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.

[TakingThe5th]

jerem0621 wrote:
Okay, what you are using is called a Gooseneck adaptor. It converts the standard fifth wheel king pin into a Gooseneck hitch. Some fifth wheel camper manufacturers tend to discourage the use of this style adaptor as it can put increased stress on the fifth wheel frame and damage the frame. I think that a poster was alluding to this earlier in the thread.

It's just another thing to check on. See if your particular frame manufacturer recommends a Gooseneck adaptor or not.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

How did the other trucks lash up when they tested your rig - did they use the gooseneck adapter or did they use a standard hitch? You might have some frame flex and/or frame damage from using the gooseneck adapter. I wonder if you could have cracked the frame when you were pulling thru the mud - that would be a lot of added stress. Check it out.

[Mover480]

We have the same hitch, different trailer. Usually it is the road conditions that cause the jerky, intermittent tugging that you are experiencing. Slow down or speed up and it usually quits, or fine a better road.

As for the electric brakes, did the shop inspect all 4 brakes? Remove the wheels and pull the hubs? Did they reset the brake clearance? Can't imagine that you didn't do considerable wear or damage to the brake system.

[Hannibal]

Ah! The Gooseneck adapter to tow a 5th wheel with a gooseneck ball. Yes there should be chains then. Also, check all around the 5th wheel pin box where it attaches to the overhang of the 5th wheel for stress cracks. The adapter puts extra leverage on the pin box and can lead to failure of the 5th wheel chassis structure around the pin box. Hopefully this isn't the case. If the area is all enclosed and hard to see the chassis, a pull test while watching the pin box might show any movement. Any movement would be abnormal. Many if not most 5th wheel manufacturers don't approve of gooseneck adapters.

[jerem0621]

Okay, what you are using is called a Gooseneck adaptor. It converts the standard fifth wheel king pin into a Gooseneck hitch. Some fifth wheel camper manufacturers tend to discourage the use of this style adaptor as it can put increased stress on the fifth wheel frame and damage the frame. I think that a poster was alluding to this earlier in the thread.

It's just another thing to check on. See if your particular frame manufacturer recommends a Gooseneck adaptor or not.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

[goducks10]

I'm lost. Been reading this site for years and still can't figure out what the OP has. Pictures are worth a 1000 words.

[madonetwo]

No, we don't have the puck. We have ONLY a single ball sticking up through the truck bed. The 5'er kingpin has a Lippert adapter thing that looks like a single piece of metal pipe that is welded to the 5'er. We back the truck up with the ball under this pipe thing and lower the front jacks so that the pipe fits down on the ball. That's all we have.

[Cummins12V98]

"I don't know what a puck system is, sorry"

This is the B&W RVK3600 for the RAM puck attachment system. GM and Ford have similar attachment systems.

[TakingThe5th]

OP - You had said "Noticed jerky, intermittent tugging as we towed." Can you give us a better idea of what you meant by "intermittent"? Are you saying once every few seconds, several times a minute, a few times every xx minutes or ???? Is it a jerk, several tugs in a row, a rumble, ... Thanks.

[jerem0621]

Could the IBC be malfunctioning?

Also 1.5 miles with the brake away cable pulled is not a good thing. I can't imagine how hot those brakes got...or they don't work at all,

[Wild_Card]

How bout cheap tires that have flat spots or broken belts.

[Okie1]

1. There are no I bolts attaching your hitch to truck bed, just two small I bolts for safety chains when using gooseneck.
2. There is no way you could have pulled your trailer that far with the breakaway switch pulled if the brakes were working properly.

[madonetwo]

I don't know what a puck system is, sorry. We have the B&W turnover ball hitch but the dealer didn't install any U-bolts in bed of truck. I will try to find the video, Hannibal. Still, why the smooth ride home with new trailer then rough ride now? didn't add any real furnishing to it, just a suitcase. One person suggest asking RV service dept to hitch something to our truck and see if it tows same way. I guess would need to be same wt and hitch wt?

[MFL]

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Is your B&W the puck system hitch? If so just make sure hitch is tight at all four puck attachment points.

From the OPs last post, I am thinking there is no FW hitch, and OP is using an adapter hooked to B&W turnover ball.

This could be a pinbox, or FW frame flex issue, if I am understanding last post from OP.

Jerry

[Hannibal]

Sounds like chucking to me too. Take a peek at the towing mileage video IB516 posted. Not a smooth ride, especially in one truck. Road surface, wheelbase of 5th wheel, location of hitch in truck and weight distribution in trailer can all affect it. Mostly a not too uncommon characteristic of towing a 5th wheel/gooseneck.