Pin boxes - air or Mor/Ryde.?

[Scorekeeper]

We're nubies to 5ers looking at the 3455rl and planning to trade our F250 srw 4x4 for a F350 drw 2x4. We've heard lots of good things about the B&W companion hitch that will work with the Ford built in rails and plan to get that. My question is about the pin box. It seems like lots of people have problems with chucking. I've read that some people have a 5th Airbourne or Trailsaver pin box added to help. Others say to get the Mor/Ryde pin and add airbags to the hitch. Am I understanding the options correctly? I really don't know which would be best but would prefer to get it right the first time. In other words I'd love to take advantage of your experience.

 

[jnbhobe]

I have a trailair tri-glide I'll sell. It was just rebuilt by trail-air never been used. Tri-glide and 5th airborne work great for chucking and up and down movement.

 

[JohnDar]

I put a 5th Airborne on my rig and have a standard Reese 16K hitch in the truck. Works great on anything except I-69 in Michigan. I think even planes flying over that roadway experience chucking.

 

[scottyb]

B&W Companion and 5th Airborne here. We are happy with the combination, but don't have experience with anything else to compare. I had it installed before taking delivery and never pulled it with the factory pin box.

 

[Theresau]

We have a Trail Air with the Tri-Glide. It works great when it works - we find that it is very sensitive - if we don't have enough pin weight then we experience a great deal of chucking especially going over some bridges. Our unit has a low pin weight to start (one of the reasons we selected it) so we have to be sure to add weight to the front so that the Tri-Glide is engaged. The Trail Air by itself does not handle chucking - our first long trip was miserable at times due to the chucking - we then upgraded it to include the Tri-Glide. Hope this helps.

Regards,
Theresa

 

[Theresau]

Joe said that you must not have experienced I96 from Lansing to Grand Rapids yet.... I69 is rough but much worse on I96.

 

[JohnDar]

Joe said that you must not have experienced I96 from Lansing to Grand Rapids yet.... I69 is rough but much worse on I96.

Nope haven't towed on that stretch, but I've driven it. Didn't seem near as bad as I-69 between Flint and Port Huron, though. Towed my sister's small Golden Falcon with standard pin box for her and had to see the dentist to reinstall my fillings. Even without the trailer on, it's nasty. Makes I-75 seem like a plate of glass.

 

[Bob&Patty]

We have the Mor/Ryde and love it. It's cheaper than the others and we did not have to install an air hitch.

 

[CeeCee]

We are also a new 5th wheel owner. We bought a new F250 4x4 with the 5th wheel prep pkg. We bought the B&W companion hitch that goes with the Ford built in rails. It is great!!! Rated for 20k lbs just clamps in. It is 2 pieces & very light. When you take it out you just put in the rubber plugs in your bed & your truck bed looks like it never had a 5th wheel in it. We also got air bags installed with a wireless controller. As far as chucking I'm not sure what you mean. When we are hooked up & traveling we never feel or hear anything. It's just we aren't even towing anything. Hope this is of some help to you.

 

[Scorekeeper]

CeeCee, so you have a regular factory installed pin box with a B&W companion with air bags? Sounds like it's working we'll for you. It's good to hear you're happy with the B&W / Ford combo.

sounds like we'll be in good shape whichever way we go as long as we stay off Michigan interstate!

 

[CeeCee]

Yeah, we love the B&W companion hitch. Can't say enough about it. Our friend has to use his tractor to take his hitch out it's so heavy. Like I said ours is light & very easy to remove. I will say that putting the air bags in was a big job. We had the RV dealer install them. I guess because of the factory hitch system it was more difficult?? We heard that Ford changed their springs in 2011 for a smoother ride . We have a small 5th wheel & it made the bed of our truck go down so we needed to add the air bags. We weren't planning on installing them when we bought the truck/trailer but found we really needed to. Now we are glad we did. Good luck with your truck & trailer!