My 5th airborne cover up job...

dougw

Well-known member
I thought I'd share what I did to put the factory cover back over the newly installed 5th airborne pin box.

Photo1 was taken from another here in the forum. Fitted the cover on the pin box to the point that there wasn't to much flexing going on and I like the fit. I then marked through the existing holes in the cover and then drilled and tapped the holes to 1/4-20".

Photo2 shows how I notched the cover to fit around the new bolts in the pin box. I have some bolts in the top hole now so it was necessary to do. I figure if your bolts are not in the top row you probably don't need to trim much. I also trimmed about 2" from the front of the cut out. After all was said and done, I'm not sure I needed to go that far but it did fit nicely up to the trailer. I used a dremel tool with a cutting / grinding wheel and a 1/4" sanding drum to radius all the corners to help prevent future splinter cracks. The cover is a plastic and not fiberglass so the mess was pretty minimal.

Photo3 shows the final install. I will probably put some white paint onto the bolts later.

Photo4 shows the inside lip on the left side where I used #10 self taping screws and large washers to pull the cover up. The original screws left the cover starting to crack, so I'm hoping the larger washers will help with this. I added the farther one in front for a second reason. I noticed that the lower cover of the trailer overhang was sagging some even after the cover was installed. By using the second bolt, it pulled the cover and overhang up nice and tight. You can also see on the aft side that I put the existing cover back on as well. The cover sits about ~5" farther forward than it did. The only thing I haven't checked is how it all comes together when it is hitched up. I don't fore see any problems though.

Doug
cover1.JPGcover2.JPGcover3.JPGcover4.JPG
 

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
Very nice! The Elk Ridge doesn't overhang the hitch as much as the bigger rigs, so our hitch cover over the 5th Airborne just didn't look/fit right. So we sold it on ebay.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
You can tell by the drip line how much further out the 5th AB projects from the rig. Fortunately, it was only winter grime and washed off.
 
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