Intermittent jerky towing of 5th wheel

[madonetwo]

Bear with me: Bought a 2016 Denali diesel 3500 HD SRW truck then an Open range light 5th wheel. Bought a B&W turnover ball hitch. Pulled camper home, no problem. Ran over bush and into light mud. Turned corner and kicked out the breakaway brake pin. Pulled camper another 1.2 miles without knowing problem. Reinserted pin, RV released. Parked it for 2 month. Hooked up last week and headed out for dry run trip 7 miles away. Noticed jerky, intermittent tugging as we towed. Thought brakes issueso n RV, etc. Took RV to service and they found no problem. Towed it with two of their vehicles, one old, one new and said it towed just fine. QUESTION: could there be an issue with the truck? It drives just fine without RV in tow. Hitch seems to be engaged ok. Could a fuse be blown in the truck? We have appt on Monday to take truck to dealer before heading out on 400 mile trip later in week. Ideas? Suggestions? (no warning lights on dashboard came on. Brakes and turn signals work on RV when towing. Looked underneath and all seemed ok). Thanks for any advice on things to check out.

[Cummins12V98]

Is your B&W the puck system hitch? If so just make sure hitch is tight at all four puck attachment points.

[madonetwo]

I might have added 50-100 lbs of stuff to the second trip but it would have been aft. One issue that concerns me with the turnover ball is that they didn't install any U-bolts in the truck bed. The ONLY thing in the bed is the turnover ball hitch. We are newbies but we did test the truck after engaging the hitch by extending the front jacks to "lift the truck bed" and it did do that. Is there anything else with a turnover ball that we could be missing? The gooseneck attachment is a "Lippert"? placed on the kingpin of the 5th wheel. (if this makes any sense). I am wondering if we should replace the breakaway brake? But, when it popped off it gave that error message on truck console, so I think it's working ok. Mud in tires? That should just give a rough ride till the mud falls out. It just has intermittent jerking, if that sounds like anything to y'all.

[Durb]

Not to be flippant, but could the intermittent jerking be chucking? It sounds like one major variable between your ride home and your trip out is that the trailer went from empty to loaded. Do you have a rear kitchen, rear fridge or rear pantry that put weight aft? It could be the pin weight ratio has been reduced and your trailer is chucking. You might try redistributing some stuff forward and fill your fresh water tank then head out again. Couldn't hurt. Good luck, things like that are frustrating.

[newman_fulltime]

If you have the companion hitch you need to make sure its tight and installed properly it sounds like the ubolts are loose and when you get on it you get a jerk where it shifts

[austingta]

This is the fuses location. The box is under the hood on the driver's side.









Click For Full-Size Image.

[madonetwo]

We looked at the tires. Although muddy, no damage was noted. The service center pulled the RV with their two trucks without any issue....so I'm thinking it's not the tires. I'm having to look in the manual for all the fuse locations. If you can point me to a website or video re: the fuses, I'd appreciate it.

[TakingThe5th]

Have you looked closely at the tires? They might be beat up after towing over a mile with the brakes on. Might also give clues to any damage you might have caused while running over things. Did the other two TVs have the same pin height as your TV or was the geometry different? Did your TV pick up some mud in the brakes? Have you checked out your driveshaft, maybe a bad u-joint or carrier bearing vibrating under load, or maybe a problem in the rear end or axle bearings. Admittedly I am also struggling with this issue.

[austingta]

Kind of a long shot, but could the trailer plug be miswired so that the brakes are energized when some other thing like turn signals, etc., are engaged?

There are separate fuses under the hood for trailer brakes and the 12 volt power feed to the trailer in the trailer feed, but if those were blown the brakes simply wouldn't engage.