Pin Box problem???

[shovelhead86]

While on a rough road I have looked in the rear view mirror and noticed what seemed to be the pin box moving up and down an inch or more. I dont hear any noise and have watched it whlle hooking up and disconnecting without seeing movement. I hope there is not any strucstural damage inside and the whole thing is going to fail. My question is How would someone check? Has anyone heard of a problem such as this?
On our way to Alaska Not a good time for this problem.

John

[mlh]

A few years ago this was a problem. Frame break up. I'm not sure how much movement permissible but some movement is OK. I'm sure someone will come along and tell you. Frame breakup hasn't been a problem for a few years. Keep an eye on it.
Lynwood

[jimcol]

Terrible place to have a problem. I never had this issue but have read many post about frame flex. Many people first noticed the issue observing the closet walls separating from the floor. I suggest you watch the walls as someone else hooks up the trailer and takes the weight off the front landing gears. Hopefully someone with first hand experience will be along shortly.

[dieselguy]

3/8" to 1/2" inch was an acceptable number at one point a few years back ... If you truly have over an inch of travel and it's not just a WAG .. I'd begin looking at your inside front closet walls for broken paneling and several pulled out staples. I's also look along your aluminum extrusion that trims out your fifth wheel over hang for calking pulling away from the area. Look around the corners of the opening for your bedroom slideout for cracks starting to radiate away from the corners.

[shovelhead86]

Exactly the amount of the pin box movement is hard to determine looking through a rear view mirror but I do not see any indicator of frame flex. I guess the demon will show itself eventually.

John

[Rondo]

John, you can check to see if you have frame flex by what dieselguy and jimcol have stated. Check inside you closet and see if you have any cracking of the walls in there or when you go to unhook check as you put your front landing gear down and lift the unit off the truck hitch. You will see movement at the joints of the front cap. Also check to see if any of your seals around the front cap and the section that holds the cover up to the hitch. If you have frame flex you will see the seals cracked and movement in them. Also you will see some movement of the pinbox while driving down the road but if it is a lot I'd have the unit checked by a dealer or certified tech.

[DQDick]

We had all the symptoms of frame flex and when we took it apart didn't have the problem. I had hit a huge hole on I-40 in the dark and thought that had done it. You don't say what year rig you have, but eventually, as in our case the caulk will crack on the trim on the cap. The theory is that the closet wall was broken by the washer trying to go thru the flimsy wall when I hit the bump and as you say trying to judge movement in a rear view mirror is almost impossible until you really really have an issue.

[rohrmann]

When we arrived at Lake Siskiyou on Wednesday, I noticed a large gap where the trim meets the side wall on the driver's side in the front of our rig. Upon inspection. I discovered a broken weld inside the driver's side propane compartment. I finally contacted an RV repair guy who is also a welder, and he came out, today, pulled the front underneath panel off, and discovered severe cracking around the kingpin, and also in the frame on the left side of the trailer in front of the propane tank. He worked about six hours and was able to make, what appears to be excellent repairs, to all the broken metal, and he didn't charge extra for allowing me to help . If you are seeing movement in the kingpin, I would highly recommend having it looked at, as it would really spoil a trip if the kingpin broke loose.

[rjsurfer]

My 08 Cougar 245rks has the broken closet framing, confined to the bottom of the closets on both left and right sides.

I called Progressive up and their sending a claims adjuster to take a look.

I also called Lippert and they knew immediately what I was talking about without taking any responsibility of course. They even pointed me to the diagram they have showing how to measure the frame flex. I have a few options as far as repairing the flex. One, wait for their mobile tech to come down from Maryland, maybe a month or two. Second, bring it up to their plant for a factory fix. Of course everything would be paid by me including the drive time to and from MD if I decide for the mobile tech.

I'm also going to see what the boat/RV adjuster has to say, maybe he has a local RV repair place that has done this repair before. IM SURE this is a common problem with Lippert frames.

I haven't done the measurement yet on the actual flex amount, busy for the holidays. I will take off that bottom panel to expose the front framing and pin box support.

I'm not being too critical on Lippert here because my camper has over 50k of towing and I have over 170lbs of batteries in the front compartment. As someone once mentioned on another forum many of these flex problems may come from Keystone ordering a lighter than required frame for certain models to save money so its not just Lippert making poor quality frames and crappy welds. Which I'm sure is the case on some of these flexing issues.

Ron W.

[rohrmann]

I thought I would follow up on our repair with a photo of the damage and repair that was made in the frame forward of the driver's side propane tank, inside the tank compartment. The photo shows the structural beam that goes across the trailer, that ties the forward frame that is around the two sides of the front overhang and connects to the front area that connects to the pinbox. Notice on the right of the photo the vertical weld weld that is on that beam. That is where the beam completely broke, and allowed the side of the trailer to droop. Troy, the repair guy, welded the bottom of the crack, as well as both sides, but could not access the top of the beam. When that beam broke, it also broke the small weld from the triangle shaped plate below it, that is the hole along the weld at the bottom of the beam in the center. That was the only weld at the top of that plate. He welded that plate across the beam, and installed a couple of gussets at each end below the beam. That area transfers all the load to the main frame of the trailer, so is a very important area to inspect. I was unable to get good photos of the area of the frame where the pinbox attaches, but he found numerous cracks in that area, that he welded. The only way to inspect that area is to remove the pinbox.