pin box upgrade

Sajo

Member
Morning Everyone,
We have a 2013 Big Country 3650 Gold Edition. We tow with a 2012 Dodge 3500 Crew Cab 4x4 with Cumings 6.7 and 410 ratio diff. Now for the question. We want to replace the standard pin box with something that is less "beat us up" ride. Mor/Ryde, Fifth Gear, Trail air....I really don't know. Any ideas?
Sajo
 

jnbhobe

Well-known member
I have had both the Tri-Glide and the 5th Air-born, The tri-glide may work a little better but not enough to make up for the maintainence that's required.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
I replaced the OEM pin with the 5th Airborne. ANYTHING's an improvement over the stock pin box. With the 5th AB, if you check the inflation after loading the trailer on the hitch, you'll get an excellent ride.
 

Sajo

Member
5th Airborne......is that the same as Fifth Gear? I have seen a few units that have shocks located in the front of the pin box. Do all of the brands have the inflatable tube and do they all have the shock? Which is best?
 

jnbhobe

Well-known member
I never heard of 5th gear, ( except in a transmission) But I have 5th Air-Borne. Tri-Glides and 5th air-borne have shocks Mor-Ryde has a rubber spring. Check their web sites.
 

Sajo

Member
Thank you...
We have had several TT's but this is our first 5er. This spring we traveled over 2000 miles and some of the roads were not kind. We live in central Ala. and next spring we're heading to California and then north. Must have a smoother ride this time.
 

Theresau

Well-known member
We've had both the Trail Air Tri Glide and the Mor/Ryde and actually we at first had only the Trail Air and then added the Tri Glide later. The Trail Air alone does not address chucking the combo of the Trail Air and Tri Glide does. The Mor/Ryde addresses chucking.

We purposely did not get the Trail Air/Tri Glide for the new BC. We took the BC home with just a standard pin box and found that it actually "bucked" much less than the 2010 BC with the Trail Air/Tri Glide especially over bad bridges - there was just an incredible amount of movement for the Tri Glide jaw when we went over bridges for the 2010 BH.

We were shocked by the bucking - it practically threw us into the back seat. (There are threads we posted regarding this...) Studying indicated that the Trail Air/Tri Glide needs a great deal of pin weight which our 2010 BH did not have considering it was a rear entertainment layout.

It was also incredibly touchy - to get the best ride, we had to at times to add air to the air bag or remove it. We also did what we could to add pin weight as well by bringing water, etc.

So...we decided to go with the Mor/Ryde for the 2014 BC. And it works like a charm - have never had a bucking issue and chucking is very minimal. It goes over bad bridges very well.

The 2014 BC towed pretty well with just a standard pin box but we felt it was good to get the Mor/Ryde.

We got the Mor/Ryde at a very good price through eBay. Joe installed it himself - he backed up our older pick up truck and used it to leverage the old pin box and then the Mor/Ryde.

Best of Luck.

Morning Everyone,
We have a 2013 Big Country 3650 Gold Edition. We tow with a 2012 Dodge 3500 Crew Cab 4x4 with Cumings 6.7 and 410 ratio diff. Now for the question. We want to replace the standard pin box with something that is less "beat us up" ride. Mor/Ryde, Fifth Gear, Trail air....I really don't know. Any ideas?
Sajo
 

mobilcastle

Well-known member
We have a owned three Mor/Ryde pin boxes. We are happy with them but I have not owned any others except Mor/Ryde so I can't do any comparison for you. Good luck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

For20hunter

Pacific Region Directors-Retired
5th Airborne here and we love it! Nice ride and easy to set up and maintain.
 
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GOTTOYS

Well-known member
Fifth Airborne and Trail-Aire are both air ride pin boxes. They pretty much do the same thing. The Fifth Airborne is hinged in the front and the airbag is pretty much enclosed protecting it from the elements. The Trail-Aire is hinged in the rear and the airbag is exposed to the elements. If you currently have the ABS cover over your present pin box, with a little trimming it can be used on a Fifth Airborne. It won't work with any of the others. I currently have a Trai-Aire with the Tri-Glide option. I don't like they way I get some clunking on starting and stopping. It also requires some greasing on a regular basis. Given a choice next time I will go with a Fifth Airborne and that's all. JMHO..Don
 

donr827

Well-known member
I have had the Fifth Airborne and the Mor/Ryde. They were on different trailers. In my case the Fifth Airborne was a little better but the Mor/Ryde does a good job and requires no maintenance like the air bags the Fifth Airborne has.
Don
 

hoefler

Well-known member
You don't mention the bed length of your truck. A short bed will tend to give you a rougher ride if the fifth wheel is mounted over or behind the axle. I have the Trail-Air on our Landmark, with the hitch 2" ahead of the axle, I have a very good ride and would not hesitate to go with the Trail-Air or the Fifth Air Borne.
 

Speedy

Well-known member
The MorRyde pin box was a huge improvement to ride quality when towing our BC 3650. I like the fact that there is no added setup or tuning when hitching nor maintenance over the long term. MorRyde is a great company and has the same great customer service as Heartland.

If you let me now in advance you can ride along with us (test drive) as we head back to Alabama at the end of December.
 
I'll be in Gulf Shores, Alabama on 29 Dec.
We are there until 1 April 2014.
We stay at Island Retreat RV Park on Fort Morgan Road.
Any Heartland owners in the area stop and say Howdy.
I had the TrailAir Tri-Glide installed on my Big Country 3450TS and love it.
Hockster
 
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