truck. Once reconnected, I manually dropped the rear and left front jacks and was able to get it level, with the support of the truck too. So we finished our camp trip.
The trailer is now at the dealer to fix the front jacks.
I am just curious if anyone else has had a catastrophic failure of a jack before. I was unable to find anything on the forum to that effect.
I have had problems with the Ground Control system off and on over the last 5 years, and when I take to the dealer they never find anything wrong. But the jacks randomly lose their way and either will not raise all the way up, or will not lower all the way, thinking they are out of travel (they are not). I end up having to re-zero everything to get it right. Wondering is these problems might have been a precursor to the broken jack..
Any thoughts?

I’ve never heard of one just breaking before. I would assume the screw inside must have sheared off. Have you ever pulled them apart for lubrication? I try to do mine every year, I’m curious if you’ve found metal shavings when you have. That would be a sign it’s been wearing. There’s a video I follow on how to do it, let me find the link.

Here around 9:45.


https://youtu.be/emcOISsW2PA

[tgodrich]

I’ve never heard of one just breaking before. I would assume the screw inside must have sheared off. Have you ever pulled them apart for lubrication? I try to do mine every year, I’m curious if you’ve found metal shavings when you have. That would be a sign it’s been wearing. There’s a video I follow on how to do it, let me find the link.

Here around 9:45.


https://youtu.be/emcOISsW2PA

I could not find anything on the forum about one breaking. It is still under warranty. The dealer said they will likely replace both of them since the good one took the entire weight of the front of the trailer when the other broke. But no, nobody ever told me taking them apart and lubing them was required. It's been 5 years and none of them has ever been apart.
I will watch the link.
The dealer did tell me that they have seen them break before. I am hoping it is relatively rare. But I may throw my floor jack in the truck for longer trips, as I could use that and some blocks to at least raise it back up to connect to the truck.

[ncitro]

I could not find anything on the forum about one breaking. It is still under warranty. The dealer said they will likely replace both of them since the good one took the entire weight of the front of the trailer when the other broke. But no, nobody ever told me taking them apart and lubing them was required. It's been 5 years and none of them has ever been apart.
I will watch the link.
The dealer did tell me that they have seen them break before. I am hoping it is relatively rare. But I may throw my floor jack in the truck for longer trips, as I could use that and some blocks to at least raise it back up to connect to the truck.

Nice! glad they’re taking care of it under warranty. Must be an extended, the factory warranty should be long gone.

Yeah it’s a good idea to keep them lubricated for sure, if I fall behind on mine they start squeaking and making all kinds of noise. In particular the shaft screw that runs the length seems to need it.