Tounge Jack 2001 Coleman Cheyyene

[doonoak]

Has anybody ever had to replace their tounge jack?  My Coleman's jack was bent a bit when I bought it and when I drove 5 houses down my street the first time I had it hooked up with the jack still down a few years back and my neighbor yelled out to me "Hey Buddy landing gear is still down" it did'nt help much too.  So Now its bent just a bit but enought to make it VERY difficult to get it out of my Garage.  I don't wanna go to the dealer and have them charge me a summers full of campground fees to replace it.  Can't I purchase a capacity comporable trailer toung jack and put it on the other side of the hitch and just remove the old one?
Mick

[rccs]

Do you have a Fleet Farm store near you?  Just go into the sporting area by the boat items and they have a tounge jack that has the crank handle on the side and 100 lbs. more capacity for around $29.00 that will replace the origional one perfectly. All you have to do is remove the snap ring on your old one that holds it to the part welded to the tounge and remove the old jack. Install the new one right on the origional mounting plate and use the snap ring from the replacement to hold it on. That is what I did with mine when I installed my weight distribution hitch because I needed to get rid of the one with the top crank and get the one with the crank on the side to be able to move my battery box and still be able to crank the jack up.

[oldmoose]

BTW, what do people lube the tongue jack with. Mine is cranking harder and no instructions.
 
Moose

[SpeakEasy]

I've lubed the heck out of mine almost from day one. It operates extremely badly. (Mine is made by BAL.) It not only works hard, but it also makes nasty noises. Once a chunk of chewed-up vinyl material fell out of it. I'm also going to replace mine before our vacation trip in a couple of weeks, so I'm watching this thread carefully.

I had heard (here on the forum) that BAL was considering this a warranty issue. However, I phoned BAL recently and was told that it was not. How do you like that! They replaced a part for someone with the same age camper as mine, but they won't do it for me. I wonder why not?

[SpeakEasy]

Well, I said above that I've "lubed the heck out of mine," but until today I didn't realize that the lubing I was doing wasn't reaching the sweet spot.

Today I removed the entire assembly from the camper and proceeded to take the thing apart. The bolt that holds the handle on (on the top) is the key to taking the rest of it apart. With the handle off, the two tubes come apart. Inside is a long screw that actually does all the work. In spite of my bi-annual lube jobs, this screw was as dry as a bone. So, I used a bunch of grease and got it limbered up again. I re-assembled everything, and now it seems to be working like new again. I will have to wait a while and see if this has really solved the problem, but for now it looks good.

-Speak

[doonoak]

Thanks I did'nt even realize the DANG thing "snaps" off!  To clearify things the part thats bent and cause it to get crooked is the basepart thats welded on to the trailer frame.  After I "Un-Snaped" the jack part I was able to knock the bent part back into place and it seems that as long as I refrain from driving down the street with it still down that should solve the problem.  Now the Only problem that remains is HOW THE HECK DO YOU SNAP THAT RING BACK AROUND THE SWIVEL BASE???!!!!!!!!! i FIDDLED AROUND WITH IT FOR HOURS AND IT'S FUTILE!!! help WHAT TOOL DO i USE!!!???
mICK
 
 
QUOTE=rccs]Do you have a Fleet Farm store near you? Just go into the sporting area by the boat items and they have a tounge jack that has the crank handle on the side and 100 lbs. more capacity for around $29.00 that will replace the origional one perfectly. All you have to do is remove the snap ring on your old one that holds it to the part welded to the tounge and remove the old jack. Install the new one right on the origional mounting plate and use the snap ring from the replacement to hold it on. That is what I did with mine when I installed my weight distribution hitch because I needed to get rid of the one with the top crank and get the one with the crank on the side to be able to move my battery box and still be able to crank the jack up.[/QUOTE]

[doonoak]

HA!!! I finally Got it!  All you need to do is fiddle around with it all day long and have your wife finally come out to the garage and make you mad at telling you that your were supposed to do something else you had promissed hours ago! SNAP!!!!  just take a lot of determination and a short temper!

Mick

[aw738]

Thanks I did'nt even realize the DANG thing "snaps" off! To clearify things the part thats bent and cause it to get crooked is the basepart thats welded on to the trailer frame. After I "Un-Snaped" the jack part I was able to knock the bent part back into place and it seems that as long as I refrain from driving down the street with it still down that should solve the problem. Now the Only problem that remains is HOW THE HECK DO YOU SNAP THAT RING BACK AROUND THE SWIVEL BASE???!!!!!!!!! i FIDDLED AROUND WITH IT FOR HOURS AND IT'S FUTILE!!! help WHAT TOOL DO i USE!!!???
mICK

You need to use a set of snap ring pliers.

[doonoak]

Needle nose plyers work fine I'm sure the guy that invented the "Snap ring plyers" is blushing all the way to the bank.
Mick
 
 
 

You need to use a set of snap ring pliers.

[SpeakEasy]

Have you ever tried snap-ring pliers? They aren't just different-tipped needle nose pliers. They operate in reverse! In other words, when you squeeze, they open rather than close. The harder you squeeze, the wider they open the ring. (Until they fall out of the holes in the ring.) They really are the right tool for working with that snap ring. (I still found it difficulty, however, even with the snap-ring pliers.)