GooseBox Hitch Noise: Is Gooseball Play or Pinbox Movement to Blame?

[roegs01]

As the title says, I just installed this hitch on our new Influence 5th wheel with Rhino mounts. We did a couple of short tows after first installing, but I don't remember the noise. Possibly I was just so focused on the ride quality of the GooseBox. I've contacted Reese a couple of times, but to be honest, their tech support was dismal at best. The link below shows a video of what we're experiencing. When you watch the video, it appears that the ball is moving, but I believe much of that is reflection in the chrome of the GooseBox moving. The guys on the Facebook Goosebox Group seem to feel that the noise is from the gooseball slop in my truck. In other words, too much play between my Curt gooseball and the receiver on the truck. It's the factory RAM puck setup, but it's hard to know how much play is acceptable. Any thoughts?

 

[ajg617]

Hi Scott,
I've got a short video I'll link below. Watch the entire Goosebox shift forward and backward and the loud clunks I get. This is definitely not the few thousandths between the shank and the the receiver. Was getting this noise and movement when taking my foot off the gas to stop or starting from a stop or low speed (like toll booth). I've had this conversation with Horizon Global and they have been non-responsive. Not normal but it seemed to be worse when starting a trip. I've made a couple of adjustments which have reduced the noise - lowered the air pressure and used minimal grease on the ball. But the biggest improvement was when GD factory welded extra steel on the cross beam where the wing set is attached. You shouldn't have that problem though.

Cheers,
John

 

[2015rlrl]

We have the 16k goose box (love it) on our reflection 27rl and the only time it makes that sound is when the air bladder is totally empty.

 

[roegs01]

Hi Scott,
I've got a short video I'll link below. Watch the entire Goosebox shift forward and backward and the loud clunks I get. This is definitely not the few thousandths between the shank and the the receiver. Was getting this noise and movement when taking my foot off the gas to stop or starting from a stop or low speed (like toll booth). I've had this conversation with Horizon Global and they have been non-responsive. Not normal but it seemed to be worse when starting a trip. I've made a couple of adjustments which have reduced the noise - lowered the air pressure and used minimal grease on the ball. But the biggest improvement was when GD factory welded extra steel on the cross beam where the wing set is attached. You shouldn't have that problem though.

Cheers,
John

Thanks John for sharing your video and for letting me know that viewing my video required a Facebook account. I moved mine to YouTube so that its now available to anyone.

I'm thinking about trying some shim stock around that gooseball shank. Did you ever try that just to rule out the noise coming from excess gooseball movement?

 

[ajg617]

Thanks John for sharing your video and for letting me know that viewing my video required a Facebook account. I moved mine to YouTube so that its now available to anyone.

I'm thinking about trying some shim stock around that gooseball shank. Did you ever try that just to rule out the noise coming from excess gooseball movement?

Never shimmed it. It is better since the factory added steel on the cross beam and I lowered pressure.

 

[ajg617]

We have the 16k goose box (love it) on our reflection 27rl and the only time it makes that sound is when the air bladder is totally empty.

I have a TPMS sensor on the fill so I always know i have air.

 

[roegs01]

After sending in another request to Reese Technical Support last night to review the video, I received the following response from them this morning.

"Sorry for the delay… I sent the video to several folk and all seem to think the clunk is from the goose ball. I just forgot to reply to you."

 

[ajg617]

As the title says, I just installed this hitch on our new Influence 5th wheel with Rhino mounts. We did a couple of short tows after first installing, but I don't remember the noise. Possibly I was just so focused on the ride quality of the GooseBox. I've contacted Reese a couple of times, but to be honest, their tech support was dismal at best. The link below shows a video of what we're experiencing. When you watch the video, it appears that the ball is moving, but I believe much of that is reflection in the chrome of the GooseBox moving. The guys on the Facebook Goosebox Group seem to feel that the noise is from the gooseball slop in my truck. In other words, too much play between my Curt gooseball and the receiver on the truck. It's the factory RAM puck setup, but it's hard to know how much play is acceptable. Any thoughts?

Wow - that is exactly what mine does and sounds like. JMO but not due to play between shank and puck. Look at the sight hole and watch the movement of the white bar. The pressure in the bag is changing as the Goosebox lurches forward. That suggests to me that there is a lot of movement by the Goosebox on the ball itself. When I get my rig back from the shop, I'm going to repeat your test from the side view. That movement of the pinbox forward and back is significant. My feeling is that if the play between the puck and shank were the cause, you'd (I'd) hear it every time I touched the brakes or the accelerator and I don't.

