Atwood level jacks

[granddad]

MY 2008 Phaeton has Attwood jacks, drivers side rear will not retract . Was told there is a way to get it up to get to dealer to fix. Need to know how to do it.

[Luv2go]

Go under the coach and look up at the jack. You'll see a hex nut at the end of the motor (small black arrow in the pic points at it, click to enlarge). Use a drill and an appropriate adapter and socket and turn it, you'll soon figure out which way it needs to go to go up.

[granddad]

Tried to raise the jack with the bolt and the cog is not catching and only makes a clicking noise. Jack does not move at all . They said it could not be towed with back jack down. Would a mobile repair be able to replace a jack ? got one coming today.

[Luv2go]

I suspect you have a broken shear pin. A mobile repair service should be able to replace the jack easily. They can use a bottle jack and jack stands to take the weight off the jack and remove it. On my jacks there are four big bolts holding the jack on the chassis plate. You can see two of them on the left side of the pic above.

If this is the problem the jack leg just falls out of the jack when removed.

I was lucky, my pins always broke when the jacks were raised all the way. What happened then was the jack leg just fell to the ground. All I had to do was wire it up to be able to move.

This will happen again, I'd keep the jack. Even if the repair service does not have a pin you can get one from Atwood and have it the next time one breaks. PM me for my contact if you want to pursue this. If your tech knows how to fix Atwood landing gear he should easily be able to replace the pin. It cost me $20 for a tech to take apart my jack and knock out the bad pin, I got the new pin and put it back together. The next three I did myself.

Here and here are posts from Tiffin owners who have had the same issues, it looks like Tiffin helped defray the cost.

[gimblerotor]

Who did you talk to at Atwood?
I tried to get pins from them but they didn't seem interested in selling me any.
Jake

[DGBPokes]

Our first outing this spring in our "new to us" 07 KSDP, the right front Atwood jack would not retract. Called GS Roadside, guy came out had a long pry bar. Between his pry bar, and me pressing buttons, retract..extend...several times it retracted. Happened a couple of other times, and I was able to get it retracted myself. Read here somewhere, to use 2x12x12 wood pads under them.
I have 8K miles and many, many setups, not one issue using the wood pads. And if it is a long stroke to level, I stack two blocks.

Just MHO....they are designed for the heavy, lift to extend. That big flat iron foot, presses into dirt, mud, asphalt, water underneath etc. and it won't retract. Not designed for the retract torque.

I am budgeting for someday having to replace it, (them), but so far so good. And yep it makes the sound like it has a stripped spot on the gear or shaft.