HOW TO: VIP 3000 Electric Stabilizer Jack Service Part 2

[dmtaylor2]

 I went to service my new to me, but used Hull #527. After repacking the bearings I moved on to the jacks. I watched the Oliver Video on the 2 part inspection. After reading another thread, I decided to remove the jack motors and take to the shop. Like another poster I got the front jack off with some difficulty using a 5/32nd allen wrench. The rear jacks stumped the process. After "rounding"off all hope , I was stuck. The drive side eventually came off but NOT the curb side. After days of PB Blaster & torch (careful around the hot water heater styrofoam!), I was unable to remove ANY of the 6 set screws. I called Barker Mfg. and spoke with Bob. Very helpful!! He suggested hitting the aluminum ribs (3 ea. with steel set screws, thus the "welding), but only 2 are even accessible if still installed in the Ollie. Bob, thought if you could get one off, it would come off. So, i decided to remove the motor that I had in the shop, and start whacking. Ultimately, I had to use a grinder w/ a cutoff wheel and cut along the rib and above the screw. That worked, however when I went back to get the curb side motor, it was not that easy. I had to score the 2 accessible ribs on the side of ALL of the plumbing and with a punch & hammer, the influence was real! 

I have 2 new casings on the way! I have already used some anti seize on the tongue jack screws. In hindsight, i  would remove the motor with 2 nuts and would have prevented me from cutting the wires on the driver side.

Good luck finding Mobilith SHC 460 Grease, except on Amazon. Bob said any hi temp grease( I used white lithium grease) would work, and I asked about filling the lower shell. He said just cover the gears, and it will fling grease all over. So I decided on this tube at O'reilly and can keep in the camper.

To clean the housing & inspecting the hi temp red grease in the tube it was a lot of work this time.  I ultimately decided against packing w/ CV-2 grease, like the other thread. Talking to Barker Mfg., I ended up just staying with this Sta-Lube.

Then why did you do all of this, my wife asked? Can you imagine trying to replace a bad motor on a camping trip? At a minimum I would check the set screws as well.

Edited March 4 by dmtaylor2

[Galileo]

I think if a jack motor went bad, I’d go with the hand crank. Hopefully the PO of your trailer included it. I needed to use mine once to “break loose” the front jack when it jammed in the fully-up position and the motor just ratcheted the torque limiter. 

Edited March 4 by Galileo
Left out an important word

[Geronimo John]

4 hours ago, Galileo said:

I think if a jack motor went bad, I’d go with the hand crank. Hopefully the PO of your trailer included it. I needed to use mine once to “break loose” the front jack when it jammed in the fully-up position and the motor just ratcheted the torque limiter. 

Galileo:  Smart move with the manual raise/lower crank handle. 

For the  "jammed in full -up position";  I have retract our Barkers until they click the clutch.  Then I reverse them down momentary to ensure that they are not stored under tension.  To do so, we only need to lower them just a tad.  Then when we want to lower the jacks, they are not jammed each time....and eventually they are not stuck.  

5 hours ago, dmtaylor2 said:

To clean the housing & inspecting the hi temp red grease in the tube it was a lot of work this time.  I ultimately decided against packing w/ CV-2 grease, like the other thread.

Barker uses a white Monolith grease.  As such, it appears that your 2019 trailer likely had been serviced, as you mention, with red grease.  Likely using John D.'s DIY post which says use CV-2.    This could be a reason your disassembly was so difficult. 

Doing the exhaustive cleaning necessary without a commercial parts washer and a total disassembly is why I did not follow JD's suggestion to use CV-2 for the jacks. Mixing greases is bad.    I figured that the extra cost of the Amazon Mobilith SHC 460 Grease was no where near the PITA and my time to convert.  I suspect that after your experience, you would agree.

Glad you were able to  get yours fixed, and sorry for the trouble and expense it caused. 

Edited Tuesday at 08:56 PM by Geronimo John

[dmtaylor2]

21 hours ago, Geronimo John said:

Galileo:  Smart move with the manual raise/lower crank handle. 

For the  "jammed in full -up position";  I have retract our Barkers until they click the clutch.  Then I reverse them down momentary to ensure that they are not stored under tension.  To do so, we only need to lower them just a tad.  Then when we want to lower the jacks, they are not jammed each time....and eventually they are not stuck.  

Barker uses a white Monolith grease.  As such, it appears that your 2019 trailer likely had been serviced, as you mention, with red grease.  Likely using John D.'s DIY post which says use CV-2.    This could be a reason your disassembly was so difficult. 

Doing the exhaustive cleaning necessary without a commercial parts washer and a total disassembly is why I did not follow JD's suggestion to use CV-2 for the jacks. Mixing greases is bad.    I figured that the extra cost of the Amazon Mobilith SHC 460 Grease was no where near the PITA and my time to convert.  I suspect that after your experience, you would agree.

Glad you were able to  get yours fixed, and sorry for the trouble and expense it caused. 

