Another Lippert 3.0 Story

[Chief Brown]

We have a 2021 Montana High Country 331RL. We have had some issues with the proverbial “Left Front Jack Error” on the panel when setting up. Yesterday we arrived at a campsite and unhooked with no issues. When we hit the Auto Level function the front started up then stopped. The left front jack would not move, up or down.
I tried everything I knew to do with no success. I finally surrendered and called a RV technician. He came and tried with eventually contacting Lippert with no success. He finally checked the motor on the left front and he thought it was bad. Then he said let me try one thing. He took a dead blow mallet and tapped it a few times and “wahlah” it started working. He thought maybe the contacts may have been stuck. Some of you know more about the inner workings of these jacks. I may check on having the motor rebuilt just to avoid possible further issues.
Hopefully someone will read this and if they have or have had issues this post might help.

[DutchmenSport]

Seems like on this and other RV forums, this is the year for jack failures, electric and hydraulic, seems like there are a lot folks are posting about.

Glad you were able to get it working again. My receint experience resulted in installing the whole new front right jack. Re-homing after getting the entire new jack installed was the challenge. I somehow, magically, hit the right sequence of buttons and it "just happened." Got it level. I kept the old motor and threw the leg away. The female connection on the leg was ground completely out. The motor was fine. But the assembly came as a complete set, leg and motor. So, now I have a spare motor.

Your story reminds me of a story I heard a long, long time ago from a preacher in church. He told a story about when the transcontinental railroad was first built. Evidently one of the train engines failed, stopped working. The engineer and everyone else tried their best to get it moving again, but nothing worked. It was dead.

Finally, the 'company' experts contacted the designer of the engine and contracted him to come out and see if he could fix the engine. Remember, back in the 1800's, this was a very time consuming endeavor.

The guy arrived at the engine, examined it, took heavy sledge hammer and whacked something and then told them to fire up the engine. It worked.

He left, and when the company received his bill they were mortified and couldn't understand. Evidently it was an astronomical amount of money for his services. When the designer was finally confronted personally, they asked him why he thought he should charge so much, after all, all he did was whack the engine with a hammer and it worked. To which, he replied ... Yes, that is all did, but I'm the one who knew "where" to whack it!

[rohrmann]

I'm pretty sure there are quite a large number of people who would like to whack their 3.0 leveling systems with a large sledge hammer. Several years ago, I watched a couple with their fairly new trailer with the 3.0 system take well over an hour to get their rig leveled. I'm sure there was a large quantity of adult beverages consumed after that ordeal. Maybe Lippert should include a hammer as an accessory tool with each system.

[jsb5717]

OP, when that happened recently to me I was able to get the front legs moving individually by pressing Left & Front, then Right & Front at the same time. A couple of times doing that then they worked together again with just the front button. It makes no sense and I did nothing wrong. Somehow it was just confused.

[Foldbak]

Old saying, if it doesn't work force it, if it breaks it needs replacing anyway!

New standard equipment!

[RMcNeal]

Percussive Maintenance is sometime necessary.

[Superchief05]

I am having the same issue with my 2021 372RD. I perform the reset (auto-retract all) and it does reset, but next lowering it throws the LF jack error again. I don’t think I will try the percussive maintenance. Luckily I am still under warranty and have an appointment next month. This will be added to the short list.

[Chief Brown]

Well, I'm having "Left Front Jack Error" issues again. The last 4 times we have tried to lift the front to put the camper on the truck the error code pops up and the left front jack stops working. Only when we are lifting the camper. I get out my trusty rachet and extension and start cranking on the left front motor and it starts working. We do have to reset the jacks to clear the error every time. The left front jack works fine in the Auto Level sequence. I was thinking if the motor has a bad spot on the armature, wouldn't it stop when it hit that bad spot.
Any thoughts please!!

[Foldbak]

Obviously the controller is sensing the fault. I have to assume that since it sees a fault that's it's down stream. It can only be two things, the wiring or the assembly. I wouldn't rule out a mechanical issue that could be stopping the process. But my gut tells me it's an electrical issue. I'd start with checking all the connections. One poor connection could cause this.


Did you purchase the extended warranty? If so it covers structural and electrical. If not I'd be calling Lippert! They have great support and can walk you through troubleshooting.


Let us know the outcome.

[Chief Brown]

Thanks for your response. I hate electrical issues!!! I do have a new motor and I have thought about replacing the motor. But I still cannot figure out why the motor stops when lifting the camper and then works fine in the Auto Level mode.

[Foldbak]

Originally Posted by Chief Brown

Thanks for your response. I hate electrical issues!!! I do have a new motor and I have thought about replacing the motor. But I still cannot figure out why the motor stops when lifting the camper and then works fine in the Auto Level mode.

If it was both legs it would be an easy diagnoses, the breaker.
Works in auto level but fails in manual mode. Yep a call to Lippert.