5th Wheel Hitch Problem - Montana Owners Club

marvaut1 · 04-30-2010, 08:18 AM

Our Montana 2955 RL hitch gouges the inside truck bed rails on our GMC 2500 short bed truck when we get in roughly a 70 degree turn. (Montana claims we should be able to turn 85 degrees.) We have talked with another owner who had a serious problem with his new truck and trailer, and pointed out to us that we had damage also. Have any of you had a similar problem? This appears to be a serious design flaw, and so far Montana has not offered a solution. We camp in federal campgrounds designed decades ago and to get a longer RV in a short camp site you must cut the wheel sharply.

**Rondo** · 04-30-2010, 08:47 AM

First-- What year is your 2955? Second-- What type of hitch do you have in your shortbed GMC?
We have a 2007 Chevy 2500HD with the shortbed and have a Reese slider in the bed of the truck. We pull a 2004 2980RL and have had no problems. To get into some of the tighter spots at some of the CGs we do put the slider into the maneuver mode and back it in! I would recommend some type of slider no matter what brand it may be especially if you have the shortbed. You may not need to use it all the time but since you "camp in federal campgrounds designed decades ago" the sites are smaller and tighter to get into, the slider hitch definitely comes in handy! I've even had my TV at nearly a 90 degree angle several times when parking. It's not the easiest thing but it will work especially if your hitch is set at the correct height! You may have to keep the hitch in maneuver mode to get out of the site and onto the main road in the CG then switch it to the towing mode or setting. I'm sure you will get other comments on this thread so but this is MHO on the situration.

Jolu · 04-30-2010, 09:05 AM

Yes we had this problem when our 08 Chevy when new and we had a 2955RL. The bed in the Chevy is deeper than older models. With the longer standard pin box on the unit the back of the pin box would hit the side rails and wreck the top cap.

A solution to this is to nip off about a 1" angle off the back of the pin box mount. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do to fix an obvious problem. The hitting did wreck one of my top rail caps and did bend the inside flange of the bed. I had to replace the cap and I was able to bend the bed inside rail back to almost normal.

Nipped

Only you will be able to decide what to do about this.

BB_TX · 04-30-2010, 09:06 AM

You may need to raise your hitch a bolt hole or two to get the pin box a little higher.

PapaBeav · 04-30-2010, 12:31 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by BB_TX

You may need to raise your hitch a bolt hole or two to get the pin box a little higher.

Ours would hit the tailgate with the slider back, so we raised the hitch in the truck one bolt hole.

Jolu · 04-30-2010, 12:53 PM

In my case I raised the hitch as high as I could get it and the back of the pin box would still come in contact with the bed rail.
The trouble was the distance from the pin itself to the far back end of the pin box mount. This was long enough to allow the pin box mount to come in contact with the top of the bed rail.
This distance can be even worse if there is a tilt when in a steep turn.
I think you might be able to measure from the pin to the very back of the pin box mount and then measure the distance from the hitch to the side bed rail at 90 degrees or less. This will give you an idea of how close things are.

mtheo · 04-30-2010, 01:24 PM

I had the same problem with my last trailer, had to trim the rear corners off the pin box, no problem after that.

marvaut1 · 05-01-2010, 03:56 AM

Our 2010 Montana (model 2955RL)is still on warranty and the dealer does not want to void the warranty with Montana. Specifically, our problem is that the Montana king pin box is 32 3/4 inches long, and our truck bed width will only allow for 31 inches. The dealer has raised the hitch higher but this doesn't buy us anything as the damage would now occur to the top of the rails, rather than the less visible inside rails. As evidenced by the gouges in our rhino lining, the problem occurs with the Husky slider hitch in the forward position and the back position. We think an entire redesign will be necessary by Montana to keep this problem from occurring with other owners. Anyone else with a 2010 Montana (2955RL) having this problem?

dondrasmith · 05-10-2010, 09:03 AM

"trimmed" our pin box.....Went camping this weekend.....SOOOOOOO glad we made this adjustment. We would have really messed up the truck bed at the campground we were at, plus when we left we made a wrong turn and was on a very narrow country road that we had to turn around on and we would have never made it without "trimming" the back corners off.

marvaut1 · 05-10-2010, 11:21 AM

We originally posted this topic on our 2010 Montana fifth wheel hitch problem and appreciate all your suggestions. Because it would void the warranty for the dealer to modify our hitch(on Montana model 2955RL)we are waiting for a reply from Montana (or Keystone) before we do anything further. We would still like to hear from anyone who has the 2010 Montana(2955RL)to see how many of us have this same problem. There must be a lot of us and it is only a matter of time before other owners experience what we have. In the meantime, if you own a 2010 Montana 2955RL and a short bed truck ...beware! (see 2 previous postings by Marvaut1 on this topic.)

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