A tale of two tongue jacks

[The Sod Father]

I'm guessing I'm not the first Keystone owner to have an issue with the factory installed LCI Power tongue jack. Here's my fun experience.

When I purchased my Bullet Premier in January of 2010 it came with a factory installed LCI power tongue jack. The jack failed on the 2nd or 3rd trip with the new trailer. Seized motor. The dealer replaced it free of charge. That was in 2011. Fast forward 18 months. The jack failed again. This time, the drive mechanism failed. So I called LCI and told them the problem and tried to troubleshoot it. They said, there is no troubleshooting. You need a new one. $290. I said, "even if it is just 18 months old??". She said, "yes, unfortunately you will need to purchase a new jack".

My answer? "well, I guess if I have to purchase a new jack I will. From Barker. Have a nice day sweetheart".

I then called Barker to get a recommendation on which jack would be best suited for my trailer. I called their 800 number and received the following message, "Thank you for calling Barker Manufacturing (yada yada yada). For sales press 1, for service press 2, for accounting press 3. If you hate this automated phone crap, press zero to speak with a real person".

Of course, I pressed zero and thanked the lady for making my day with her recording (she was the same voice on the automated phone crap thingy). She transferred me to sales and apologized it I was going to be on hold for a bit since they were short staffed on Friday (Good Friday).

I got a guy in sales, told him the weight of my trailer and he recommended the jack that was best suited for my trailer. He even gave me the part number to use when ordering.

The moral of the story - well there are a few.

a) Barker makes outstanding tongue jacks. I had one on my 2007 Rockwood and it worked like a champ. One of my camping pals cracked the housing (but the jack still worked). Barker replaced it by replacing the entire jack. After 2 years of ownership, one of the switches crapped out. They replaced it free of charge. Even though I was out of warranty. Their jacks are designed, made and serviced in the USA and are rock solid

b) I love it when a company doesn't take themselves too seriously. Kudos to Barker.

c) LCI makes crappy tongue jacks in my opinion. Correction - their Chinese vendor makes crappy tongue jacks. If you do a Google search on it, you'll see lots of negative feedback on their jacks. And they do not stand by their product.

[davidcyndi]

I agree. I have the link to barker in my favorites for when my jack craps out. Hopefully it doesn't but I am ready. Glad you got your situation sorted.

[labs4life]

Originally Posted by davidcyndi

I agree. I have the link to barker in my favorites for when my jack craps out. Hopefully it doesn't but I am ready. Glad you got your situation sorted.

Funny this is what I see after just using my drill to retract my LCI jack after I hooked up. Been doing some tweaking to the hitch and jack worked flawlessly. Hooking up for a weekend trip and it craps out. Light will not work and up, down switch feels weird. Like it busted from the contacts behind it.

Stopping in at camping world in Chattanooga on the way to get repaired. Might try to work a deal on a Barker!!

[fla-gypsy]

The major players in the tongue jack business all make excellent products and will stand behind them long after the warranty runs out. I have an UltraFab 3500 that is 6+ years old. After 5 years of use the toggle switch broke off. I e mailed UltraFab and they sent me a new one, FREE. That is standing behind the product

[davidcyndi]

Originally Posted by labs4life

Funny this is what I see after just using my drill to retract my LCI jack after I hooked up. Been doing some tweaking to the hitch and jack worked flawlessly. Hooking up for a weekend trip and it craps out. Light will not work and up, down switch feels weird. Like it busted from the contacts behind it.

Stopping in at camping world in Chattanooga on the way to get repaired. Might try to work a deal on a Barker!!

You did check the fuse for the power jack right? I'm sure you did but I don't want you to and it would be something simple like that.

[labs4life]

The in and out switch feels like it is out of its "track". I am on the way out right now to check fuse, but I think the jack is toast. It was smoking at PDI and the dealer checked it out and found water. Dried it out and all was well. I keep it under cover but the jack can get exposed.

[The Sod Father]

Originally Posted by fla-gypsy

The major players in the tongue jack business all make excellent products and will stand behind them long after the warranty runs out. I have an UltraFab 3500 that is 6+ years old. After 5 years of use the toggle switch broke off. I e mailed UltraFab and they sent me a new one, FREE. That is standing behind the product

Agreed. I had an Ultrafab on my hybrid. Worked like a champ.

BTW - Another great American company that stands by their products is Weber. I had the regulator crap out on my Q200. I called their 800 numbers at 8:00 p.m. on a Sunday and a guy (in America) answered the phone. He apologized, diagnosed the issue and sent a new regulator free of charge via 2 day mail.

[apr67]

Glad to hear UltraFab is GTG. (Good to go).

The Ultrafab Odyssey 4000 lbs jack was my first modification to my new 294bhs. I did it about 10 minutes after backing the trailer into my driveway, I never had to use the manual jack as the boys at Camping World did the manual cranking to hook it up to my truck.