Such a person as a 5th wheel hitch/towing specialist?

[Stina2024]

Is there such a person or professional that specializes in 5th wheel hitch/towing? We have the correct sized truck for our 2024 Momentum 320G but continually have chucking/jerking issues when on the road. If there is such a person in the Pacific Northwest, we'd love to get in touch with them!!

 

[jkwilson]

Chucking is up and down motion at the pin resulting in the trailer trying to move rapidly forward and backward. This results in the trailer “yanking” on the pin.

The solution is to dampen the up and down motion. Not too stiff. Not too soft. Think Goldilocks. This includes things like tow vehicle tire pressure, pin weight, air bags and hitches with damping mechanisms. 20lbs of pressure in my air bags makes a world of difference in chucking

It’s a lot of trial and error, so a shop would cost a fortune.

 

[WhittleBurner]

There are different makers of air hitches and air pin box's. We have the air safe hitch which take 95% of the chucking and banging and have been happy with it.

 

[poohbear]

There are different makers of air hitches and air pin box's. We have the air safe hitch which take 95% of the chucking and banging and have been happy with it.

I'm another AirSafe hitch user. Air ride only way to rv.
Is your pin wieght on the light side ? Truck/hitch combo ?

 

[traveldawg]

Is there such a person or professional that specializes in 5th wheel hitch/towing? We have the correct sized truck for our 2024 Momentum 320G but continually have chucking/jerking issues when on the road. If there is such a person in the Pacific Northwest, we'd love to get in touch with them!!

Welcome to the forum. I hope you find someone locally that can meet and talk to you about your towing experience.

As someone already said - it is a bit of trial and error. And there are few short answers or quick fixes for most of us.

One common issues to address could be that you want to be sure you load up the front to get some good pin weight. And as folks are already pointing out, some hitches are better than others.

You're going to get a lot of advice here. And before long everyone is going to want to know truck you have and what hitch. So you might want to up front about that.

I can give you experience with my current rig. It came with a Roto hitch (or something like that name) and the ride was absolutely horrendous. Chucking, jerking, porpoising, you name it.

I quickly switched to a MorRyde which was better, but still not perfect. With a MorRyde you have to match the spring rubber to your trailer's weight. At first (and even after asking MorRyde which rubber to use) I had the wrong rubber spring. Moving up to the next size up things were better. But I still wasn't happy as I felt there was too much back and forth movement starting and stopping.

I moved on to a long bed truck and a Reese Goosebox hitch (LB to loose the weight of a slider hitch and gain weight carrying capacity and the gooseneck so I could make adjustments. About the same time I got a MorRyde independent suspension on the RV. The suspension was mostly to make up for a lot of shortcomings in the Lippert/GD frame which had started cracking in the webbing near the spring hangars.

I have air bags on my truck too (have had then on the last 3 trucks). So between a rock solid hitch with the goose ball (no play, no slope in the hitch), being able to adjust the hitch air bag, being able to adjust the truck's air bags, and a nice RV suspension, I am loving my ride.

All-in-all this took me a few years. But 90% of the change was in moving on from the first cheap hitch GD provides (that Roto-whatever brand).

Hang in there. I suspect it'll get bette with some experience.

 

[Hoopy Frood]

I think most Grand Design trailers come with some kind of cushioned equalizer, but if yours doesn't, get one. It makes a very noticeable difference in the way the trailer tows, and travels over frost heaves and bridge approaches.

 

[Wileykid]

First I would weigh the trailer. The 320G, even though it is a toy hauler has a light pin weight. My 320G, in order to get a 19% pin weight, I have several cases of water, factory gen, and I put 18 gallons of water (fresh) in my grey tank, I only carry 5-10 gallons in the fresh tank during travel, unless I will be boondocking. That is also with a bike in the back that weighs a little over 500 lbs. The fresh tank in the 320G is behind the axle, which lightens the pin weight. With a lighter weight, she will bounce more.

Also, what hitch are you using. Some have wider tolerances that allow more movement. I currently have a B&W hitch with a Sidewinder pinbox, works great, other than the usual chucking due to our great roads. I am currently looking at the Gen-Y hitch as I want a gooseneck, and like the rubber shock in them over the airbag in the Reese.

 

[Bungy]

Is there such a person or professional that specializes in 5th wheel hitch/towing? We have the correct sized truck for our 2024 Momentum 320G but continually have chucking/jerking issues when on the road. If there is such a person in the Pacific Northwest, we'd love to get in touch with them!!

