My ‘Vacation Day’, R&R the pesky landing gear.

 

The grief started about 800 miles back when my electrical connector failed about 50 miles from North Jockstrap, on top a 9 mile x 7% grade.  I stopped along with a few others.  Our Tailgunner Stu was ready to hardwire a repair when Enfield Dave said, “I have one of those!”  About 20 minutes we were back on the road.  Unknown to me we had fried a 100amp fuse that would take 4 days to find.

Our landing gear went FUBAR in Great Falls.  I ordered a new set and sent via UPS to Fairbanks, AK.  Pending their replacement, if we need to uncouple the truck from the camper, it requires 2 jacks (12 ton) and about 1/2 hour of jack-it-up and Block-it-up work.  The operative word is need, our fellow campers have been very generous giving us rides as needed.  When I picked up the jacks at UPS, I was amazed to see how smashed their boxes were.  The jacks set weights about 70 pounds and is really a bunch of square steel tubing nested into 2 units.  My autopsy of the victim revealed a seized strut (the longer one) and a gearbox which committed suicide while trying to retract it. 

Lots of help was available.  Jack Dostie is shown here using a Swedish milling machine (AKA a hand file) to field adjust one of the ill fitting legs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These legs are located in the front storage compartment.  In upscale units they are boxed in, that makes this job 5 times harder as we would have to cut opening to work through.  The driver’s leg is motor driven, that motion is directed to the passengers side by a cross shaft.

The whole job took Jack and I about 4 hours.  At least 1 hour was spend retrieving and storing tools.  I have 5 tool boxes that are separated into various disciplines.  Why 5?  One box would weigh about 200 pounds and Anne-Marie is getting too advanced in years to heft it!

Thanks for the help Jack & Stu.  I could have done t without you bt would have had trouble getting rid of all the Beer Bottles after the job was done.

Tomorrow we are on the road to Denali National Park for more adventure.