 

[Recovering Workaoholic]

How much pressure are you running? The hitch is supposed to move like that, that's part of how it prevent chucking and is due to inertia, but this looks to be moving quite a bit almost like the pressure is too low. I'm not buying into that being the slop between the shank of the ball and the truck. I have a Chevrolet and it has some slop like that but does not sound anything like this and this occurs as the hitch begins to move, which occurs after the slop on the ball has reached it's limit. I've seen a couple of threads where the side of the bottom plate scrubs the hitch housing itself as it moves up, this could be a similar issue. Check for scratched/missing paint on the sides of the mobile bottom piece when the unit is unhooked, you may have to add air to it to let the side become more exposed for inspection. Otherwise it's possibly something loose on the hitch itself (either the internal mounting hardware for the airbag or the shocks), which I have never heard of happening. Good luck.

 

[roegs01]

How much pressure are you running? The hitch is supposed to move like that, that's part of how it prevent chucking and is due to inertia, but this looks to be moving quite a bit almost like the pressure is too low. I'm not buying into that being the slop between the shank of the ball and the truck. I have a Chevrolet and it has some slop like that but does not sound anything like this and this occurs as the hitch begins to move, which occurs after the slop on the ball has reached it's limit. I've seen a couple of threads where the side of the bottom plate scrubs the hitch housing itself as it moves up, this could be a similar issue. Check for scratched/missing paint on the sides of the mobile bottom piece when the unit is unhooked, you may have to add air to it to let the side become more exposed for inspection. Otherwise it's possibly something loose on the hitch itself (either the internal mounting hardware for the airbag or the shocks), which I have never heard of happening. Good luck.

Thanks for your reply. I believe the GooseBox pressure was around 45-47 lbs. It was to the point where the white bar was in the bottom of the viewing window. I've also seen some of the threads (and I believe a photo) where the bottom section rubs. I glanced and did not see anything (was raining) but I plan to look again on Friday when we pick up the trailer from the dealer in Iowa. We'll be towing it from there to St Louis so I'm hoping to do some more checking on the noise.

I was able to make a shim from some .004" stainless shimstock. The ball shank now fits perfectly in our RAM receiver. The good news is that I now figure I have about .008" clearance between the shank and receiver. The not so good news is that I have not been able to get clean holes in the shim to accommodate the two steel balls that expand to lock the hitch in place. To be honest, even if I got the holes lined up and drilled, I'm not sure I'm comfortable running with the shim in place. I had this same problem with excess slop when I ran our Andersen hitch (which we loved) and I made a similar shim for the Andersen ball. In that situation though, there was a pin that held the ball into the Andersen hitch and no possible way for any mishap. The whole expanding ball locking mechanism in this ball for the GooseBox just seems kinda cheesy and I'd rather not chance the shim somehow allowing the goose ball to come out of the truck. I really can't see how anything would happen, but its a risk I'm not real comfortable with. While in St Louis, I'll be visiting etraler.com and hoping that their Service Department may have some gooseball's that I can try in my truck to see if any fit tighter.

 

[Recovering Workaoholic]

Thanks for your reply. I believe the GooseBox pressure was around 45-47 lbs. It was to the point where the white bar was in the bottom of the viewing window. I've also seen some of the threads (and I believe a photo) where the bottom section rubs. I glanced and did not see anything (was raining) but I plan to look again on Friday when we pick up the trailer from the dealer in Iowa. We'll be towing it from there to St Louis so I'm hoping to do some more checking on the noise.

I was able to make a shim from some .004" stainless shimstock. The ball shank now fits perfectly in our RAM receiver. The good news is that I now figure I have about .008" clearance between the shank and receiver. The not so good news is that I have not been able to get clean holes in the shim to accommodate the two steel balls that expand to lock the hitch in place. To be honest, even if I got the holes lined up and drilled, I'm not sure I'm comfortable running with the shim in place. I had this same problem with excess slop when I ran our Andersen hitch (which we loved) and I made a similar shim for the Andersen ball. In that situation though, there was a pin that held the ball into the Andersen hitch and no possible way for any mishap. The whole expanding ball locking mechanism in this ball for the GooseBox just seems kinda cheesy and I'd rather not chance the shim somehow allowing the goose ball to come out of the truck. I really can't see how anything would happen, but its a risk I'm not real comfortable with. While in St Louis, I'll be visiting etraler.com and hoping that their Service Department may have some gooseball's that I can try in my truck to see if any fit tighter.

