Front jack failure 2020 Momentum 398 M

[Dive Bar Casanova]

The hydraulic pump comes on, but front jacks don't move. They try but nope, ain't liftin nothin'.
Suspect valve failure.

Any tips to get it fixed?
We need to take it to the dealer tomorrow for warranty repairs and can't hitch it up while it's laying on its nose.

Thanks for any tips.

[TucsonJim]

Quite often the failure to move is caused by low voltage in the batteries. When a load is placed on the jacks, it causes high current flow due to low voltage. This will exceed the circuit breaker rating and cause the jacks to not move.

Are you plugged into shore power while trying to lift it? If not, can you reach shore power?

Jim

[Dive Bar Casanova]

Quite often the failure to move is caused by low voltage in the batteries. When a load is placed on the jacks, it causes high current flow due to low voltage. This will exceed the circuit breaker rating and cause the jacks to not move.

Are you plugged into shore power while trying to lift it? If not, can you reach shore power?

Jim

Thanks Jim:

Fresh batteries and plugged in, fully charged.
It wants to lift then with power off it gives up what ever little gain it made and goes completely down.
Maybe those new batteries ain't so new so I'll take your advise and check that out.

All the other 4 jacks work perfect.

[TedS]

Try to manually extend by driving the pump with a drill motor and adapter. There should be access to the socket on the end of the motor shaft. There should be manual overrides on the directional valves. Close the slide valves. Open the landing leg valve. The pump is reversible, determine the direction to extend the legs by experimenting with the drill rotation direction.

Lacking that working, you'll have to use a jack or jacks to lift the nose to get hitched.

[TedS]

[Dive Bar Casanova]

Thanks that'll get me to the dealer.
Appreciate the help very much.

[Jlawles2]

Dive Bar Casanova Sorry if this is a bit late (been out of town hunting for a few days), but let us know if you did get the over ride to work.

If the front has leaked down over time, then I would agree there is probably a valve leaking, or a cylinder leaking internally (I would think this would be only 1 jack showing problems though). Worst case, you may need a floor jack and several rounds of blocking, but you should be able to lift the front of the trailer using a jack to get it high enough to hitch to the truck.

You may also try using the floor jack to lift the trailer and then extend the jacks to see if they will take over (jacks bottomed out sometimes cannot get enough oil on top of the piston to pick the loads if not properly designed) or at least hold the load while jacking.

[Dive Bar Casanova]

20.000 lb trailer no floor jack will lift. No hard point on the trailer to lift at either.

We took it to the dealer and of course after a month they did nothing.

So, I called Grand Design and got a a friendly, helpful rep on the phone.
He told me it's probably some debris or fouling in the valve body.
They can video walk me through a remedy to clean it out.

I was in a remote location with spotty, cutting-out cell service so I'll call back today from home and we'll continue with the fix.

[Jlawles2]

Dive Bar Casanova The front of the trailer at the jack location should not be that heavy I picked up the front of my 303 (much ligher) with a 3 ton bottle jack. Even at the offset, the pin box weight is not going to be over 4k (2 ton) so at the jacks it may be 6k - 8k. Might be hard to find a big enough floor jack, but they do have them out there.

Make a trip to Tractor supply and pick up a couple of 3 ton or better bottle jacks and use them to hold up the front of the trailer while working on the Valve body. Jack on the frame near the jacks avoiding any gas lines or wiring.

You can also use the jacks should they be needed to change tires. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/pr...on-bottle-jack under $20 each.

[Dive Bar Casanova]

1. Passenger side propane cabinet top of Jack turn Allen nut on top fully closed. - That’s counter clockwise.
Exercise jacks.

Step 2.If that doesn’t do it open the Allen screw clock wise and exercise jacks, then close counter-clockwise.

Step 2 did the trick and POP! It worked.

If none of the above works replace valve.
I will order a valve to keep on hand.

BTW I asked the Rep if a quart of hydraulic additives is OK and he said yes.
Suggested the CAT or motorcycle fork oil.

Remove a quart from the tank and replace with a quart of the additive.
I found the additive at our local Caterpillar dealer

[Dive Bar Casanova]

Dive Bar Casanova The front of the trailer at the jack location should not be that heavy I picked up the front of my 303 (much ligher) with a 3 ton bottle jack. Even at the offset, the pin box weight is not going to be over 4k (2 ton) so at the jacks it may be 6k - 8k. Might be hard to find a big enough floor jack, but they do have them out there.

Make a trip to Tractor supply and pick up a couple of 3 ton or better bottle jacks and use them to hold up the front of the trailer while working on the Valve body. Jack on the frame near the jacks avoiding any gas lines or wiring.

You can also use the jacks should they be needed to change tires. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/pr...on-bottle-jack under $20 each.

Thanks for those tips.
I have a Harbor freight bottle Jack I’ll now carry along.

[Scott'n'Wendy]

Congrats on getting it fixed yourself.
So the dealer had it for a month and did nothing.......did they charge you storage?...lol

[Dive Bar Casanova]

Congrats on getting it fixed yourself.
So the dealer had it for a month and did nothing.......did they charge you storage?...lol

Nahhh,,, they just got busy and they got behind. Then guys out sick.They were cool.

They are a terrific dealer none the less. I'm one of those customers that doesn't get worked up. Plenty of other customers ahead of me doing that.

Loose your head and your @$$ soon follows.
I actually tipped the guy that changed out the batteries $20.
Nothing like four fresh 6V batteries. Everything works superb.

[Dive Bar Casanova]

I’m hearing some have used Marvel Mystery oil instead of the CAT additive with success.