How I "may" have wrecked the Tri-Glide feature of my Trailair Pinbox

[Terry H]

Jim, I lube where the jaw contacts the pin, the jaw and the pin. I also lube the vertical surfaces of the pin anywhere it might contact with the vertical surfaces in the jaw area.

 

[rick_debbie_gallant]

I always thought thingies worked better if they were well lubricated. Frictions is friction and it causes things to bind up and not work smooth. That is why I use a liberal coat of PTFE on my pin.

 

[TandT]

I agree with Terry. I lube the king pin and the jaw. Recently, I started lubing the head of my hitch, as well. I have always used a lube plate, but I noticed some of the paint was wearing on the topside of the hitch, which meant friction and a little superficial rust. A thin layer of all purpose grease takes care of both. Trace

 

[jnbhobe]

I lube anyplace metal hits metal. Thats on the pin and the hitch although my hitch has plenty of fittings.

 

[Hockster]

I have been using a Black Lithium grease for the King Pin and there is 1 grease fitting sunken into the head for the jaw.
I have the 18K Reese Signature series hitch. I pull 2 pins and the head is removable, (just the head, not the whole hitch)
I use spray White Lithium grease on the lube points under the head.
About every 1,000 miles, I pull the head, clean off the old grease and install fresh grease.
I have been using a Red grease for the wet bolts and the 9 fittings on the tri-glide.
The Red grease was originally used on the fittings, and I hate to change.
I have 2 guns, one manual and one air powered. Different grease in both guns.
I do have an on board compressor for my tires, which makes the air powered gun handy to use.

Hockster

 

[Theresau]

Hi all,

I'm posting this to let people know how I "may" have wrecked by Tri-Glide feature of my Trailair Pinbox - all in an effort to help you prevent the same.

My Setup:
- 2011 Heartland Landmark San Antonio
- Lippert Electronic/Hydraulic Leveling (4 point)
- Trailair Pinbox with Tri-Glide lower jaw

The Symptom:
About 3/4 the way into my last day of travel to the Branson rally this week, the RV began banging against the hitch in the truck when stopping and then tugging back when starting from a stop. Figured it had to be the Tri-Glide as this is the only item in my setup that allows any push-pull motion.

The Failure:
Upon inspection, the lower plate of the Tri-Glide was smashed up against the upper section of the Tri-Glide. That is, there was no gap anymore. The back corners of the plate had also bent downward as if they were trying to wrap around my 5th wheel hitch plate. On the top of the lower plate, on each side were deep grind marks where the upper portion was grinding hard on top of the plate.

Unhitching:
Simply stated - I could not pull the hitch handle, no matter what I tried. Until I dumped the all the air from the air suspension on my truck. First time I ever had to do this to unhitch (out of hundreds of uses).

Further Inspection:
After I got unhitched and leveled out the RV, I inspected the pinbox further. The lower plate of the Tri-Glide had now dropped down to reveal a gap above it where I could look into. I noticed a difference between the left and right sides, inside the Tri-Glide. So something had failed for sure. But why?

One "possible" explanation":
On travel days, we do not unhook the truck. I want to stabilize the RV and level it a bit if possible. My practice has been to lower the front jacks until they take a small amount of pressure off the truck. Then I drop the rear leveling jacks until the touch the ground. From there, I read the lights and the display to determine how out-of-level I may be, then gently tweak the leveling, taking care not to take too much pressure off the hitch. I am never able to fully level the coach as invariably, the terrain will not allow it when connected to the truck.

What I think may have happened, after 9 months of using this method of slightly, manually leveling when needed, is to weaken the internals of the Tri-Glide to the point where the last time it happened, it was the "straw that broke the camel's back". Then, 4 hours into driving, during a movement of the Tri-Glide, it simply failed. Then driving another couple hours with it failed, it really messed itself up by grinding and bending.

Resolution:
Lippert sent me a new Tri-Glide jaw and Terry (can't recall his username), a fellow Heartlander helped me remove the old and install the new. I'd hate to do a Tri-Glide upgrade alone! Be easier to install an assembled Trailair with Tri-Glide than to do a Tri-Glide upgrade - IMHO. The Tri-Glide weighed 118 pounds and had to be "maneuvered" to get out and then back in

Conclusion:
So, I share all of this not to only show what an idiot I may be, but to advise others who may also stabilize and slightly level their rigs when attached to the truck, to take great care to make little, to no changes in pressure and geometry to the pinbox/hitch area when doing so.

Pictures:
Below are some pictures taken with my phone during the inspection and repair phase.

View attachment 16139 View attachment 16140 View attachment 16145 View attachment 16141 View attachment 16142 View attachment 16147 View attachment 16143 View attachment 16144 View attachment 16146

Resources:
I have attached Lippert's Tri-Glide Installation Manual. For those who have the Tri-Glide, pay attention to a couple of things.

1. Bolt Torque:
   There is a 9/16" hex headed bolt on each side of the Tri-Glide that hold the large diameter long "Pivot Pin" in place at the rear of the jaw. The required torque of these bolts per Lippert is 90 to 110 foot pounds. I also noticed a bit of red Loctite threadlocker on the rearmost threads of these bolts. I see nothing about its use in the manual - but it's probably a good idea. Mine were not very tight and I spoke to Mickey today and he told me he had one that was really backed out!
   
   The bolts/nuts on the top and bottom of the shock mounts are also 9/16" and require the same 90-110 foot pounds of torque.
2. Lubrication:
   There are 9 grease zerks on the Tri-Glide. Three each on each side of the Tri-Glide are clearly visible. But there are 3 more that are rather hidden. They are above the lower plate and are accessible from behind the pinbox.

I just showed this to Joe. Here's his take - he strongly feels this is a design flaw in the Tri Glide. The plate is too thin for the massive pin weight of the Landmark and that is why it bent - he does not feel it has anything to do with leveling while hooked up nor with having to grease the Tri Glide. The hitch in your truck Jim probably has too small of a bearing area for that thin plate on the Tri Glide which consequently caved it in.

We have a Superglide which requires a capture plate which doubles the thickness of the plates. Plus there is a large bearing area on the truck hitch itself.

Regards,
Theresa and Joe

 

[jbeletti]

Theresau,

Joe may be right. I wrecked a second one with the same RV and this one I wrecked in a very short period of time.

That said, I've only had Trailair hitches with all my Landmarks except the current one. And not one issue with them until the last coach. Most of the time, I have a pin weight of 3800 to 4200.

Jim

 

[Theresau]

But you didn't have the Tri-Glide prior -correct? Joe strongly feels that the plate on the Tri Glide needs to be at least 3/8" thick.

Regards,
Theresa and Joe

 

[jbeletti]

Theresa,

Correct - the TriGlide was new to me in 2011.

Jim