Oops - mis-hitched for the first time - ouch!

Well, after 8 years of pulling 5 different 5th wheels and probably hitching/unhitching hundreds of times - I went and done it!

Yep, mis-hitched and dropped her. That's the bad news.

The good news is the damage is minimal. A small chunk of gel coat in the front cap needs repaired/painted and I need a new closet clothes pole. The weight of clothing and the drop bent the pole on 1 end. The truck has a tiny chip in the paint on 1 of my tool boxes. I can see a slight scuff in the bedliner where the king pin rested. The hitch took it the worst. Bent the plate/top bracket the holds the air bags in the TS3 and bent one of the 2 shields for the left side air bag line/connector.



What happened? Apparently, I believed I had placed the hitch head in the "ready to hitch" position a few days ago. That's my story! Today I backed into the king pin and clunk. Same old sound I've heard maybe a 50 times. I pulled out of the RV garage and down the driveway (7 degree down slope) and started to make a left turn onto the street, the king pin rotated out of the open jaws of the hitch.

Lesson learned by me? ALWAYS visually check the jaws to make sure they appear to be fully-wrapped around the king pin and locked. It's a simple lesson and one that I know I should ALWAYS do. But after hundreds of successful operations, it's easy to get complacent. Could have been worse.

So - don't do as I did, do as I say Be ever vigilant and check those jaws before you raise the front jacks and move the truck.

Jim,

Without a doubt you've proven the rule that this can happen to anyone.

I have the BD3 which is similar. On the Hensleys, I think the checking for the jaws closing is not a 100% deal. I don't have it right at hand, but I think when the lever moves to the rear, it allows a block to move into position locking the jaws in the closed position. I'm spraying with WD40 frequently to make it easier for the locking mechanism to move. I check the lever position, then look at the jaws and then look at the locking block. And I still also do a pull test to check hitch and brakes in case I misinterpreted what I was looking at. I've banged up the bed rails while learning other lessons - I really don't want to learn this one the hard way.

Bummer. Best result possible considering the potential for worse. Thanks for sharing.

That just hurts, thinking about it.

So sorry to hear Jim, glad that it sounds like minimal damage. Complacency can rear its ugly head to even the best, and yes it happens. Visual checks of the jaws, and take the extra minute for a "pull check" before committing to move on out. I hope that your experience awakens all that hear you. Travel safe my friend, see you soon.

Jim, so sorry to hear about your accident. It is so easy to have one of them senior moments and stray from your usual routine. Thank god the damage wasn't near as extensive as it could have been. See you soon.

Ouch - that hurt! Glad there wasn't more damage done. Guess ya got a story to tell at Gulf Shores.

Jim:
Been there, done that, lost my tailgate. I went out and bought a hitch saver from Butchs Services. http://butchsservices.com/5601.html Sliding that secondary bar in place is now part of hitching up for me, along with looping the disconnect braking lanyard, and connecting the wiring. I also spray painted the rear of the hitch jaws white for better visibility when they are encircling the king pin. I think also having to slide that secondary bar out into position before hitching (it seems to migrate closed during unhitched travel) makes you more aware of all of the other aspects of hitching up.

Must have been quite a bang too. My neighbor heard it and came out of her home. Two other neighbors were in the street and heard it and came over. Cat is out of the bag in my RV home community Oh well, I can take the heat.

Dan - I plan to PM my hitch when I get to Gulf Shores later this week. Grease the zerks and lube the other stuff with white lithium grease. Wish I had the skills of Duane C (porthole) - he really modded his TS3 to improve its greasability.

Back to my oops - had my tool box not had a handle, there would not have been any front cap damage as the king pin was resting in the floor of the bed already. I am checking with Blue Ox now to see if the BXR5000 Bedsaver for my hitch is compatible with the Mor/rde and Trailair with TriGlide pin boxes. Insurance!

wdk450 said:

Jim:
Been there, done that, lost my tailgate. I went out and bought a hitch saver from Butchs Services. http://butchsservices.com/5601.html...

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Thanks Bill. They don't make one compatible with my hitch per their website.

Jim,

You may want to call them. My next door neighbor inquired about his hitch not being on their list. And they designed one for it and gave it to him for free

He had to let them use his hitch for three weeks to do the design , an option you may not have given your schedule.

Kevin

Sorry Jim, but welcome to the club. Wonder how many of us there are between damaged beds and tailgates.

And yet another hero bursts our bubble and proves he is a mere human.

jbeletti said:

What happened? Apparently, I believed I had placed the hitch head in the "ready to hitch" position a few days ago.

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So I'm guessing the handle is still in the "out" position? That very limited arc the handle position is in from released - ready - lock is deceiving.
Actually, I think it is a very easy slip-up to do on our hitch.

I was lucky when I did it, I was playing around with the then brand new hitch learning how to work it, pulled away. But I still had the jacks all the way down.

All I did was crack the plastic trim on the top of the tailgate. $35 later and no one would know.
Since that day I check the handle at least twice on every connection, no doubt you will from now on.

I keep thinking about painting the block too, this may just be my encouragement to "git er done"

jbeletti said:

Thanks Bill. They don't make one compatible with my hitch per their website.

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porthole said:

Duane,
They do make a bed saver for the Hensley TS3.The Blue Ox part # is BXR5000.(your cost 307.89)

Thanks
dan@tweetys.com

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recumbent615 said:

You may want to call them. My next door neighbor inquired about his hitch not being on their list. And they designed one for it and gave it to him for free
He had to let them use his hitch for three weeks to do the design , an option you may not have given your schedule.

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I tried that with mine when I had the hitch apart, wasn't interested.

I have the BD3 from Hensley. I purchased mine used and the previous owner painted the sliding block orange. When the jaw locks around the king pin you can not see any of the orange. I still do a double check before lifting the landing gear just to be on the safe side.

jbeletti said:

Lesson learned by me? ALWAYS visually check the jaws to make sure they appear to be fully-wrapped around the king pin and locked.

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That is not good enough on our hitch (TS-3).

You can have the pin all the way in the jaws, the jaws wrapped around the pin and still not be locked. Until that steel block slides in between the the back side of the jaws, the hitch is not locked.

Visually sight that the jaws are wrapped, then you must check the handle to make sure the block is rearward of the blocking pin and the handle is blocked from moving forward.

I did not do that when I had my incident mentioned in the above post. I know I brought it up on the forum before, but maybe that was before you had the TS

JohnDar said:

And yet another hero bursts our bubble and proves he is a mere human.

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Nobody's hero here. Just another mere mortal that's on the road a LOT

Oh man, sorry about that Jim....keep hoping we never do this...we kinda tag team , checking behind each other. Has worked for almost eight years. ..hope our luck holds out.

jbeletti said:

Nobody's hero here. Just another mere mortal that's on the road a LOT

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Hey Jim - you're still our hero - and I appreciate your transparency/candidness in this "oops" scenario.

Bill