Landing gear motor loose.

[CentralCoastCampers]

When unhooking by trailer, I noticed the landing gear motor sounded different. I open the compartment and saw that the motor was turning not quite 1/4 turn from its normal position. When I reversed the landing gear, the motor popped back to the original position. Reversed again, and same thing. Before I tear it all apart, how is the motor suppose to be mounted? I couldn't really tell where it mounts to.

Trailer is an '05 Challenger 34 TBH

[Festus2]

In our landing gear set-up, the motor is connected to a gear box. This gearbox does have some back and forth movement and when you flip the switch and engage the motor, the gear box and motor do tend to move slightly either forward or back - depending upon whether you are raising or lowing the landing gear.

Some movement of the motor and gearbox is normal but it should not be rotating 1/4 turn - that is 90 degrees from its original position - a significant and unusual rotation.

You might want to check to see if any of the bolts that hold the motor to the gear box have come loose and retighten if necessary.

If the motor is making any unusual sounds, that could also indicate problems within the landing gear mechanism itself or a gearbox issue.

Let us know how you make out.

[CentralCoastCampers]

The noise was caused by a screw hitting the motor housing. The screw is on the rod that goes to the other side. I will check the bolts that go to the gear, wasn't sure how they were connected, and not an easy place to get a good view of it. Thanks for the reply.

[Festus2]

I know about that same bolt/screw as it too rubbed against the motor. To solve this I took a long plastic tie strap and put it around the motor and the propane gas line pipe that runs across the top of the compartment. I cinched the strap up just enough so that the rotating rod and bolt were not rubbing against the motor. Problem solved.

[CentralCoastCampers]

One of the two bolts holding the motor on had some extra metal on the head that hadn't been trimmed off during production. Of course, the installer used it anyway, not allowing the bolt to seat into the recess. This allowed the bolt to strip out the plastic threads, and bend the bolt. Replaced the bolt and that helped, but when the landing gear hit the top, the whole thing twisted again. Reversing the motor turned it to where it should be.

Will either stop the motor before it hits the top, or come up with a way to secure the bottom to the framework (another great use of zip ties).

There's about a 1/4 inch deep, 3/4 in long divot in the aluminum housing from the fore mentioned screw.

[Festus2]

Running the landing gear all the way to the bottom may damage your landing gear and/or the motor. Many folks have put a piece of yellow tape on the landing gear at the position where the landing gear is about 1 1/2 or 2" from being fully extended. This tape serves as both a guide and warning that you should take your finger off the switch and stop the landing gear before it reaches its maximum extension. If it goes a slight bit beyond, the fuse will often blow. A strip of red tape can also be used in addition to or instead of yellow.

Not sure if the same caution applies to retracting the landing gear but it seems that it would.

I'm not overly impressed with the front landing gear as it seems just adequate to raise and lower the 5th wheel. I'd like to see a bigger motor and more study and heavier duty gear mechanism and rod used.