Barker (30828 Power Jack - 3500 lb. Load Capacity

If you are tired of fiddling with jacking your trailer up and down and want to spend a few dollars for the sake of your back and convenience, a trailer power jack might be just the answer. We are young enough to manually do it ourselves, however, I just hate seeing my wife struggle with it...OK, sorry, lame joke. This particular product was just what we wanted. I did have a bit of a problem due to the fact that one of the wires had come loose in shipping, however, after taking a look at it, it was very obvious that this was a simple matter and slipping the wire back on its post so it was no big deal. I suppose I was more impressed with the way the manufacturer responded when I called to confirm my solution. They stepped up, acted like they cared and I didn't have to punch buttons on the phone half the morning to speak to both the sales manager and the tech support fellow. I just like doing business with people that care and are responsive. I don't like waiting on the phone for long periods of time nor am I a fan of long and draw out sessions of punching this button or that to get to the party I need to speak with. Truthfully, if this company had not responded in a first class way, I would have likely just sent it back and gotten another brand. The last thing I wanted to do was pack it back up and send it back to Amazon.com. In my opinion, companies need to stop this madness of requiring their customers to go to such lengths to speak to their tech support people and, for that matter, after all the waiting, get someone on the phone who you can't hear and, even if you could, you can't understand half of what they are saying. This was not the case. I have shifted off the subject of the quality of the "Barker VIP RV Power Jack" however, I just felt it necessary to make these comments about customer service "after the sale"! How does it work? Perfectly! I have not yet used it enough to give it a solid long-term thumbs-up, but, in these few weeks that we have had it, I am very pleased and would advise anyone to spend a few dollars to buy one. I might comment on the fact that it was very simple to install. Of course it's always easier to have a professional install these things, however, it was relatively simple to manually crank up the trailer, slip a support under it, take the old hand crank off and install the new power jack. Of course the main consideration in this entire project is to take your time and make sure you have the trailer supported properly with wheel chocks to make sure the trailer does not roll on you when you are in the middle of the project. Believe me, it does not take a rocket scientist to install this thing. You want to be certain you have a good ground at the point it attaches to the trailer so you need to sand the paint off of the grounding point where the jack mounts. The instructions are very clear so things should go trouble free. After it is securely attached, you then run your positive wire to the positive terminal of your battery and you are in business. They sell a cover for this that is probably not worth the $20 or so you pay for it, however, it does look first class, fits properly, keeps the weather out and has a bit more style than the zip-lock freezer bag I was using before I ordered the cover. Nice product!

Construction. I was impressed with the construction. It seemed solid and well-built. It looks very attractive as well.Installation. I installed it myself. In most cases it would have been a 10 or 15 minute job since it is only unbolting the old, bolting the new and running a wire to the battery. I was pleasantly surprised at this. Like others, I did find the wire too short. It cost me a trip to the auto supply store, but that was only a minor inconvenience.I did face a challenge most people probably won’t. The flange on the bottom is round as you can see in the product photo. I had a raised piece of metal on the trailer tongue (2013 Jayco X20E) that the back edge of the flange overlapped, not allowing it to sit flat. I got an angle grinder and shaved off a small section of the flange until it fit. In the unlikely event you have this problem, and even if you are not handy with tools, this is not difficult to do.Design. It has a light, which is a nice touch and helpful. The bubble level on the top is adjustable. A circular bubble level may not be the easiest to use/adjust or the most accurate, but it does provide a handy starting point and was another thoughtful design touch. If you have an extra height option on the trailer as I do, you may have to put a block down under the jack, but that's not a problem.Other. Cover not included. I recommend buying it for protection of the jack head. See my review there.Packaging. It came with a large hole in the packaging, and I almost sent it back. I didn’t, and when I opened it, everything was fine, so I’m glad I checked it out first.Operation. It works smoothly and quickly. Once I used it, I was hooked! If you have a weight-distributing hitch, don’t even think twice. Get it!Battery drain. Given that the weight-distributing hitch requires raising and lowering it several times, I was expecting a huge battery drain. I was surprised that this was not the case at all.Support. I called them when I was considering trimming off the flange. It was easy to get a live person, and they were friendly and helpful. Definitely above average!Bottom line. I would purchase this again. I recommend it highly. If you haven’t used a power jack, you’ll love it! The few minor items I noted above were not enough to detract from a five star rating for what seems thus far to be an excellent product.

So far, I am not impressed. I purchased this several months ago, and was not able to install it due to cold weather. I recently installed it, and took my camper to my dealer for service, picked it up today, and came home to do some clean up for Eater weekend. It died on me. I found that the fuse had blown. I then spent about 4 hours calling around to see who had a 30 amp SLOW BLOW FUSE, and no one has them.I then went to the BARKER website, and could not find anywhere where I could order parts. Needless to say, it has been a very frustrating day. I emailed the service department, and hopefully will get some kind of response on Monday.If anyone has had the same issue, I would appreciate some assistance on this matter. I will re-issue a new review once I hear from the company. My wife also stated that she is not impressed so far with its performance.

I bought this jack primarily because of the positive reviews. It fit into the position of the manual jack of our travel trailer (20' Jayco) without any modification. The jack works great. I am pleased with it's operation and also the features of the level and switch boots that come with the jack.

Other than the wire connector being too loose on the terminal and coming off randomly the jack is pretty decent. The second time it popped off I went inside and tightened up the connector so it won't pop off. I like the level design for setting up the trailer and if i was going to ask for an update it would be the lamp switched to LED.End of season update: out of four camping trips this season this jack only worked once without problems. Wires coming off was a big headache and the trip last weekend had me setting up with a drizzle and the jack bogged down and blew the fuse. Apparently sealing from rain is also an issue.Update four years: Once the poor wiring connectors were fixed the jack works every time. I haven't tried it in the pouring rain and rather not ))