Electric Jack stopped working!

Rebecca · 06-10-2016, 02:15 PM

Hi! I don't know which area to post this under, but it seems everyone on here has some electricity knowledge. Today while we were getting ready to leave our campsite, the electric hitch (BAL power hitch) stopped working before it was hooked onto the ball head. I thought maybe our trailer battery was suddenly dead, but it still showed two bars and also the trailer lights were working and so was the light on the jack. I was a little panicked wondering how we would manage to get it onto the truck. I could see no way to manually override either. I went into the trailer and pulled a few fuses to start checking (since I didn't know what else to do) One of them turned out the trailer lights and when I plugged it back in I heard a little fan whirring noise, and we tried the hitch again and it worked (HUGE relief) So now that the trailer is home and off the truck, once again the hitch is dead. This time no fuse pulling works. Does ANYONE have a clue what might be going on? We have another trip scheduled in just a week and a half. Thank you so much for reading my rant.

mitechie · 06-10-2016, 02:35 PM

When this happened to me I was blowing the fuse right off the battery. I kept tripping it because if I ran up the power jack too far up it would push the motor and it would blow the fuse. I learned to let it be with the jack partially down a few inches and was ok from there.

Just an idea on where to look at. This fuse was in the battery box itself and not in the trailer or truck.

TeamFoxy · 06-10-2016, 02:51 PM

I had the same issue and it turned out to be a faulty in-line fuse holder. The contact was just no good. If I opened the holder and held the load side end to the battery, the jack worked. If I held the fuse against the battery terminal, the jack worked. Have the fuse holder with fuse connected properly, nothing.

The other possibility is a faulty ground connection.

Frankp877 · 06-10-2016, 03:08 PM

I've done the same thing with my jack and for the life of me I can't find the fuse. Is it inside the camper or out on the tongue? There's a wire look that runs along the tongue then into the camper. Could it be in there?

Rebecca · 06-10-2016, 03:52 PM

So, after searching online I found out there is a way to manually raise and lower the jack and I found the crank (buried underneath my trailer)...(I should also add that when we bought our trailer brand new they gave us a "complete" walk through and failed to show us this,,and lots of other stuff.) Being complete newbies we had no idea of what to even ask. Anyway I'm relieved to know we can always do the jack by hand if necessary. So after trying the hand crank today, it now works again...??? I don't know what's going on. Also I can't find a fuse anywhere on the jack either. I look forward to hearing more responses. And THANK YOU!!

glsimms · 06-10-2016, 04:16 PM

O.K. I'm goin' with the most obvious because I also had this problem with my jack not working. I literally disassembled it completely and found nothing wrong. Until I noticed the nuts on the battery terminals weer not tight and VOILA!! The jack worked after tightening them down.

Jhs · 06-10-2016, 05:37 PM

There is a 30 amp fuze right behind the batteries, attatached to the frame. A black junction box out side of it is a holder for a fuze.

Sundancer330 · 06-10-2016, 06:07 PM

I have heard the newer models have a 30 amp auto reset fuse for the jack. Its now located inside the trailer in various locations usually near the front. But like anything they can fail and not as easy to replace as an ATC fuse.

**norty1** · 06-10-2016, 06:18 PM

If your power jack has a light on it, use it to determine if power is present. Many of these power jacks have a auto-resettable fuse in addition to a standard fuse. They may be anywhere in the circuit. start at the battery, it should be a separate wire and routed along the tongue to the motor.

Usually this is caused by running the motor past it's high or low limits.

Seann45 · 06-11-2016, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by norty1

If your power jack has a light on it, use it to determine if power is present. Many of these power jacks have a auto-resettable fuse in addition to a standard fuse. They may be anywhere in the circuit. start at the battery, it should be a separate wire and routed along the tongue to the motor.

Usually this is caused by running the motor past it's high or low limits.

On some of these the auto reset breaker is on the inside of the jack housing. You just have to wait (up to 15 min) for it to reset

TeamFoxy · 06-17-2016, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frankp877

I've done the same thing with my jack and for the life of me I can't find the fuse. Is it inside the camper or out on the tongue? There's a wire look that runs along the tongue then into the camper. Could it be in there?

