Bulldog BD500199 Jack Extends But Won't Always Retract

Updated 08/27/2020 | Published 08/26/2020

Question:

I installed the Bulldog BD500199 4000lb electric jack. Everything works fine, except the retract function is sporadic. Most often it does not work and I have to use the manual crank. However it does sometime work just fine. Any idea what it happening here and what I might do to fix this problem? Should I return the jack? The extend functions works fine every time.

asked by: Paul J

Expert Reply:

According to Bulldog, what you are experiencing is most likely a ground issue, believe it or not. They suggest a couple of options to confirm this.

1) If power is getting to the jack, but it's not retracting, it's either a bad motor, a bad switch or a poor ground connection. The ground is the easiest to confirm, so start there. You can test this by turning on the lamp and extending/retracting the jack. If the lamp goes out while trying to operate the jack, it's a ground problem. Remove the cover and find where the ground wire attaches to the gear box. Find the white wire terminal screw and loosen it by 2 turns, then re-tighten the screw. If the light remains on it's likely a switch problem. More on that below.

2) The hardware that mounts the jack to the trailer tongue is what makes the ground connection to the trailer connector. When you're retracting the jack, not as much force is being placed on this connection which can explain the inconsistent preformace. Make sure the star washers were used under the mounting flange so they're sandwiched between the flange and the trailer tongue so they bite into the metal for a good connection. Occasionally, the powder coating is applied so it's too thick on top of the jack mounting flange. You can improve the connection by sanding it down to bare metal at each hole location as shown in the provided diagram. Then retorque the bolts to 15-20 lb feet.

If either of these two steps fail to resolve the problem, it's almost certainly the switch and not the motor, since the motor still clearly works. A replacement switch is available as part # BD500363.

expert reply by: Mike L