I understand the concern with the locking mechanism, I would be the same way. Chevrolet works the same. The only time that the slop is really noticeable (in my experience) is with a GN trailer that has a solid hitch (like a cattle trailer) and then only if it's unloaded. First time I pulled mine I hated it but quickly learned to ignore it. I use a B & W ball, it has a handle on it for removal and serves to lock the retaining balls in place. Side note, if the ball were to fit tight and be left in for a period of time then it could seize in the sleeve, so that's likely why it has a degree of slop.

Regarding pressure, I run mine with the bar in the center. This is usually 28-30 PSI. Do you put any grease on the ball and I assume you are lubricating the pivot point on the Goosebox, it was likely shipped dry. I have to slide the pivot pin out on mine and manually apply it, your's should have a fitting in the center.

 

[ajg617]

FWIW, I've noticed pin centering PSI has varied with pin weight, number of bumps in the road, and air temp in the bag. On our 30-50 day trips in 2022 with a pin weight of around 3200lbs, it took about 38psi to center the pin in the sight hole starting out the morning in 40-50F range. Just normal start and stop and bumps in the roads and when I check pressure at fuel stop, pin would be at the bottom and I'd let a little air out to center it again. By the time we got out to the Dakotas and 100+F, had to let additional air out.

My old style ball bearing relief valve always seemed to lose air (common problem which is why Reese changed the design). Typically I'd have to add air every 2-3 days but sometimes as little as 100 miles. Reese sent me a replacement new style pressure relief valve (same as the Gen 3) and I finally installed that before our 70 day trip in 2023. Again set it to 38psi. Pulling out of a fuel stop in Ohio, the new relief valve blew apart (I would characterize that as 'exploded into multiple pieces') and I lost all air in the bag instantly. It was loud and scared the two of us as the rig dropped hard onto the ball. Luckily, I brought the old valve with me (in case) and I ran with that until we got to NC when the bearing blew out pulling into a camp site and I again lost all air.

At that point I still had to get back home and a local truck shop made me a fill line from a piece of air brake tubing. I decided to lower the pressure to 28psi and put a TPMS sensor on the line. Reese sent me a 2nd replacement valve but I have kept the pressure lower and the TPMS sensor on. According to Reese (on the phone with them today), the new (blue) style relief valves will blow out between 120-150psi so I' a bit surprised mine failed - chalking it up to a defective one as that was a new design when we received it.

If anyone has a good process for lubing the front pivot pin on a Gen 2, I'd appreciate it.

 

[Recovering Workaoholic]

FWIW, I've noticed pin centering PSI has varied with pin weight, number of bumps in the road, and air temp in the bag. On our 30-50 day trips in 2022 with a pin weight of around 3200lbs, it took about 38psi to center the pin in the sight hole starting out the morning in 40-50F range. Just normal start and stop and bumps in the roads and when I check pressure at fuel stop, pin would be at the bottom and I'd let a little air out to center it again. By the time we got out to the Dakotas and 100+F, had to let additional air out.

My old style ball bearing relief valve always seemed to lose air (common problem which is why Reese changed the design). Typically I'd have to add air every 2-3 days but sometimes as little as 100 miles. Reese sent me a replacement new style pressure relief valve (same as the Gen 3) and I finally installed that before our 70 day trip in 2023. Again set it to 38psi. Pulling out of a fuel stop in Ohio, the new relief valve blew apart (I would characterize that as 'exploded into multiple pieces') and I lost all air in the bag instantly. It was loud and scared the two of us as the rig dropped hard onto the ball. Luckily, I brought the old valve with me (in case) and I ran with that until we got to NC when the bearing blew out pulling into a camp site and I again lost all air.

At that point I still had to get back home and a local truck shop made me a fill line from a piece of air brake tubing. I decided to lower the pressure to 28psi and put a TPMS sensor on the line. Reese sent me a 2nd replacement valve but I have kept the pressure lower and the TPMS sensor on. According to Reese (on the phone with them today), the new (blue) style relief valves will blow out between 120-150psi so I' a bit surprised mine failed - chalking it up to a defective one as that was a new design when we received it.

If anyone has a good process for lubing the front pivot pin on a Gen 2, I'd appreciate it.

Regarding lubing the Gen2, I replaced my Allen head screws with hex head bolts. I let the air out, remove one of the bolts and slide the pin until it almost drops out then smear a little grease on the exposed pin and the in opposite side pin holes; tap the pin back from where it came and replace/tighten the bolt. the movement of the hitch helps to distribute the grease. I used to slide the pin out on each side and grease the pin itself but this works just as well and is quicker, easier.