landing gear failure on driver's side

[Paul H]

As the title says, I have a problem with the landing gear on the driver's side of my 2012 Cougar 276RLSWE. Here's the story....
I hooked to the truck today to move the 5'er and then went to raise the landing gear. They both began to raise, however, they appeared to be at different levels during retracting. The leg on the driver's side suddenly quit going up and fell free till it hit the ground, meanwhile the other continued to raise. I can grab the leg by hand and slide it up and down into the tube as if there was no gear attached.

My question is... Does this mean a gear stripped on the one side or is there a shear pin, or.......

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Paul H.

[JRTJH]

Paul,

There is a shear pin, actually a grade 5 bolt in the horizontal square rod that drives the "carrier leg". If that shear pin were "sheared" the jack would remain in the same position and simply not go up or down. It would not "fall to the ground". It sounds like you have a gear problem. It could be a stripped gear assembly or it could be that it came apart at the final drive gear which would allow the leg to "free fall". You might want to take it apart and see what's actually damaged/broken/not connected. It doesn't sound like a shear pin issue.

Keep us posted on what you find.

Good luck.

[Festus2]

Paul H -
Yes, there is a shear pin which may have sheared off or a gear or gears may be stripped. I take it that the 5th wheel is now "married" to the truck unless you have a couple of jacks that you can use to raise the 5th wheel up enough so you can drive the truck out.

I've had exactly the same problem on the same side. The gears were a mess and the landing jack on that side - including the motor - had to be disassembled, gears replaced, repacked and reassembled. If you do this yourself, be sure you lay all the parts out in a line and in order - otherwise it will be a real nuisance trying to figure out which part went where and in what order.

My driver's side jack failed twice -- both times hundreds of miles from home - so my truck and 5th wheel spent 4-5 days honeymooning - a marriage made in Hell. I had no way of separating the truck from the 5th wheel other than using two HD bottle jacks and lots of blocking.

I got tired of the repairs and wondering if and when it would fail again so ended up buying a new front landing jack system. Ouch$$$$.

[Paul H]

okay, not what I was hoping to hear! LOL! Thanks John and Jack for the responses. Yes, the 5'er is kind of stuck in place (on the truck). Looking for a nearby RV service center that can fix it for me. Any guesses on how many pennies I'm looking at spending???

Thanks again!

Paul

[Rusty]

I have a bunch of documentation for the Attwood landing gear system, if you want I can send them to you.

I have pricing and the technical drawings in a PDF format.

Had to rebuild both legs on my last fifth wheel. After rebuilding that plus the sewage hookup we traded it in for our present unit.

Any question feel free to send me a message.

[Rusty]

Just trying to upload one of the PDF's let's see how it works.

[JRTJH]

Rusty,

Your attempt at uploading a PDF worked. Thanks much. Any others that you might have that pertain to landing gear would, I'm sure, be welcomed.

[Rusty]

Tried to upload the rebuild PDF and Owners Manual and it says that the files are two large.

Going to have to figure out another way.

[EricLynnAllison]

Today I had the sheer pin break on the drivers side. A skinny guy got a new pin in for me. What trouble am I looking at now that it shared once?

[randy69]

What brand of landing jack do you have ?? .. I just installed dual motors and have a used spare follower jack and the square tube drive shaft. Mine was made by venture. And to get your truck unhitched, it takes 6 ton floor jack on one side and 2 six ton jacks stands and one long 4x4 post to position on both jack stands. I leave my setup year around to help support the weight on the landing.

[Rusty]

I tried to post this yesterday but it was too large a PDF Document, so I will copy and paste the text here, then upload the diagram as a Jpeg.

I hope that this helps everybody.

If anybody wants the original PDF's feel free to message me.

A couple of years ago I went through a summer of rebuilding the whole leg system on our Jazz, including installing a new aluminum Gear reduction box, so I have first hand experience with this stuff, and do not try to cheap out and get knock off parts, if you think a regular split pin will work you are sadly mistaken as it will just do more damage, get the original Spirol pins, I have some spares kicking around......

Venture Landing Gear Rebuild Instructions

Use in conjunction with LG Parts Explosion drawing

Disassembly:

1. Remove 914-10 Top Cover (pry it up with screwdriver). Set aside to reuse.

2. Rotate Drive Shaft until 1020-08 Spirol Pin is vertical. Drive pin out with a hammer and punch. (Pin will fall and probably land on 905-10 Centering Plate. Retrieve pin and discard.)

3. Use a screwdriver to pry 919-00 E-Clip off of Drive Shaft. Discard clip.

4. Slide Drive Shaft out of bushings and 909-00 Bevel Gear. Discard shaft.

5. Remove 909-00 Bevel Gear and two 908-00 Drive Shaft Bushings and discard.

6. Pull up on 910-00 Bevel Gear to disengage it from 920-00 Drive Pin. Discard gear.

7. Slide 920-00 Drive Pin from hole in 1012-03 Jack Screw. Discard pin.

8. Remove 907-00 Shim Washer from 1012-03 Jack Screw and discard.
Reassembly:

1. Apply grease to new 907-00 Shim Washer and slide over end of 1012-03 Jackscrew until it lies on top of 906-10 Thrust Channel.

2. Slip new 920-00 Drive Pin into hole in 1012-03 Jackscrew (just above washer). Center the pin.

3. Apply grease to the bottom of the new 910-00 Bevel Gear and slide down onto end of 1012-03 Jackscrew. Align slot in bottom of 910-00 Bevel Gear so that it will allow 920-00 Drive Pin to seat up inside of gear, and gear will sit on top of 907-00 Shim Washer.

4. Tap top of 910-00 Bevel Gear with hammer to make sure everything is seated properly.

5. Apply grease to teeth of 910-00 Bevel Gear.

6. Apply a bit of grease to two new 908-00 Drive Shaft Bushings and insert them into holes in 901-40 Outer Tube. (Grease is used simply to hold bushings from falling out while assembling.)

7. Take the new 909-00 Bevel Gear and seat it in place as shown in diagram, meshing the teeth with the teeth of the 910-00 Bevel Gear. (Note that this gear goes in the side of the leg that is bulged out.) Roughly line the hole in the gear up with the hole in the bushing, and align the slot in the bottom of the gear such that it is vertical (for ease of driving the pin in).

8. Take the new Drive Shaft (913-00 or 913-01, depending on which leg you are rebuilding), and begin to slide it through the bushings and the gear. Make sure it is oriented correctly regarding the bulged-out side of the leg, as shown in the diagram, and that you are inserting the shaft from the bulged-out side. Hold the gear against bushing, moving it around as you push on the drive shaft until things line up and shaft goes into and through gear.
9. Push shaft through to second bushing so that both ends are supported, but you still have access inside the leg to the groove on the shaft.

10. Take the new 919-00 E-Clip and use pliers to push it into the groove and then tap it until it securely snaps around the shaft.

11. Continue to insert shaft all the way until E-Clip is up against the far bushing. Rotate and adjust shaft until hole lines up with slot in 909-00 Bevel Gear.

12. Use a hammer to drive the new 1020-08 Spirol Pin through the gear and into the drive shaft. Use a punch to drive pin just below surface of outer diameter of gear.

13. Apply grease to teeth of 909-00 Bevel Gear.

14. Depress “legs” of 914-10 Top Cover and insert it back into top of 901-40 Outer Tube. Tap on it to seat it fully.