The Easy Way Out?

It turned out to be a magnificent day with the temperatures reaching 55* by noon time.  After lunch I decided to pull the driver side landing gear leg and take some measurements.  After removing the top cover on the Main Leg it was obvious that the gears had stripped.  This is not good as I have no idea why last spring the shaft broke and now the gears have stripped.  The system is rated for 5000# (2500# per leg).  The tongue weight of our coach is around 3100# which means approximately 1600# per leg.  But something is certainly rotten in the state of Denmark!!!

Further research has turned up an Atwood Driver Jack Leg that we could purchase for $137.50.  The dimensions of that leg are a close enough match that it would be a one for one swap.  The Atwood leg would ride 3/16” higher than the Venture leg, but all the other dimensions line up.  I could compensate for the 3/16” when aligning the two legs.  This would be the easy way out, but since I don’t know why it’s stripping gears and breaking shafts I’m not sure if this route would eliminate the problem?

Ultra-Fab forwarded me a print of their landing legs.  In checking the dimensions of the Venture landing leg with the Ultra-Fab leg, I determined that the Ultra-Fab would work with one slight modification.  This system is rated for 8000# (4000# per leg), with two drive motors (one on each leg).  It sells for $453 through Amazon.com.  It will take quite a bit of work to get the passenger side leg out of the coach and require me to cut an opening in the propane tank housing to gain access (then I’d have to fabricate a cover for the opening once the new leg is installed).

Of course, we could always just purchase a new set of gears and install them into the existing leg, but the same question remains.  Would that eliminate the problem or would we just end up in Timbuktu with another landing gear failure? 

Here’s a picture of the culprit leg so you can get an idea of what I am talking about.  If you look closely, you’ll see the shaft at the top left and the two stop blocks on the left side of the leg.  The black square tube is the “main leg” that bolts onto the frame of the coach.  The gears are inside the “main leg” at the top.

This has been a lot of technical stuff that all the guys want to know about, but most women could care less about it.  So, for you ladies, my bride has all sorts of fabric stuff strewed all over the dining room table and is getting ready to put thread to needle.  She’s working on a quilting challenge project that the ladies of the quilting group drew material for last spring.  Each lady drew three different fabrics out of a bag and has to design, cut out, and sew together a mystery quilting project.  The winner gets to have her picture made and put into the clubhouse activities photo book. 

We will include pictures of the finished product once it is completed.  It’s a secret right now and even I don’t know what my bride is making.  The whole dining room table will be covered by a white canvas tent pretty soon so this is the only picture that will be seen of the project (or Judy) until it comes out of the tent in about a month .

Take It Easy Until Next Time  - - - - - - -