Pin box / fifth wheel

[rushingg149]

New to RV fifth wheel towing. Have driven eighteen wheelers, from gravel trucks to 40' box trailers

I have experienced a loud popping noise when coming to a quick stop and then when accelerating from the stop. Was advised to turn up my trailer brakes. This seems to work until I turn them down when driving at slow speeds to avoid the radical jerking of the brakes when even light pressure is applied at low speeds.

I have a 2021 Pinnacle with a MORryde rubber pen box.

Should I be concerned or is this to be expected?

[RedHorse1]

My Mor Ryde is pretty quiet, certainly no loud pops when making a hard stop. I’d suggest looking at the travel the plate is making. Mine is easy to see as the nylon pads leave a “scrubbed” area where they slide. It’s possible the rubber block is allowing too much travel (due to wear, damage, for a lighter 5th . . .) and the moving plate is contacting the non moving part. If that’s the case I’d also expect to see an indication of metal-metal contact.

[jetlag]

Our '21 Pinnacle with similar pin box is very smooth and quiet

[Grumpy]

Are you sure it is not the hitch in the bed?

[Learjet]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Are you sure it is not the hitch in the bed?

^^^^ what he said...most likely^^^^

[ARoamer]

My 5th wheel hitch which is a standard rail mount with pins, is mounted on an adapter plate that fits my truck bed's puck system. Lots of places for movement. Yep, I hear noises breaking and accelerating, but everything is secure. Open your rear sliding window if you have one and check it out when moving.

[Lake Huron]

I agree with the above 3 posters. If possible put someone in the bed of the truck and do some abrupt starts and stops in an open parking lot. You dont need speed either, just enough ground travel distance to get it t make the noise.

[Radar57]

What brand and model of hitch are you using?

[Randyman69357]

I too would get that but only when starting off from a dead stop. I have a B&W slider hitch and installed it the way the instructions said. They said to be able to turn the arms of the puck system and snug them so you could still be able to turn them for removal. I ended up securing them completely tight so as you cannot move the levers by hand and that seems to have fixed it. There was just enough play to make the popping sound the way they wanted me to tighten it verse’s tightening it like it was a non removable hitch.

[TWP723]

They call it "chucking". Some hitches do it, some don't. It was one of the reasons I chose B&W. Mine don't chuck at all. It's the space between the pin and jaws that causes it. B&W just about solved it with an "exact fit" jaw assy. Fits tighter around the kingpin than most. The hitch itself should have zero movement in the bed.

[eow]

Have you scaled your setup to confirm you have approximately 22% of the trailer’s weight on the pin?

[chas111]

Verify all of the bushings, spacers, etc are in place and good shape. I pulled mine for a year with it "making noise" and determined that rubber bushing had failed and it was metal to metal where the top plate of the hitch mounts to the frame. Not a good thing as I realized the pinbox was not flush to the hitch deck plate. Dealer helped me replace with a new head.

[kirkelli]

couple years ago, i remember reading (pretty sure it was here) about some folks complaing of popping noises when towing.. Turned out in their case, the trailer fifth wheel hitch frames were coming apart.. If i recall, it was the HT trailers

[dxrobertson]

Originally Posted by rushingg149

New to RV fifth wheel towing. Have driven eighteen wheelers, from gravel trucks to 40' box trailers

I have experienced a loud popping noise when coming to a quick stop and then when accelerating from the stop. Was advised to turn up my trailer brakes. This seems to work until I turn them down when driving at slow speeds to avoid the radical jerking of the brakes when even light pressure is applied at low speeds.

I have a 2021 Pinnacle with a MORryde rubber pen box.

Should I be concerned or is this to be expected?

I wonder if the turning up the trailer brakes is only masking the problem. Turning up the brakes would be like applying the trailer brake/Johnson bar (on a semi); it slows/more so the trailer before the cab brakes applied. Thus not so much forward force on the kingpin area.

Sounds like maybe slop in the fifth wheel area? Maybe have a spotter check things as you drive and brake.

[JB13502]

I agree with the others that think it's hitch related.

When I first started out with 5th wheels I had a basic no-frills Reese 5th wheel hitch. Lot's of chucking and movement. Since I didn't know any better, I just perceived this as normal.

Having since moved up to a more expensive Curt hitch, I experience chucking only very rarely and never hear clunks.

I never realized that there could be such a difference between hitch models. I believe that you get what you pay for in a hitch. I'm sure that my lower end Reese was every bit as safe as my current hitch, but the towing is just so much more smooth and comfortable with the Curt.

[RedHorse1]

I wonder if the OP was able to solve his issue.

[soonergypsy]

I have a BlueOx 5th wheel ball mount in the bed and a standard pin on the trailer. Had many of the same issues and it was getting worse as time went on.

I reinstalled the the hitch early this spring and noticed a lot of movement in the raiser of the BlueOX when doing so. There was three bolts on each side the lower portion of the raiser that where very lose on both sides. Pulled it apart and used blue lock tied on the 6 bolts and re torqued the bolts. issue went away for the most part.

[Eric H.]

Check the pin box to frame bolts to make sure they're torqued properly. I know there's lots of possibilities but this was the source of my pop.

[Roll On]

We had the same noise from our first 5th wheel hitch ( Husky), we just accepted that’s what all 5th wheels are. Until we got a truck with the puck system and a Curt hitch, happy to say no more noise.