Lubing GroundControl jacks

[klassic]

Here’s a little guide for lubing the electric jacks.
I am aware of the tube method and pumping it full of grease, but I’m not a fan of that way. I don’t even know how well it would even work with the threaded rod stop at the end of the rod.

This post is for the middles and rears
Unbolt the jack…take off the motor. I did them one at a time so I wouldn’t mix anything up.
Take out the the cotter pin and push out the pin. Pull off the coupler, then take the washer and bearing off. Pay attention to its orientation, so you can reinstall correctly.
Lift the outer leg off, hopefully the inside bearing and washer stayed on the rod, so you can see its orientation to reinstall.. it could be stuck inside the outer leg.

Then thread the rod right out the bottom of the leg. The leg is short enough that you can grab the rod at the bottom and it can reinstalled. This is the difference between the shorter rears and the longer front jacks, the rod isn’t long enough to get out the bottom on the front (More on that below)

Check the threads on the rod and check the threads in the block, then grease up the rod and reinstall. Leave the old ball of grease inside (you can see it inside the leg at the top)
Then repack the two bearings. My one, out of 8, was pretty dry.
Reinstall the bearings and washer PROPERLY.
I used a high pressure bearing grease to grease everything. It seemed to be a little thicker than OEM. It’s all I had handy. It needs to be high pressure and thick enough not to drop out after it starts balling up
If any one else knows of a good grease that should be used, comment.

[klassic]

Here is a way to grease up the front jacks.

Put the trailer on your truck …Take out the jacks. It might look harder than it is.
Depending on if Lippert caught the mistake on your rig, you will probably have to cut the passenger side bolts off to get that one out, then get new bolts.
The clamps will need to be opened a little to release the pressure on the jack. I hit mine with a short piece of 2x4 and a hammer.
The leg will come out with the motor on, or you can take it off first (makes the leg even easier to come out. (Probably depends on the model too). To get the motor off, take out the two 13mm bolts. The one on the back side is tricky.

Everything is the same to get the threaded rod out as the rear jack rod removal above. Except there is no bearing and washer under the coupling, it’s just a spacing collar. The bearing is on top of the rod inside…take note on its orientation, and it could be stuck inside the outer leg.

To unthread the rod out the bottom, you need to make a tool because the rod is still inside the inner leg by 8”, so you can’t reach it.
I used a 16” piece of tubing with a 1” ID, it squeezes right over the tread stopper on the end of the rod and you can use it to thread the rod out and to install it by dropping it back in while eying up the block hole.

Otherwise do the same process as the rear jacks above.
Make sure you orient the pin hole on the bottom of the inner leg properly when putting the inner leg back into the outer leg. If it’s wrong then the pull pin won’t go into the adjustable legs again and everything will have to come apart to make it right.


When putting the jacks back in..after getting the clamp bolts in, keep them loose and lower the jack, with the controller, to put some pressure on it. This way the expanded notch on the back of the jack will press against the mounting bracket and not want to ever slide inside the clamps.

[DrSmart]

Thanks klassic. Great information. Now that you have an intimate knowledge of the innards of the front landing gear, do you think it would be possible to extend the legs, drill a hole large enough through the outer leg to inject grease into the upper section? The placement of the hole would have to be 'X' inches down from the top of the outer leg assembly. I know it would be optimal to do it the way you did, but just wondering.

[klassic]

You could cut the upper expanded section out..and maybe drill a hole down farther and spray the threads. I don’t know how good a spray type lube would do, because the threads are under a huge amount of pressure lifting the trailer.
If you could actually get grease in there it would scrape off, as it does inside the inner leg, on top of the inner leg (the picture above with the bearing) and start balling up on the top and causing a hydraulic lock. The top of the inner leg stops tight against the outer leg, the grease would have to displace or lock up. To displace it would start squishing out the top of the outer leg and down the sides.

Maybe there is a spray type lube good enough for this kind of application?
It would be hard to cover the whole rod though.

[DrSmart]

What about a heavier oil for injection into the upper through a hole? Product has a small nipple that could accommodate an appropriate sized hole as opposed to cutting out the bump stop.Should expel between legs when compressed as leg is raised. Could even expel through openings at bump stops. Various means to apply grease to the lower end. 1" tubing or halved length of 1 1/2 pvc pipe to form a C-channel filled with grease. You've probably seen all the videos.

[klassic]

If there was a way to keep thick oil in there then there would be no problem.
Anything thinner than grease is going to run onto the ground.
The grease I put on was pretty much scraped off as the rod was rethreaded through the block. I’m just hoping a film of grease will stay on.

The tube method would just use a ton of grease filling the tube before any got onto the threads. There’s a stop welded around the bottom of the rod, so it would scrape half the grease out of the tube when pulling the tube off, leaving a giant mess.

If you want to drill or cut a jack, I think you would have to pull it off to do it, and take out the inner leg so no metal gets on anything. Then you’ll see how there really isn’t many options to keep lube on the rod.
Once there was holes cut it would be easy to keep spraying the rod, but getting all of it would be the hard part.

[DrSmart]

Thanks again for your insight and guidance klassic. I'll have a look at the legs next time we're at the trailer. I think the driver side will be the hardest to remove.