Community Forums

max49 · 06-19-2010, 09:09 PM

I know there are alot of smart mechanically and electronically talented people on this forum. I could name alot of them but I don't think I should. I believe some of them could design and build their own leveling jack system.
Having said that; if you already had 4 good jacks and a good hydraulic pump and all you really need is 5 hot switches to operate it, 1 to turn it on, 1 for the right rear, one for left rear, one for the front and one to retract them all, why is it so hard to find someone who would do this .I just want the perfectly good jacks to get a signal to go up and down for heavens sake. The alternative seems to be trouble shooting all of the existing electonics including all of the menacing and sometimes dangerous safty devices, and then ordering over priced electrical parts from a mfgr that may take weeks or more to get the parts to the shop.
Do mechanics really think that the entire jack system is useless unless you buy a $312 touch pad or a $500 control panel form the mfgr? Remember when jacks did'nt have the control panels or touch pads? Just a simple light to warn you the jacks were down? We are smart people, we know when to put our parking brake one, we know not to put our jacks down at 70 MPH. If we make a huge mistake, we pay for it and it hurts less than paying for the mfgrs mistakes.
I guess I just wanted to rant but I can't believe these mechanics and shops aren't more innovative than they want to let us know. I worked in road contruction and heavy trucks for 40 years and the field mechanics almost always figured out a way to fix any electrical problem and almost always just ran new wires and switches if they needed it quick.
So what do you guys think it is? They make more money if they order oem replacement parts rather than just fix it? Or ?

gbs2320 · 06-20-2010, 05:54 AM

1. Potential liability.
2. Customer dissatisfaction if the custom repair goes bad.
3. Losing the markup on the more expensive oem parts.
4. etc. etc.

Not necessarily in that order. Greg

TrekPR · 06-20-2010, 07:38 AM

I went to Dinosaur Electronics but couldn't find anything for jacks, seemed like it might be up their alley. If I were going to do this the switches would be put in the same compartment as the pump with a adjustable level to tell me when the coach was level. I'm not a great mechanic but think I could build a switch board and get the jacks to go up and down. I don't see where you could hurt a whole lot by disconnecting from the switch and control module and trying to get the jacks to work.

cj5 jeeper · 06-20-2010, 11:03 PM

My motorhome has HWH automatic levelers. They are junk, only work if the ground is level. When the big box in the basement has a problem I will change to 4 momentary swiches.