Atwood LevelLegs AGAIN!

[8Muddypaws]

Spent a few days on 'Bethel Island' at the Sacramento River Delta. We stayed at Sugar Barge RV park. Fairly nice park with a few flaws. #1 was the trees. Our site had 'this tree' that was dropping leaves covered with sticky sap. They stuck to everything! I may have to throw away my most comfortable shoes. Our towed is covered with sap and indeed some of the leaves are still holding on after a 88 mile drive in very high winds. Our fellow campers all had the same problem but our site was by far the worst. Imagine two golden retrievers rolling in sticky leaves. Now imaging them jumping up on the couches and bed. Yeah. That! But we had a good time annyway and and found a Mexican restaurant that made really good chili rellenos.

When I retracted my jacks in preparation to depart one of them broke internally and dropped the foot of the Jack to the ground.

Yeah, It's all my fault for saying it's not a matter of 'if' but one of 'when'. (You'd think I'd know better by now, but nooooooooo!)

I climbed under the rig with a 3/4" open end wrench and a 3/4" socket, because as you know I've done this before.
The sun was very bright but that didn't help me because it's dark under there and everything is either painted black or covered in road grime. I asked for a flashlight and my camping buddies all had a big laugh but one of them finally handed me a tiny little keychain light. But it worked. It's tight quarters and dark.

Four nuts&bolts later the broken jack is out and laying on the ground. If you're ever in a similar situation remember to take the control panel off and remove the only connector or it's going to sound an alarm as soon as you put the transmission in gear. It will continue to alarm until you disconnect it. Naturally one of the screws holding the control panel disappeared completely.

I think I know which part broke but I won't be sure until I take the cover off the gearbox. If it is what I suspect I actually have a few spares.

I'll take pictures of the repair and maybe someone will find it useful.

 

[garyb1st]

You're becoming the forums resident expert on Atwood LevelLegs. Good luck with the fix. I've got the same jacks so am interested in what you learn.

 

[John From Detroit]

If that is an Attwood/power gear system there is an easier way to disable the "Jacks down" alarm

Find the pump. Find the tank attached to the pump. There are two wires coming out of it with a "Flat 2" connector. Unplug. Then turn one half and plug in just one wire (That way it does not get lost) That's the float sensor and "Closed" = Jacks down so when you only half plug it sees "Open" or Tank full thus jacks up. Missing screw no tribble.

 

[8Muddypaws]

John,

It's a completely mechanical system. No pumps. They look like this:

 

[Domo]

We trashed ours and went with Quadra BigFoot. No regrets, other than not going to the factory where they do professional installs.

Ours were still operable, however we always were fully loaded (full time at the time) and the original rear levelers were only 10 K each and we were carrying 20K on the rear axle, so they end up "clutching" we got tired of that and finally sold them and recouped 50% of the upgrade cost to BigFoot - meanwhile another member had the benefit of spare parts for their own equipment.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

If that is an Attwood/power gear system there is an easier way to disable the "Jacks down" alarm

Just for the recrod, Atwood & Power Gear are two different companies with nothing in common.

 

[8Muddypaws]

Sometimes it pays to be a packrat.

I took the Jack apart this morning and had it put back together in under two hours.

There is a clutch mechanism in the lower leg that has two shear pins. As I suspected one of them did what shear pins do. I didn't just replace the pin, oh heck no! That would have been too easy. I used the lower leg assembly from a broken Jack I've had squirreled away in my garage for a few years.

While I put the Franken-Jack back together I lubed all the moving parts 'just because'.

I took pictures and will add them to the Atwood LevelLegs document in the resource section when I get time. I have lots of projects.