Community Forums

gthunts · 06-08-2018, 11:02 AM

Any ideas on manually operating my Lippert jacks? I am on the road and my jacks quit working. I had it diagnosed and was told the motor was bad. Shipping time on a motor will not work with my travel schedule so I will have to get it fixed when I get home. In the meantime I have a week reserved that I can't get refunded. I'm concerned about having my slide out without the jacks down. I was hoping I could manually operate the jacks to get done with this trip. I have tried what the Lippert manual appears to show with no results.

dons2346 · 06-08-2018, 11:04 AM

Call the manufacturer. I would be afraid that if I got them down, I wouldn't be able to retract them

aether_one · 06-08-2018, 11:22 AM

Depending on which system you have Lippert has pretty straight-forward instructions to manually operate the leveling system using a cordless drill and some allen wrenches. I had to do it to retract mine when the motor quit. I wouldn't bother doing it to "manually" level the coach.

While I was waiting for my motor to be repaired I used my coach twice without leveling it with the hydraulic levelers. 2x6s work fine to get you in the ballpark, then deploy your slide. The coach will not tip over if the legs are not down.

WD5DBV ROY · 06-08-2018, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tfryman

Depending on which system you have Lippert has pretty straight-forward instructions to manually operate the leveling system using a cordless drill and some allen wrenches. I had to do it to retract mine when the motor quit. I wouldn't bother doing it to "manually" level the coach.

While I was waiting for my motor to be repaired I used my coach twice without leveling it with the hydraulic levelers. 2x6s work fine to get you in the ballpark, then deploy your slide. The coach will not tip over if the legs are not down.

I was on the road last year for several months and my motor went out the first week. As you, my sked did not allow me to get it repaired on the road. So as stated before unless you are really out of level you will be ok with the slides. If you are really unlevel 2x6 work well.

Bob1340 · 06-09-2018, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gthunts

Any ideas on manually operating my Lippert jacks? I am on the road and my jacks quit working. I had it diagnosed and was told the motor was bad. Shipping time on a motor will not work with my travel schedule so I will have to get it fixed when I get home. In the meantime I have a week reserved that I can't get refunded. I'm concerned about having my slide out without the jacks down. I was hoping I could manually operate the jacks to get done with this trip. I have tried what the Lippert manual appears to show with no results.

You didn't say what make and year of rig you have. I have a 2017 Fleetwood Bounder and the info in the owners manual does no jive with my system I found out. Most say you can get the jacks up via pulling off the valve caps and turning in the allen headed screws and then spin the motor manually with a drill and a regular driver bit attached. I had none of that. I finally resorted to cracking the oil lines and draining oil (about 1.5-2 quarts) into a large tub. Messy job! I have never seen a procedure to manually put the jacks down. Having the slides out and jacks up is just fine.

fatguy57 · 06-10-2018, 07:49 AM

My LCI leveling system failed on a long trip. I just got some 2x6 boards at a Home Depot and level my coach that way and used my slideouts no problem. As long as your coach is fairly level you can use the slide outs.

Lv2Roam2 · 06-10-2018, 09:41 AM

Agree with use of leveling boards - 2X6 is good for trailers and 5vers - will need 2X10 for motorhomes - make sure you support both duals on any one side of the axle ...

hohenwald48 · 06-10-2018, 10:00 AM

Most class C motorhomes don't even have leveling jacks.

gthunts · 06-12-2018, 07:56 AM

Thanks all. I got some leveling blocks and continued our trip. We owned a Class C for several years so block leveling is not new to me. I just hoped we wouldn't have to do it after we got the Class A. My concern with the slide was because my model has a slide that is almost the entire length of the coach on one side. I went ahead and got a couple of adjustable slide supports and we are good.

Dark Sky · 06-12-2018, 08:10 AM

You could buy a carpenter's level or maybe better a couple of the ones that are curved and help assess how close to level you are. We used to have those for our 5th wheel.
Last year I got lazy and decided to just put the slides out without leveling for a quick overnight stop. I knew it was off but it seemed pretty close to level. The slides came out just fine but when I retracted them one (a huge super-slide that I would prefer not to own) actually jammed up with one corner protruding a couple of inches. I re-opened and leveled and it came in jut fine.
If your slides are a more reasonable size, you should be fine with getting as close as your blocking gets you.

Bob1340 · 06-13-2018, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gthunts

My concern with the slide was because my model has a slide that is almost the entire length of the coach on one side. I went ahead and got a couple of adjustable slide supports and we are good.

If the jacks aren’t down and solid slide supports may not be a good idea. The slide will be solid but the coach will be moving. The slides are built to not need support. Level the rig with boards and put the slide out sans the supports. Just my $0.02.