Solitude 2930RL Auto Level Controller Failure

[rgreenz]

Hey Everyone,

I have searched for what happened to me yesterday and could not find anything. I am throwing it out to see what suggestions/input you might have.

Short story - We are on our way to Alaska. At our second stop, while still in California, we pull in to the campground normally. I installed the Andersen buckets and ground the front jacks. I raise them and disconnect from the truck. So far, all is good. I push Auto Level and it lowers the front, like always, until I get an out of stroke error. When I attempted to raise it (so I could put it back on the truck and remove the bucket), it would do nothing.

I called the Lippert help line and despite different attempts, the right front jack won't do anything. Thankfully, I was able to get a hold of a local service guy who came out. 2 hours later, he determined it is the control module for the system (located in the overhead of the front compartment). He could run a jumper to the offending jack and it goes up and down just fine. As soon as it is connected to the system, it will do nothing except cause an error.

By jumpering the one jack and operating the others in manual, we managed to get it level. A new module will be here tomorrow so we should be on our way.

Here's my concern. If this were to happen on our way to Alaska, there may not be a service guy to call. I couldn't put the trailer back on the truck or level it so I could extend the slides. I know there is a manual override at the top of the electric jacks but I found it VERY difficult to turn and would literally take all day to raise or lower it. In an emergency, sure, it could be done. But, wow, that is a whole lot of work.

Has anyone had this happen?

Having spent 6 years of my life on Nuclear Submarines, I consider myself one who likes to understand issues, resolve them and ensure they don't happen again. In this case, I have yet to be able to do that. Any help anyone has would be sincerely appreciated!

[mbarry1834]

I recently had the same experience with the Anderson Trailer Jack Blocks. My Solitude would not auto-level. Removed the blocks and no problem. I believe the blocks would not allow the front of the RV to lower enough to initiate the auto-level. I will just use them for storage.

[rgreenz]

That's a great observation. It ended up being the threads in the actual jack ate themselves. Lippert is agreeing to pay for the replacement so that is good. One thing I learned over this whole painful experience is to not use the blocks any more. Lippert frowned on them and so did the guy who fixed the trailer. They may be great and others have success with them but my experience isn't so positive. We're in Alaska now and have not used them once. And we have not had any problems. Are those two things related? Perhaps not. But I think I will discontinue using them just the same.

[mbarry1834]

The Jack Blocks are handy for storage if only used in front. You can retract the front so the pistons are not exposed to the elements.

[Steven@147]

That's a great observation. It ended up being the threads in the actual jack ate themselves. Lippert is agreeing to pay for the replacement so that is good. One thing I learned over this whole painful experience is to not use the blocks any more. Lippert frowned on them and so did the guy who fixed the trailer. They may be great and others have success with them but my experience isn't so positive. We're in Alaska now and have not used them once. And we have not had any problems. Are those two things related? Perhaps not. But I think I will discontinue using them just the same.

I just became aware of this issue (Lippert 3.0 Leveling System electric landing gear jacks stripping out gears) a few months ago while reading of others having the same problem with multiple brands, not just GDVR. I don't know what kind of blocks others may have been using but it may not be related, as far as I have been reading.

Others have taken the failed jack apart ( right or left doesn't seem to matter)and they believe it is due to lack of lubrication. Grease piles up on the worm gear block as the jack goes in and out inside the square tube and eventually the gear shaft has less and less grease on it. Then its mostly metal on metal. Others were trying to figure out how to insert a grease zerk in the inner tube to grease the internal shaft and gear block. That's just what others have been saying, I have no personal experience myself.

Along the same lines the electric landing gear jacks minus the motor gear box are becoming available through etrailer. There are some Utubes of other brand owners replacing them.

In your case seems strange the jack would work when jumping wires to it. Maybe once you get it passed the stripped part of the shaft. I assume the repair tech did this at the controller.

We have the same system on our S-Class.

Replacement Front Jack for Lippert Ground Control 3.0 Leveling System
Item # LC362485

A search on etrailer for our specific RV
https://www.etrailer.com/p-LC362485....de+Fifth+Wheel

I can see what you mean by manually turning the jack to level the rig, or reconnect to a tow vehicle, but if the jacks gears ate themselves, would it matter anyway, the gears would be stripped?
The only way would be to use some type of bottle jack under the frame close to the failed electric jack and jack till reconnect to truck or level. Those electric jacks I believe are rated to 5000# Our bottle jack/stand 3 ton might work for us in an emergency

[rgreenz]

Your observation is correct. No lube and the shaft was metal on metal. No way to lube it either. Overall a poor design, in my opinion.

[Steven@147]

Your observation is correct. No lube and the shaft was metal on metal. No way to lube it either. Overall a poor design, in my opinion.

Yeah, you and I are used to more of a sophisticated design in systems. US Navy 75-81 Squadron VA-147.
Most of the RV systems are designed to just barely do what they are supposed to do a limited number of times.
Even the RV hydraulic systems for slides and leveling has it's own issues. Redundancy, backup, limit switches, Isolation valves, easily serviceable machinal components, etc, etc, etc are all deemed not necessary with RV designed systems. They would probably tell us if they were designed with this in mind we couldn't afford them. Well we are not asking for a space capsule, just something a little better designed.

Back in my day in the private sector with the design of computer systems and components, service metrics were tracked on a monthly basis. MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures), MTTR (Mean Time To Repair), SCMY (Service Calls / Machine /Year), SAMY (Service Actions / Machine / Year).
6 Sigma quality control would have a field day in the RV world!!!!!!!

[JKellerJr]

Your observation is correct. No lube and the shaft was metal on metal. No way to lube it either. Overall a poor design, in my opinion.

My dads Jayco Pinnacle had the same problem. Its a terrible design. No way to lubricate the shaft and when its starts to go bad the motor will struggle, amp out and throw a code. They have replaced a few already. He's researching switching to a Hydraulic system when it happens again. Coincidently, the next model year the pinnacles went hydraulic.

[JKellerJr]

I recently had the same experience with the Anderson Trailer Jack Blocks. My Solitude would not auto-level. Removed the blocks and no problem. I believe the blocks would not allow the front of the RV to lower enough to initiate the auto-level. I will just use them for storage.

As you noticed with auto level the front of the unit has to drop, usually just a past level nose down. If the jack blocks, or any blocking prevents that then it will stop and throw a code. We use the jack blocks all the time. If the site is to high in the front than I'll go to a wood block.

I have been using the app more often lately to level. I find I can usually get it lower than the auto level does. Everything I can do to limit the travel of the jacks helps with movement in the unit.