We’re all experts here, ask away,

 

[Chaps2018]

Andersen Ultimate hitch here.

Before the new rig was loaded up (think pin weight) we had terrible jerking/chucking...made us sick to our stomachs. Once the initial load-up of stuff was complete there has not been ANY chucking/jerking/Porpoising.

The biggest difficulty in solving the ride problem is the price of the hitch(es). Even if you had friends that would let you try out various hitches, the time it takes to tweak the setup would wear you out.

The collective wisdom above indicates you look at
-pin weight
-trailer level when hitched (pin box height/hitch height)
-hitch position relative to the tow vehicle rear axle
-trailer equalizer type
-overall weight of the trailer vs capacity

these things will go along way to help solving the problem before you start looking at hitches.

 

[terryriddle]

Is there such a person or professional that specializes in 5th wheel hitch/towing? We have the correct sized truck for our 2024 Momentum 320G but continually have chucking/jerking issues when on the road. If there is such a person in the Pacific Northwest, we'd love to get in touch with them!!

It would be helpful to know what you are towing it with.

 

[RVingwithJessandChris]

Chucking is the back and forth slamming of the pin inside the hitch. A quality hitch that fully encapsulates the pin will resolve that.
As mentioned above letting the group know your truck, hitch, pin box, rv model, etc would help with advice and experience.
Porpoising is the up and down bouncing you’ll experience after bridge expansion joints. Airbags will calm that down.
If you don’t have enough pin weight that could also amplify these issues.
The reality is that we all have different setups. There is no one foolproof way to set up your towing system. Too many variables and each matter.

 

[pitman44]

We’re on our fourth 5th wheel. Never found a 5th wheel hitch that we liked. Plus it got harder and harder to pull the hitch out of the truck when I wanted to use the bed. So we went with a Reese Goosebox. We love it. I will say that you’ll know pretty quickly if you need to add air to it.

 

[Frederick_530]

When we got our first 5th wheel, I was concerned about chucking and losing all the space in my truck bed (GMC 3500HD SWS. Plus, I use my truck often to haul loads and didn't want to remove the heavy hitch as I have no overhead beam available. I went with the Gen-Y goosebox and don't know what chucking is... The only time I've seen any is when my truck is in exhaust brake mode going down steep hills in Colorado. The Gen-Y torsion bars plus the lack of slop on the ball contribute to take away chucking.

(Before anyone comments, I am in process of replacing the current 5th wheel and checked with all 3 manufacturers of my final floorplans - all using lippert frames - and the Gen-Y no longer voids the frame warranty. At least on 2024/2025 models.)

 

[Bungy]

The Gen-Y torsion bars plus the lack of slop on the ball contribute to take away chucking.

Didn’t realize their 5’er hitch comes with torsion bars, no mention of them on their website.

 

[NowaRAMguy]

Is there such a person or professional that specializes in 5th wheel hitch/towing? We have the correct sized truck for our 2024 Momentum 320G but continually have chucking/jerking issues when on the road. If there is such a person in the Pacific Northwest, we'd love to get in touch with them!!

Just to throw my $.02 in here... since it's a toy hauler and you never mentioned what you have in the garage space. Also someone mentioned the fresh water tank is behind the axles. I have to ask, how much water you carry and what weight is in the garage space? Also, perhaps a trip to the CAT Scales is in order with the rig configured as you normally tow. I.E. For myself, it's full propane tanks, ~1/3 tank of fresh water, empty gray/black tanks, all our camping gear, fridge full, as well as all our clothes for the trip. The truck with full fuel tanks and all the normal gear for the road trip. And, yes, take your better half as well. Then measure twice, with and without the camper attached. Those two sets of numbers will reveal quite a lot of information. Here's a simple explanation:

 

[Frederick_530]

Didn’t realize their 5’er hitch comes with torsion bars, no mention of them on their website.

They refer to is as "Torsion Flex" in their Executive line. They have a link to a youtube video about it on their site. Can't speak to the fuel savings or reduced tire wear claims, but can attest to the smooth ride. Hardly knew our 328M was behind us, even on rough roads.

The Executive, coupled with the 5" offset on their gooseball, give me a smooth tow and nearly 90 deg turns. Don't like how their prices have gone up so much in a couple of years, but that is true of everything "RV" right now.