Electric Landing Gear Upgrade - single to dual motors

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Well in order to keep a long story from getting longer, I will try and be brief. I was having problems with my front landing gear. I found out there is an upgrade to install a second motor, so that each leg will be independent. Cool. Together, the OEM gear was rated at 5,000 pound lift capacity combined. The new system is rated at 4,000 per leg.
The new kit included, a new OD side leg, switch with wiring harness and a new motor and gearbox. The new leg is almost the same except for a longer shaft to accommodate manual operation.
Install was easy. Remove crossover shaft, remove old OD side leg, install new leg, drill hole for manual crank, modify the switch box, and run a couple of wires to the 12 volt power.
The best part is there is no more laboring of the motor to lift the coach. And a little faster. I said a little.
I think I paid 350 for the kit plus shipping. And I needed to buy about 26 feet of wire.
Attached are a few pics of the install.

On edit, because the 1-1/2 inch hole I drilled goes into the LP compartment, I did get a rubber plug to seal the hole. Easily removable if needed. Forgot to mention that.

Peace
Dave
 

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Last edited:

mnkamper

Founding MN Chapter Leader-retired
Re: Electric Landing Gear Upgrade

I like it!
Did you get the kit from Heartland?
 

SouthernNights

Past South Carolina Chapter Leader
Re: Electric Landing Gear Upgrade

Nice job. I like the idea of the legs being operated independently.
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
Wow - great mod Dave. Thanks for documenting this with pictures etc. If you find the ordering information (part number for the kit, phone number to call), please add that to your thread. I edited your thread title for even better search indexing and I made it sticky. Even before Bill asks (retired4fun :)
 

boatdoc

Well-known member
So does this mean all our landing gear on the BH's are by Venture??? If so I'll bet they get real busy in the next couple of days shipping this kit out.
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
Dave, Did you have to call Venture and discuss your needs? The motor for our rig is on the Off door side so I'm guessing I would need the Door Side motor and leg.
I would also like to consider the option of Hydraulic front legs. I've noticed there is an unused port on my slide manifold. I'm thinking adding another motor would be considerably less money though.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
I did call Venture and tell them my needs Ray. I also called to check on the hydraulic landing gear and level up. Twice the cost that was given us at Goshen last year. Yes, the conversion was much cheaper.
You can see it in June.

Peace
Dave
 

noobee

Well-known member
A friend upgraded his landing gear with a dual motor, independant system from Ultra-Fab Products. He is very happy with it!
 
I followed cookie's advice and contacted Venture Mfg. They are very knowledgable, courteous and helpful. Ordered the kit, had it within a few days and installed it. I have the gen prep on my rig so I was dreading how I was going to have to replace the leg. But the process was made very easy by removing the forward panel of the basemant (just a few screws) which gave me complete access to everything I needed with plenty of room to work. I'm loving the results. The rocker switch that came with the kit failed within a short time and Venture replaced it immediately with no problems. I can't say enough good things about them and their product. And my thanks to Cookie also..
 

Jimalberta

Member
I just recently did this to my Bighorn as well. I modded the original leg on the drivers side so didn't need to buy a new leg. I got the motor and gear box as well as 2 rebuild kits from an online vendor for $100.00 and found a switch and box for $75.00 at a local RV dealer. I kept the crossover bar handy so that if a motor fails I can hook them up as original in about 10 mins and still operate both legs.
 

mobilcastle

Well-known member
It is a good mod-If you have the single motor as i do and you want your front jacks to last you need to lube the jack screw in the leg on a regular basis. If you don't they rust and fail. I drilled mine and oiled both of them.
 

Jimalberta

Member
Good point Steve....I did the same thing...I drilled a hole in each leg large enough that I can place the tip of my grease gun directly on the worm gear and give it a good shot of grease.
 

Gary521

Well-known member
Re: Electric Landing Gear Upgrade

You can drill the hole about a foot from the top of the leg but that is not super critical. Raise the leg so that you are not drilling thru the "inner" leg. Drill about a 1/4" hole. Put grease on the drilling site and drill slow. This will keep the metal shavings contained. Go to Ace hardware or just about any hardware and get a grease injection needle. This will fit on the end of your grease gun. Use this to get grease on the jack screw which runs thru the center of the landing leg.
 

dbbls59

Well-known member
I did that on my previous unit. I had a generator in the front compartment and I guess the extra weight was enough to stress the jacks. They kept failing and were replaced once under warranty, once by me then I added a second motor. Only problem was one was slightly faster that the other and if I had to extend the legs very far, one side always lifted higher that the other. I always pushed both switches at the same time but still had to adjust with one switch in the end.
 
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