Power Gear Leveling Jacks

[Craig1959]

Just wondering if anyone has any experience repairing Power Gear hydraulics?

I have a 2008 Gulf Stream Independence (Ford F53, 35') with manual Power Gear leveling system. The reservoir is full to (1/4" below top) and both hydraulic slide-outs running off the same pump work fine.

When I turn the key to the run position, all lights flash on the Power Gear control panel. The pump runs for about 5 seconds and then stops. Visually the jacks appear fully retracted. Pressing on/off stops the flashing lights. The system will now stay off until the key is set to run again.

Any thoughts or experience?

Thanks, Craig

[RV Wizard]

Hello Craig and welcome to iRV2.com and to the Gulf Stream Owners Forum. We are glad to have you join us here and we look forward to reading of your adventures and experiences. I am sure you will enjoy the website and forums. Good luck and keep us posted.
Craig, the problem you are having is a fault lockout or the system has lost its programming. Do you have the model and/or owners manual. If so, you can go to www.powergearus.com.com and download the reset procedure for your system. Since it is an 08 it could be one where you hold down all four diamond buttons after turning the system on or it could be the revision where you hold down the on/off button when the unit is off until they all flash. Once you get all the lights to flash up push the retract all button. If you still get a fault, look at what lights are flashing; this is the area or problem with a jack. Let us know what you find.

[Craig1959]

Mike,

Thanks for the tip. I will try doing a reset.

The keypad has P/N 140-1179 which others have unfortunately reported as problematic.

It has no arrows. Just ON/OFF, RET ALL, F, LF, RR, RR. Lights are WAIT, JACKS DOWN, ENGAGE PARK / NEUTRAL, ENGAGE PARK BRAKE.

Thanks again!

[Craig1959]

I was able to fix this problem by getting information from other users. Note that Power Gear nor their Website had this information.

Here's the procedure for those who do a search down the road.

Power Gear Leveling Jacks with Dewald Manual System Touchpad #140-1179

Problem: All lights flashing. Pumps runs but jacks are inoperative.
Solution: Reset Keypad as follows

1. Press F and R buttons together and then release.
2. Press LR button 3 times. On/Off light will now flash
3. Press On/Off until the On/Off lights remains on continuously. Don't turn off ignition. It will cancel the reset.
4. Jacks should now work.

[Craig1959]

Now a comment about Power Gear. Anyone who calls their customer support number will hear the following recorded message: "Thanks for contacting Power Gear. If you are a customer, contact your dealer. If you are a dealer, call our dealer support number". The answering system then hangs up. I must admit, this message did not sit well with me.

Power Gear insists they are now a component provider to MH manufacturers. As such, they have stopped dealing with MH owners directly, believing that manufacturers and dealers should deal with owners.

Power Gear doesn't want to hear from me, so please pass this on through your dealer if you have a chance: No motorhome I buy in the future will have Power Gear components. Not because their products are good or bad. It's about a principle: If they won't deal with me, I won't buy from them.

The fix to my problem came for users and not Power Gear. Am I being unreasonable to expect a manufacturer to talk with their customers?

[plgibbs]

HI we had the same problem with our leveling jacks pn 140/1179 as craig, reset the panel with instructions, worked fine. shut off ignition, upon trialing again, needed to go thru process its not maintaining the program we reset why? any help would be appreciated, evidently powergear doesnt like to deal with the customers who pay for their products

[db77]

My 2006 Sun Voyager has Power Gear Levelers and so far no problem. What I do not like about mine is I have only 1 button for both front jacks but the rear has a button for both sides. I also agree that I will not buy another coach with this system for the same reason. If a manfacturer does not want to talk to me when I need help then I do not need their product.

[Craig1959]

Power Gear jacks with the LR & RR buttons are more confusing than defective. The front jacks are designed to float left and right in parallel with LR and RR changes. After lowering both front and rear jacks, pressing LR causes the LF to rise in tandem and transfer fluid from the RF to avoid twisting the chassis. Similarly, pressing RR causes RF to rise by pulling fluid from LF.

Power Gear could have avoided this confusion by simply labelling the buttons L & R. Newer models appear to have these labels

Cheers

[db77]

Craig1959, I was unaware of that. Thanks for the info. Next time I will have my wife raise the jacks and I will watch outside. Learn something new every day. Most of the time just how much more dumb I am from the day before. Thanks again.

[saweyj]

2008 Gulfstream Bounty Hunter: I have an electric power gear system on my motorhome. I can turn it on and push auto retract and they start to retract. After about a second they stop and the alarm goes off, the manual, auto, left and front diamonds flash. I have reset them several times and it does the same thing over and over. Does anyone have any idea what I need to do or how I can manually push these jacks up? Any help will be appreciated

[Elkhartjim]

Originally Posted by saweyj

2008 Gulfstream Bounty Hunter: I have an electric power gear system on my motorhome. I can turn it on and push auto retract and they start to retract. After about a second they stop and the alarm goes off, the manual, auto, left and front diamonds flash. I have reset them several times and it does the same thing over and over. Does anyone have any idea what I need to do or how I can manually push these jacks up? Any help will be appreciated

There are over 500 posts in the Fleetwood group regarding Power Gear electric jacks.

Try cleaning the magnets first. If you're not familiar, thats the button looking thing on the outside of the jack leg. You will need to extend the leg to see it. You will need to reset the jacks to get them out of alarm. There are instructions on Power Gears website for all sorts of technical issues. If this doesn't help, post on the Fleetwood Power Gear as there is a lot of help there. Good luck.

[RV Wizard]

You have a fault on the left front jack. I would first check to be sure all connections on the jack are clean and good. Once you have cleared the fault and it does not correct the operation of the system then you will have to manually crank the gear case with a socket ratchet or use a 12 volt dc power source and operate the motors of each jack to get them all up. I use my cordless drill battery and two test leads with gator clips on each end. Connect the battery to the motor connector (unconnected from harness) and the moor should run. Reversing polarity will change direction of motor. If you find that the left front does not come up but the motor runs; a pin has sheared in the gear. Removal of jack will need to be done to repair it. If the motor does not run there could be one of several reasons. Removing the motor and retrying will diagnose the motor itself. Let us know what you find

[Elkhartjim]

If the jacks are moving at all the problem will be with the magnets being dirty or damaged. When they get dirty, they can't sense where they are in their stroke. Just a tip, you will need to release the brake before manually moving the jack.

I suggested the easy fix first and also this was the exact problem I had. Also, do you have the latest revision (OK) controller board? Another known problem. Do you have the new boots and clamps for the jacks? Again, I would suggest that anyone wanting to learn about the electric jacks check out the power gear thread on the Fleetwood forum. I recommend the last 8-10 pages.

Saweyj, you can also contact Power Gear via their website for help. Tony with PG called me the next day and walked me through a complete diagnostics and we had my jacks working in less than 10 minutes.

[Tha_Rooster]

Power gear does't answer their phone but they did email me promptly even after Christmas and gave me info needed.