Odd one for the day

[rlwhit]

Last week took a two nighter just to get away from yard work. Right away felt and heard a clank when coming to a stop or starting out. Stopped and rechecked hitch and pin box. All seemed in order. I had just changed the pin box and this was the first outing with it. All I could come up with was that the king pin was smaller and that caused the clunk. When we got home the first thing I did was measure the new king pin and the old one. Same size. Spent time scratching head and enjoyed a beer. Next day retorqued everything. Test pull, same bang. Yesterday completely took the hitch apart. Have a B&W hitch. Attached to the base is a square tube that locks into a frame under the truck bed. Put tube into hole and noticed that was slightly loose. Had about 1/16th play. Put in a shim to stop movement. Everything back together, test pull, noise gone. Why had the noise not been there before the pin box change? It took another beer to figure it out. A couple of weeks ago had scrubed the spray on bed liner and put a coat of protectant on it to make it look nice. It turned out slippery. The base of the hitch was slideing back and forth on the turck bed that 16th of an inch. Moral of story - do not put slippery stuff on the bed liner if you have a B&W hitch.

Sure do love that new MorRyde pin box. Why did I wait so long to get it? Our comfort is much improved!!!!!!

[Art-n-Marge]

Or maybe use the protectant to discover any looseness like you did. That was clever. After all the advantage of the underbed hitch is to use the whole bed and that includes keeping it looking pretty.

Any looseness with hitch hardware gets amplified with a few tons of weight and can eventually cause some pretty bad wear or problems. Another way to look at it is the lubing of the bed helped you solve a potential problem and everything now looks good and tows good. Ya gotta be happy about that.

[8e3k0]

Just a small question? Did you torque the vertical tube to 40 Ft Lbs with bottom pin in and prior to torquing the u-bolts? If this is done I can't see that the hitch will or can move with the pull down to the box bed. Ours has not moved and is one of the most reliable hitches we have ever used for sturdiness and we have sprayed in box liners on both our F350 trucks. Will check mine again tonight.

[HamRad]

Dick,
You must remember that "No good deed goes unpunished"!

We'll see you soon.

Dennis

[rlwhit]

8e3k0, yes everything was properly torqued. It still slid. Yes this is one great hitch.

Dennis, Thanks for the laugh.

[adelmoll]

Glad the beers helped Dick... LOL

Helen