Electric tongue jack. Good brand name?

[BobsYourUncle]

I have got to a point where cranking a manual tongue jack has become difficult. I have a badly injured right shoulder from a tumble off a ladder at work a few years ago. Rotator cuff, 2 tendons torn right off the bone, a 3rd torn half through. Use of right shoulder is limited and painful.
Going in for surgery Oct 30 to try to fix it.

I will need to be very careful for the rest of my life to not re-injure it.

This gets to my question:

I know nothing about electric jacks as far as brand names go. I know theres cheap Chinese junk and then good old made in USA or Canada quality.

Our TT has 800 plus pounds tongue weight.

Can someone offer input into this for me?

[BobsYourUncle]

Well, guess I should have looked after this sooner.

Yesterday morning, packing up to leave, the jack collapsed, sending the nose of our TT crashing to the ground.

I posted about it here.

[LarryJM]

Barker, mine is probably over 30 years old and on it's second trailer.

Larry

[noteven]

Another option is RiecoTitan

4000lbs jack

Their truck camper jacks have worked good for me on a couple campers. The tongue jacklooks like the same drive system and has a tongue weight scale on it.

[Sandia_Man]

Another vote for Barker, purchased our unit nearly a dozen years ago and it still is going strong. Did get the most powerful unit they had at the time, easily lifts our tongue heavy TT toyhauler and truck rear, which is chock full of firewood and other camping related items. Did have to replace the raise lower power switch after 6 years, called their wonderful customer service and they sent it out the next day for free.

[Iraqvet05]

I replaced the manual jack with a Barker on out last TT and it worked flawlessly the 5.5 years we owned the camper.

[agesilaus]

OK we took our TT out on it's first long trip and soon came to dislike the no-name electric jack installed on the unit. Sometimes it would only lift the unit 4 to 6 inches and sometimes it would lift it much higher. No determinable reason for the erratic behavior. Also fooling around with the detachable foot was a PITA at each stop, getting the pin aligned with the holes and having to crawl around on the ground fooling with it.


So when I got back home high on the work list was replacing that jack. And after some reasearch on Amazon I bought this Bulldog. It has a 21 inch lift, the foot retracts inside the jack tube and it is so far completely dependable. The foot is locked in with a pin but the tube is keyed and the holes are always lined up.

I did have some folks recommend this jack but it didn't seem to offer anything for the extra cost to me.

[BobsYourUncle]

Thanks Dutch, good points.

I always believe in going bigger better.

Hadn't considered lifting the TV as well. Once in a while on a quick overnight stop I leave it hooked up if close to level, but crank it up a few inches while still attached.

My manual jack clears the tailgate by a couple inches. I'll have to keep that in mind.

One thing I have always been leary of is the fact that the jack is only held by 3 bolts, going down from the top. A lot of weight on 3 bolts.... But I guess its engineered to hold.

[DutchmenSport]

My last TT originally came with a manual crank jack. We had a Barker installed. I got the heaviest duty one they had, capable of lifting over 3000 pounds. Never hand any issues with it.

There are other electric jacks "out there" are may not be as pricey, but one thing you need to consider when purchasing one: The jack need to lift, not just the trailer, but the end of the tow vehicle too.

The trailer may have only 800 pounds of tongue weight, but the jack also has to lift 1000 or 1500 pounds of tow vehicle too.

I've never heard of anyone complaining about any specific model. The only complaint I've ever heard about was the fact that some models are designed in such a way that the tail gate of the truck will hit the jack before the gate can lay flat. So, sometimes, folks will rotate the jacks 1/3rd. There are 3 holes where the bolts attach to the A frame. And, it's kind of hard to determine if you'll have the problem until after it's installed.