Landing gear not working

[Uwharrie]

So our 2014 Cougar 5th all of a sudden decided not to move the landing gear. it worked for disconnect and now seem DIW. Battery is good. fuses seem good plugged into shore power. Not sure what gives.. will not go up or down. plugged and unplugged from shore. flipped all the breakers still nothing

[Uwharrie]

and as side note everything else is working. Hubby just found a fuse between motor and switch that was blown (30amp) any idea why it would blow?

[JRTJH]

He found the fuse, probably located "above his head, center of the front compartment... 12 VDC motors draw voltage and as the load goes up, the draw on the motor (amperage) goes up. If the battery is "not fully charged" the amperage will go up faster than normal. Chances are the battery was "partially charged" and when he pressed the "up switch" the load on the landing gear motor was greater than the "volts" available from the battery and the amps increased causing the fuse to blow.

That fuse is not one to blow frequently, but with a low battery, it will sometimes "protect the motor from excessive amperage draw"....

[Uwharrie]

I think that is spot on. Thanks for the insight

[CedarCreekWoody]

The reasons stated above are why the manufacturer recommends being plugged into shore power (or on generator) before activating the leveling stabilizer or deploying the slideouts.

[Uwharrie]

It usually is plugged in however we had the drive reworked last week and had to move the camper. he forgot to plug back in .

[Keystoned]

The reasons stated above are why the manufacturer recommends being plugged into shore power (or on generator) before activating the leveling stabilizer or deploying the slideouts.

So no boondocking allowed? I would hope being plugged into a running tow vehicle will also work...

[flybouy]

So no boondocking allowed? I would hope being plugged into a running tow vehicle will also work...

I think the key "takeaway" would be to have a fully charged battery before operating the slides or landing gear. Having it plugged into the truck will offer some additional amperage but that would limited by the wire size between the truck and the trailer. Having the trailer plugged into the shore power would give the full amperage of the converter. A "good" battery (deep cycle not a battery for a small car) should be fine to set up, as long as you have a means to fully recharge it.

[Canonman]

We've often used our landing gear, ground control leveling and slides without being on shore power with no problem. I think the OP's problem was an un-level site that may have put a bind on the landing gear causing the fuse to blow.

[flybouy]

He found the fuse, probably located "above his head, center of the front compartment... 12 VDC motors draw voltage and as the load goes up, the draw on the motor (amperage) goes up. If the battery is "not fully charged" the amperage will go up faster than normal. Chances are the battery was "partially charged" and when he pressed the "up switch" the load on the landing gear motor was greater than the "volts" available from the battery and the amps increased causing the fuse to blow.

That fuse is not one to blow frequently, but with a low battery, it will sometimes "protect the motor from excessive amperage draw"....

To add to John's excellent points there are other causes. The battery(s) may be fine but if the connections, any of them between the battery and the motor is corroded, then that will cause higher resistance and then create a higher amp draw to do the same amount of "work".

[chunker]

To add to John's excellent points there are other causes. The battery(s) may be fine but if the connections, any of them between the battery and the motor is corroded, then that will cause higher resistance and then create a higher amp draw to do the same amount of "work".

To add to that. On my GFs 5th wheel the switch connections are not the best and sometime I have to open the compartment, wiggle the wires going to the switch and it works. Should I fix it, yes but I only move the trailer 2-3 times a year so have lived with that inconvenience. Plus I don't think about it later.

[jim1]

Hi, I just picked up our 2019 315RLS from storage without the battery's in it. I wasn't sure if the landing gear would work just off of the truck plug, but it worked fine just seemed little slower than usual. But surprised and happy it worked. It was just the 2 front jacks.

[JRTJH]

Hi, I just picked up our 2019 315RLS from storage without the battery's in it. I wasn't sure if the landing gear would work just off of the truck plug, but it worked fine just seemed little slower than usual. But surprised and happy it worked. It was just the 2 front jacks.

A word of caution !!!!! The landing gear "may have seemed to work just fine" without a battery in the trailer and "just connected to the truck plug".... BUT it was "drawing excessive amps (just not enough to blow the fuse) with a very probable voltage drop over that 14 ga "alloy wire" from the truck electrical system to the plug at the truck bumper....

If you look at any "DC wiring/voltage drop chart" you'll see that for every 5' of wire length you have a voltage drop of around 1 VDC. With any DC wiring, you must calculate the distance "from the battery to the battery" (that means double the measured distance), so in reality, every 5' of wire length really means 2 VDC drop.

I'd urge you not to rely (even for a "one time quickie convenience") on the truck plug to be the "sole source of power" for your landing gear, slides or leveling system.... When you consider that you're "doing great" to get a 5 amp charge rate through that wire while towing, you're also doing "great" to get a 5 amp charge through that wire to run the 20 amp DC motor in the landing gear system.....

In other words, you were lucky "this time".... Don't consider it as a "regular way to raise the trailer pin" You're going to be replacing your landing gear motor much sooner than someone who has never done that...…

[jim1]

Good to know Thanks for the great info.

[mtofell]

Over-running the range of motion on either end can also blow that fuse (over-running meaning keeping your finger on the switch when gear is all the way up or down). The same thing can also shear the bolt in the cross-bar that powers the side opposite the motor. I carry spare bolts in case this ever happens. The bolts are a planned weak point so don't put stronger ones in. Just carry spares. Not sure if this is OP's problem but just good info to know to keep from being stranded.

[Quiroule]

One sure way to blow the fuse is to try to go past the maximum movement point.

[Keystoned]

So I learned something about using the system this week...and it makes sense if you think about it. After disconnecting from the 5w hitch I hit the autolevel switch and it got stuck on the front gear...turns out it needed to be nose down to be level and ran out of range. It didn't say so but after reconnecting and leaving more space between the ground and jack feet it worked pretty quickly.
Note to self; get a good front to rear level indicator near the control box to know in advance where it needs to end up. That way I can adjust the front feet correctly the first time.

[Uwharrie]

OP here- we have not had the camper out but a few times since my first post. we have had a blown fuse two more times- each time camper was parked at house on shore power- gear worked fine with unhitching and leveling-

month or so later go to hitch up and fuse is blown again-

[CedarCreekWoody]

Have you had the battery load tested.

[BookPaul74]

I had an Alfa that would pop the fuse from time to time. Pulled the landing gear out and cleaned and replaced the grease. Still happened. Was going to replace the wiring with heavier wiring and use relays to control them. But before I did that I pulled the switch to check the wiring and just for the heck of it I turned the switch over so up was down and vise versa, it was just a heavy duty toggle switch. Never had a problem again. Figure the contacts had been burned and was not making a good connection and blowing the fuse. More load raising the fifth wheel than lowering it.

The motor might be pulling to much amperage.