Power Tongue Jack

Okay Guys and Gals maybe someone here can give me some help on a Lippert Power Tongue Jack. I’ve tried the search function and have come up empty which I find strange because I can’t be the only one who has or is having trouble with the Lippert power jack. I’ve checked their website and found zippo, nadda, no information on troubleshooting and repair. Lucky me hu?

Here is my dilemma I got ready to pull the Pod out for a month on the road today and when I hit the power on button the LED light lite goes on which tells me it’s getting power, good. Then I hit the extend switch and nothing, so hit the retract side of the switch and again nothing, not good! Went ahead and checked the fuse for grins and giggles and it is okay. So now I figure why not try the “emergency option” of cranking the jack down or up with a rachet and ¾ inch socket on the nut on the power jack top and it won’t budge a fraction of an inch. Hey, I’ll admit I’m not the strongest guy so I get out my breaker bar and give it a pull and guess what the nut just breaks into little pieces and I’m like what the #*@!

I then removed the jack’s plastic cover and get out my ohm meter and checked all the switches and all is good. Hmmm, so I then removed the top plate that goes over the gears and to my surprise find water in pockets of the castings. Cleaned the water out, sprayed switches with contact cleaner, and the gears with penetrating oil and jacked up the tongue of the trailer with a bottle jack. Then using vice grip plyers, I worked the shaft that the pot metal ¾ inch nut once was on back and forth until it broke free and I could turn it. I put it all back together and finally the power jack started to work but intermittently and I had to use the vice grips on the gear shaft that the nut was once on a couple times. I kept on working the jack up and down and hopefully have the jack working now that I won’t have to be dealing with this nightmare while on our trip. Knock on wood!

My question has anyone else had the same trouble with their Lippert Power Tongue Jack? If so, what did you do to resolve the problem once and for all? Or if you didn’t resolve the problem what brand jack did you buy to replace the defective one? I do know Lippert will be getting a call from me tomorrow to tell them what a sorry design their jack is and especially making an emergency retraction or extension nut out of cheap pot metal!

Grrrrr!