In my case the jack is wired directly to the battery and has an In-line fuse holder between the battery and the jack. There is a second wire to a different type of fuse on the power to the trailer. There was no negative wire as the jack grounds to the trailer frame. Initially, I thought that the ground might have been poor and added a wire from one of the jack bolts to the battery negative. I figured it could not hurt anything and there would be less voltage drop.

If the jack is wired from the inside of the trailer, your issue could very well be that there is too much of a voltage drop to operate the jack when the battery is on the low side.

Sylvia47 · 06-18-2017, 01:38 PM

2015 Jayco travel trail: cannot lower back jacks, front ones are working but not the back. Help!!!!

Macrosill · 06-18-2017, 05:05 PM

When my tongue jack stopped working it was the switch. The switch itself has some corrosion on the contacts and this caused a condition where power was present at the jack but it would not work. A new switch fixed it right up. I now keep a bucket upside down over the jack to keep the weather off it while not in use.

Sylvia47 · 06-18-2017, 09:34 PM

Thank you! Will try that.

edbobh · 07-09-2018, 12:27 PM

power goes down but not up What could be the problem

Trailma · 08-25-2018, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jhs

There is a 30 amp fuze right behind the batteries, attatached to the frame. A black junction box out side of it is a holder for a fuze.

Trolling old posts to see if I could find out why my jack and light weren’t working. (In the process found that the positive battery cable connector was not even crimped onto the cable.) This was it. The fuse is not in the junction box, but right next to it. The inline fuse was fine. Also found that my truck had blown the fuse to the tt power line.

Jbjorem · 04-28-2019, 08:56 AM

My issue was the inline tube fuse coming from the jack itself. The insde connection was rusted out, with the spring too! Cleaned the rust moved around and working fine now. Found by leaving jack light to "position". Once light came on, knew where problem was. Also i repkeced 30 amp fuse near front junction box with an Auto reset fuse, or carry 10 30 amp with you. Always seems to blow when you raise jack passed the line. Hope this helps and happy RVing!

North of 49° · 04-28-2019, 08:59 AM

I had to deal with this just yesterday. In my case, there was just enough corrosion on the ring terminal that connects to the battery to prevent the jack from getting enough power to work. Clean up the terminals and all is well.

Ohiofinlander · 04-28-2019, 04:49 PM

Our jack quit working, and found the connection point directly below the controls was corroded. Cleaned them up, and all was good.

Swampy · 04-28-2019, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rebecca

Hi! I don't know which area to post this under, but it seems everyone on here has some electricity knowledge. Today while we were getting ready to leave our campsite, the electric hitch (BAL power hitch) stopped working before it was hooked onto the ball head. I thought maybe our trailer battery was suddenly dead, but it still showed two bars and also the trailer lights were working and so was the light on the jack. I was a little panicked wondering how we would manage to get it onto the truck. I could see no way to manually override either. I went into the trailer and pulled a few fuses to start checking (since I didn't know what else to do) One of them turned out the trailer lights and when I plugged it back in I heard a little fan whirring noise, and we tried the hitch again and it worked (HUGE relief) So now that the trailer is home and off the truck, once again the hitch is dead. This time no fuse pulling works. Does ANYONE have a clue what might be going on? We have another trip scheduled in just a week and a half. Thank you so much for reading my rant.

Rebecca;
I had a similar problem on my 2014 287BHBE when it was a few months old. I did some troubleshooting and found that rainwater had been seeping into the control housing at the top of the jack. The water had completely corroded the switch and the light switch was intermittent. Since it was under warranty, I removed the jack & brought it back to the dealer for replacement. They gave me a new jack and I installed it in about 15 minutes. I now keep a 5 gallon plastic bucket covering the jack and I have not had any more electrical problems with it. Just don't extend it too far or retract it too far because that will blow the jack fuste. Since you found the manual override and the crank, you should be good to go if it fails on you again. BTW, if you misplace the crank, you can use a regular socket with a 1/4" drive and ratchet (Possibly even a 3/8" drive and ratchet if the hole is large enough.)
..... Swampy .....

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