I haven't seen any gears that are not pinned. The pin has to be driven out with a punch. I have pretty much stopped rebuilding legs when you have to go this far given the time involved, although I have done it in the past. If you buy gears, you will find they come in a set with pins and brass bushing normally.

I do not agree with you regarding replacing both legs at once. It is possible one is damaged and the remaining leg may last for years more. Often someone will decide to level side-to-side by raising way up on one leg or the other first and while you can do that in an emergency, I see some folks do it routinely and finally they destroy the leg.

My thoughts,

Steve

 

My previous 5th wheel was a '94 Prowler.... same landing gear as the Terry ( all Fleetwoods). In it's last few years I had it it was always landing gear problems. Replaced the gears 3 times and when it failed again I started using cylinder jacks. Got tired of that real quick and traded it for my 2007 Arctic Fox.

 

Your recommendation of 'time involved worthwhile' is leading me towards replacing the lead leg.

My reasoning behind changing both landing gear legs was that I was thinking that maybe both inner legs had been wound up to the top of the worm gears too many times causing both landing gear inner leg nuts to be stripped out, and the good one is 'on borrowed time'. Your info regarding not changing out both landing gear legs, because folks like to level the 5er causing stress on one leg more than the other, has swayed me to just change out one, as needed.

I appreciate your professional advice, Steve. Thank You.

Sorry to hear your misfortune. Glad you fixed your issue with a replacement 5er. Since this is my first 5er, bought about 6 months ago, I think I will hang in there with this one for a while. It's in good shape for it's age. I'll just have to expect future issues with the landing gears(make sure I have a jack and jackstands). Thank you for sharing your experience regarding the landing gear, Bud.

 

Stopped by local RV Recycle shop about a week ago. I brought the lead landing gear leg assembly for comparison. They had many different landing gear legs, so I chose one that was somewhat simillar in body style. The outer dimensions of the inner leg was exactly the same as the one I brought, so I purchased it.



It is a few inches shorter than the original one, but, I think that it will extend far enough to make contact to the ground when disconnecting 5er from truck.

I installed the inner leg to the lead leg and the worm gear engaged the nut. There didn't seem to be any slop so I think it is going to work out. I ran the inner leg all the way up the worm gear. At the top, the worm gear just spun with no resistance. I only ran it a couple of turns and then lowered the inner leg. I made a mark on the outside of the inner leg with a sharpie about 4-5" from the bottom so that when I stow the legs up, I will stop way before I can bottom out the inner leg on the worm gear.

Before I reinstall the landing gear to the 5er, I'm going to remove the rust and repaint.