Good morning, don't know if you've experienced or have heard of the following issue?
Recently we had a problem with one of our Atwood jacks on our
2008 Tiffin Phaeton QDH
We were planning a weekend get-a-way with our three great nephews when one of our jacks would not "retract". Although the control panel showed green lights for all four (4) jacks. When I did my pre-trip inspection the passenger side front jack was fully "extended".
I tried all the "trouble shooting" tips in the owners manual from Atwood. As difficult as it was, I was able to crawl (several times) under our coach. After two hours of trying to "retract" the jack I decided to use a power driver on the 1/2" hex head nut attached to the jack motor. With 500 revolutions to one (1) inch it is quite a process. a few seconds into the process the nut broke off the motor shaft! OH BOY! Now we're really stuck. I tried the control panel one more time, hit "retract" and the jack came up.
We are afraid to use our jacks because there is no manual way to "retract" if this should happened again. We have never had any issues with our jacks. This was quite a surprise.
Anyway, we did get underway and the nephews had a wonderful time. Their 15, 13, and 11...so they were amusing themselves for the first hour...then boredom set in. My wife and I did not want to disappoint them. The Lord helped us, again.
When we got back home I had contacted Tiffin parts to get perhaps the parts we needed and part/model numbers. Tiffin Parts Dept said to call Atwood 574-264-2131 when I called I was given this number 1-866-869-3118. which in turn gave me another number 574-537-8900. Tiffin Parts Dept also have issues getting individual levelegs.
They can only buy a set of four (4) for OEM installs. No longer any bulk pieces!
Atwood was bought out by Lippert. Thus the only help you can get from this phone number is "technical" assistance. No parts!
I called Lippert, and yes, they have a complete Atwood Leveleg with motor...but it is only for warranty issues! They do not sell them individually.
After several calls to Lippert, one customer service person did sell me one Atwood leveleg. * attached is the invoice.
I will forward e mails that I received from
1) support@rvupgradestore.com
2) JessicaB@etrailer.com also http://www.etrailer.com
when you view Jessica's e mail she supplied a link for the motors. I'm having difficulty identifying the correct motor.
In addition to all this, you may find some interesting articles with people that experienced the same issue. It seems that a while ago Bob Tiffin was completely exchanging the Atwood levelegs with a different brand at no expense to the RV owner, but they had to bring their coach to Red Bay.
Not sure how or if this actually happened nor if it is anywheres true?
Another suggestion to me was made by Lippert: have the Atwood Leveleg system completely removed and purchase a "new" Lippert leveling system. approximate cost on the "new" system is 5 grand!!! Plus removal of the Atwood and install of the "new". SERIOUSLY??? Plus our local Tiffin Dealer has just announced new labor shop rates of $189.00 per hour.
With our coache at the 10 year mark, are we "obsolete"? What options do we have? Trading in for a new or newer model or dumping a ton of money into a "old" unit. In any event when these jacks fail and the manual nut breaks off.....you are stuck right where you are. It's not pretty and it won't be cheap to fix.
Per Tiffin our unit has Atwood 7.5 Extended Levelegs part # 66542
Lippert's part number for these: # 678781
just the motor Atwood part # 80601
Lippert's part # 678226
Trying to find either or both of these is the question.
Let me know if you are interested in this "story" and if you're going to investigate / search for a source for both the complete Leveleg and motor; and just the motor. Which seems to be the failure item.
Many thanks for your patience, hope you found this interesting?
George
FMCA# F312735
Note pics of new and old motor. It shows the 1/2" nut on the new, and what's left of the nut on the old. By the way the motor shaft turns very easily by my finger tips.
PS I did see a web site that featured "used" levelegs and separate motors for a "bone yard" in Las Vegas. Haven't been able to find the site again.
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