I considered the CV-2 grease but chose to stay with white lithium. The real issue was in trying to remove the motor head to grease the drive pin as per OTT. The 3 set screws were impossible to remove. That is the only way the second yearly maintenance procedure can be performed.

[Mike and Carol]

We used to run our jacks up until they clicked, until one jack wouldn’t reseat and I had to use the manual handle.  That was in the first couple of months back in 2016.  Since then we run them up to about an inch of shaft showing.  It takes two to do that, or one checking a couple of times.  Mike

[Geronimo John]

Something about this line of posts drove me to go back and check Jason's video about servicing our jacks.  His video clearly shows the use of two different greases:

The first is the connection point between the head unit and the foot jack leg unit.  It depicts the red Mystic grease used on the suspension.   

 Further into the video it shows the Mobilith white grease for the gear box:

As dmtaylor 2 reported, removal of the three set screws can be difficult.  If you find this to be the case, consider getting and using an impact tool.  Many old motorcycle mechanics still have and use one of these:

But even just mildly impacting the case with a Hand Impact tool can cause this:

So I recommend using one of these:

 

To get all three screws out, you'll likely need to remove the jack to frame mounting bolts.  And that is a PITA for the two rear jacks.  But that is far better than this:

 GJ

.  

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 08:10 PM by Geronimo John

[ScubaRx]

On 3/4/2025 at 9:29 AM, dmtaylor2 said:

 I went to service my new to me, but used Hull #527. After repacking the bearings I moved on to the jacks. I watched the Oliver Video on the 2 part inspection. After reading another thread, I decided to remove the jack motors and take to the shop. Like another poster I got the front jack off with some difficulty using a 5/32nd allen wrench. The rear jacks stumped the process. After "rounding"off all hope , I was stuck. The drive side eventually came off but NOT the curb side. After days of PB Blaster & torch (careful around the hot water heater styrofoam!), I was unable to remove ANY of the 6 set screws. I called Barker Mfg. and spoke with Bob. Very helpful!! He suggested hitting the aluminum ribs (3 ea. with steel set screws, thus the "welding), but only 2 are even accessible if still installed in the Ollie. Bob, thought if you could get one off, it would come off. So, i decided to remove the motor that I had in the shop, and start whacking. Ultimately, I had to use a grinder w/ a cutoff wheel and cut along the rib and above the screw. That worked, however when I went back to get the curb side motor, it was not that easy. I had to score the 2 accessible ribs on the side of ALL of the plumbing and with a punch & hammer, the influence was real! 

I have 2 new casings on the way! I have already used some anti seize on the tongue jack screws. In hindsight, i  would remove the motor with 2 nuts and would have prevented me from cutting the wires on the driver side.

Good luck finding Mobilith SHC 460 Grease, except on Amazon. Bob said any hi temp grease( I used white lithium grease) would work, and I asked about filling the lower shell. He said just cover the gears, and it will fling grease all over. So I decided on this tube at O'reilly and can keep in the camper.

To clean the housing & inspecting the hi temp red grease in the tube it was a lot of work this time.  I ultimately decided against packing w/ CV-2 grease, like the other thread. Talking to Barker Mfg., I ended up just staying with this Sta-Lube.

Then why did you do all of this, my wife asked? Can you imagine trying to replace a bad motor on a camping trip? At a minimum I would check the set screws as well.

You can effortlessly take the entire rear jack out in 10 minutes by removing only two bolts. I’ve done both of mine several times each. Then you can take the jack to the shop and work on any part of it. If anyone at the rally is interested, I will be happy to show you how it’s done. 

Edited Thursday at 04:26 AM by ScubaRx

[jd1923]

1 hour ago, ScubaRx said:

You can effortlessly take the entire rear jack out in 10 minutes by removing only two bolts.

Thanks Steve! Do you remove the two carriage bolts you see clearly in the picture or the two that go through the frame? (Only the heads of these bolts can be seen in the picture.)

Edited Thursday at 06:00 AM by jd1923

[ScubaRx]

The two that go thru the frame. 

[Geronimo John]

On 3/5/2025 at 6:25 PM, ScubaRx said:

You can effortlessly take the entire rear jack out in 10 minutes by removing only two bolts.

Nit picking response is:  Yep for the rears.  For the front mine has three bolts. 

Both would require you to  remove the jack foot so that the tube below the hull can be pulled up thru the hull for removal of the whole thing.  Same idea for the front one.

But your point is spot on.  Having a work bench with a vice AND proper impact tools is the best way. 

GJ

 

[Galileo]

On 3/5/2025 at 12:06 PM, dmtaylor2 said:

I considered the CV-2 grease but chose to stay with white lithium. The real issue was in trying to remove the motor head to grease the drive pin as per OTT. The 3 set screws were impossible to remove. That is the only way the second yearly maintenance procedure can be performed.

The three set screws on our tongue jack removed themselves the first time. An entertaining experience if you’re not expecting it. (Head spins around.) I tightened them up after that.

I suppose I’d better go back and apply the Never-Seize so that they ARE removable when the time comes.

[jd1923]

The front is easily accessible, so no need to remove the post assembly. Come on Gj, 2 or 3 bolts, that's "nit picking."

