Troubleshooting Landing Gear That Blows Fuses When Under a Load

Updated 05/06/2020 | Published 10/23/2015

Question:

Our landing Jack is blowing fuses when under a load. It does not blow them without a load. The motor seems to move a loittle in use, even lightly tapping the screw head on the rod. You can see the paint buffed off the nut in the attached picture. Is there a way to oil it? It squeaks a lot when hand cranking. We are traveling and to crank is a lot of work. Thanks

asked by: Garry G

Expert Reply:

Fuses blow because the circuit is getting overdrawn. If the motor of your landing gear is fine but you are still blowing fuses that would indicate that either you are overloading the jack and it is drawing too much amperage, or the next likely candidate would be that the gear box of the jack is damaged and is causing the motor to work too hard to raise or lower the trailer.

If there is a manual lever on your landing gear you could try raising and lower the landing gear with it to determine if the jacks seem like they are too difficult to operate.

Without knowing what landing gear you have it is hard to say how to lubricate it.

expert reply by: Jameson C

Pat A.

4/26/2020

Same problem, but as soon as I hit the switch fuse blows??? Thanks

Chris R.

4/27/2020

If the fuse is blowing as soon as you hit the switch, I wonder if there's some exposed wiring somewhere that's causing a short. The first thing I recommend doing is inspecting the landing gear wiring all the way to the battery to see if you can find any frayed/exposed sections that might be contacting bare metal, fixing/replacing as needed. Just let me know what you find and we'll go from there.

Pat

4/28/2020

Good Morning Chris, I looked for bad wires everything looks goodlet me tell you in a short what happen. Last Oct I had to really put a strain on the lift motor due to leveling the rv in a high slope. The fuse blew twice. After got it home to store for the winter it worked fine. Getting it ready for spring I lowered the jacks to level the rv it worked fine.Waited about two hours tried it again as soon as I hit the switch fuse blows tried 3 times.????? Thanks

Chris R.

4/29/2020

Are you sure that the battery is still fully charged and in good condition? A weak battery could cause this as well, since more strain is being put on the motor when it receives less power than what it needs.

Pat

4/29/2020

@ChrisR Battery shows full charge on the board inside the rv. Put a load test on the battery shows weak. I’ll check it out maybe try new battery. Do u think the motor it self could be weak or bad?? Thanks for all your help ??

Chris R.

4/30/2020

I think the motor is definitely the next place to focus on. You've been able to rule out the other common causes of a recurring blown fuse. If you can let me know what model system you have, or can see a number printed on the existing motor, I would be happy to recommend the right replacement.