Thanks again Steve @ScubaRx for the two bolt tip! Given how easy this will be vs. trying to remove the head while leaning in the basement, I have put the rears on my 2025 maintenance list.

Wow, I cannot even imagine these Allen screws being so tight as to break the pot-metal housing! One looks broken off from excessive torque and the other was grinded off? OMG, from excessive rust? Tried soaking overnight with PB Blaster or something? Mine came out, all 3 screws, in 1-2 minutes without issue, using only a 4" hand-held Allen key. You'd need a long extension or cheater bar to break metal like this.

In the future, if anybody else finds these Allen screws to be difficult, do not use too much torque to break the casing, do not grind the casing. First use a penetrant and patiently wait 24 hours or more. Worse case should be drilling out the stuck screws. Then you could tap the three holes and find oversized Allen screws or short bolts.  

ALL the old brown crud (grease) should be removed to do the job right. When you have bearings done at a shop, they will merely pack then new grease in, to remove the old, per the manual. But the dirt left in the old grease remaining on most contact points will more quickly deteriorate the new grease. Professional mechanics would not get paid extra for doing the job correctly and fully. I prefer to take the extra few minutes upon service, as so to service less often. The annual checking of these is BS written for legal protection. Since 99% of customers will not work this service each and every year they know they can deny the majority of warranty claims.

The manner in which I performed maintenance on the front jack, I figure it should last a good 10 years again, given ours were not serviced in the first 10 years! The original shotty application of grease by the manufacturer was sitting there, all dried out, with no evidence of prior service. Please do not believe what Bob, the Barker rep said, "cover the gears, and it will fling grease all over," Oil flings, grease does not! 🤣 You can see evidence of that when you open up the head and the old grease is sitting exactly where they applied it with little to no grease between moving parts where it is needed.

I always clean all gears and parts in old gasoline (since I always have removed some from our dirt bikes or yard tools). To be extremely thorough you could use a spray cleaner and follow-up with compressed air to be spotless! Do it right, or likely it would last longer just leaving it alone!

Apply new high-temp red bearing grease (because it's better), or the kind of grease you prefer (but the OEM type is NOT better, evidence witnessed upon disassembly). Apply new grease both UNDER and OVER the gears, packed full so that there are no air bubbles, no air contact to the gears, a bath of grease to fill the casing which should persist for many, many years to come.

Just my opinions expressed here, but having worked auto restoration projects for 47 years, and in that time more often working one on a weekend than not, I'm finally pretty good at doing this kind of work, having learned from my mistakes of years past.

Edited Friday at 07:53 PM by jd1923

[Galileo]

12 minutes ago, jd1923 said:

Wow, I cannot even imagine these Allen screws being so tight as to break the pot-metal housing!

I don’t think it’s so much “tight” as it is some kind of galvanic corrosion from dissimilar metals. They basically “weld” themselves into place.

 

13 minutes ago, jd1923 said:

Do it right, or likely it would last longer just leaving it alone!

Very true!

In my stint in maintenance management, I learned a new term: “maintenance induced failure”. Whether that’s from improper maintenance procedures that cause damage (think AA191) or a situation like JD mentions above. 

If you’re not going to clean out ALL the dirt - including the dirt opening the gearbox likely introduces into the unit - then you’re mostly just going through the motions. 

[Galileo]

28 minutes ago, jd1923 said:

Apply new grease both UNDER and OVER the gears, packed full so that there are no air bubbles, no air contact to the gears, a bath of grease to fill the casing which should persist for many, many years to come.

I think JD and I have to agree to disagree on this point. IMHO there’s no reason to put grease anywhere except where it’s going to actually be doing anything. Where gear teeth mesh, on shafts and bores of bearing surfaces, and a film on gear faces that might be exposed to thrust loads. 

As JD says - grease does not “fling”. For that matter, unless it gets TOO hot, it’s unlikely to even flow. So “packing” grease on top of or between gears is unlikely to do anything for you. That’s why you see caked and solidified grease when you open the gearbox. 

I suppose that preventing air from contacting the gears -may- do something, but I side of a sealed (gasketed) gearbox, I doubt it’s a factor.

I too spent more than a few years in automotive service and industrial maintenance. Getting the lube to exactly where it’s doing a job is important. Adding a bunch more grease is just good for the grease vendor….

[jd1923]

38 minutes ago, Galileo said:

IMHO there’s no reason to put grease anywhere except where it’s going to actually be doing anything.

True that grease not touching is not helping at the time. But if you merely grease the gears, open air around them, with use the gears will push the grease out of where it is needed and very soon become dry, metal on metal! Which will be what you see when you open yours.

The only way to ensure grease will persist is to fill the area so that it cannot escape, new surrounding grease pulled into the gears. Or you can do what they suggest. Open it up annually and "a little dab will do ya." Not, it's just not as good and I'm not doing this every year, no way. If y'all are around when my front jack is 5 years in use after this maintenance, I'll open it up only to prove the point! (And not because it would need maintenance.)