Trail Air Tri Glide Retro

[Ray LeTourneau]

I still have a few finishing touches to do but the addition of the Tri Glide to my Trail Air is finished. I started yesterday afternoon by removing the lower jaw. I used a floor jack on a picnic table to accomplish all the lifting and positioning during both removal and assembly. Worked like a charm. I made a wooden jig to accommodate the lower jaw because of the "pin".
Rather than just pull out the old and put in the new I decided to try to get rid of the rust so I removed the entire hitch and ground all the edges and wire wheeled the rust and primed and repainted the upper jaw. The Lower Jaw was very disappointing as far as workmanship. The plasma cutter left a ragged edge and Trail Air just left it like that. I got busy with the grinder on that too. All in all is was a pretty straight forward install. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd take it out for a road test but it's a PITA to get everything set up to move for just a short jaunt. The test will come in July when we go to the Wisconsin Rally in the Dells. Here are a few pics. I should have taken more during the assembly but I was kind of in a hurry and forgot about pictures.

 

[SmokeyBare]

Nice Report Ray.

Thanks for the information. I agree about the rough cuts... The installation looks great, thanks for the pictures.

Marv

 

[Delaine and Lindy]

Trailair Pin box....

Well have owned 2 Trailair pin box'es and both have performed well. We looked at the Tri Glide while in Goshen at our Rally but decided to order a new 2010 Mobile Suiters and we deleted the Trailair pin box. We instead have upgraded to a Freightliner M2 and have ordered a Trailer Saver Air ride 5th wheel hitch (TSLB2H 32,000 lb capacity). So really have no need to get the Trailair pin box. Let us know how the Trailair Tri Glide works. Excellent work on the upgrade. GBY....

 

[mrcomer]

Very nice Ray, great pics.

Thank you for sharing.

Mark

 

[bill40]

Hi Ray,
Just installed the tri glide on our BC. At present we are in OCM about a 200 mile trip to break it in. If they had sent the correct air bag I think the result would have been a lot better, its suppose to be at home when we get back. I'm glad my son was at home when we had to lift the unit into the frame. Good thing for bottle jacks. Hope the new bag helps with the chucking. Buy some rust paint it tends to rust up rather quickly. Bill

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Buy some rust paint it tends to rust up rather quickly. Bill

Oh boy, you got that right. In the 3 years we've had the BH, I think I've wire brushed and repainted 4 or 5 times. This time I cleaned it up real good and used primer. I ground all the sharp edges and hopefully it will last a little longer. It's sad they can't powder coat these things. I called Trail Air and mentioned the sloppy work. They said Lippert makes all the pieces and TA just does the assembly. They're also sending us a set of decals at my request n/c. You mentioned you had an incorrect air bag. How did you determine that? Just curious.

 

[beardedone]

Ray, what is the difference between the Tri-glyde and the original Trail Air hitch?

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Hi Ray,
Just installed the tri glide on our BC. At present we are in OCM about a 200 mile trip to break it in. If they had sent the correct air bag I think the result would have been a lot better, its suppose to be at home when we get back. I'm glad my son was at home when we had to lift the unit into the frame. Good thing for bottle jacks. Hope the new bag helps with the chucking. Buy some rust paint it tends to rust up rather quickly. Bill

For what it's worth, I'm told the tri-glide performs best with heavy pin weights. We're at 3000# on our pin so we will hopefully have good results.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Ray, what is the difference between the Tri-glyde and the original Trail Air hitch?

The tri-glide adds front to rear "cushion" similar to the mor/ryde but without rubber. It relies on pin weight to put down force on a set of gliding pins. The heavier the pin weight, the better it's supposed to work. Supposed to be the best of both worlds. I hope so.

 

[jjbowl]

We were one of the lucky folks to have our springs replaced at Lippert after the ralley. While we were there we were convinced that putting on a Trail Air pin box would solve most of our issues with towing. We bit the bullet and had them replace our old box with the Trail Air. We traveled around for about a week and finally got home a few days ago, 1000 miles of travel. Most of the time my wife was either mad, complaining or crying about the chucking we now had. It didn't matter what kinds of roads we were on, it was generally terrible. I tried changing air pressure in the hitch, changing tire pressure, going slower, faster with no improvement. I have contacted Lippert and have had little or no response from them, didn't return my call as promised. I know now this doesn't help chucking after visiting their web site but no mention of making it much worse. Planning on testing their 60 day money back guarantee if it doesn't get better. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[jmgratz]

We were one of the lucky folks to have our springs replaced at Lippert after the ralley. While we were there we were convinced that putting on a Trail Air pin box would solve most of our issues with towing. We bit the bullet and had them replace our old box with the Trail Air. We traveled around for about a week and finally got home a few days ago, 1000 miles of travel. Most of the time my wife was either mad, complaining or crying about the chucking we now had. It didn't matter what kinds of roads we were on, it was generally terrible. I tried changing air pressure in the hitch, changing tire pressure, going slower, faster with no improvement. I have contacted Lippert and have had little or no response from them, didn't return my call as promised. I know now this doesn't help chucking after visiting their web site but no mention of making it much worse. Planning on testing their 60 day money back guarantee if it doesn't get better. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Same experience here. When we bought our Landmark in 2007 it had the Trail Air pin box. It was the worst towing unit I had ever experienced because of the chucking. It felt as if another car was bumping us constantly. We changed out to the Mor-Ryde pin box and now sometimes I almost forget I am towing. I know total elimination of chucking is impossible but it is okay now. I am not a fan of the Trail Air pin box. Give me a Mor-Ryde box anyday.

 

[bill40]

Hi Ray,
I called them (TA) after I put 200psi in the bag and it did not move the shock at all. I had ordered mine from Tweeny's, gave Mike my pin numbers and the size and weight of the BC, he still ordered a small bag. The TA rep said it would be ok to travel with the small bag but we would not get the true benfit of the ride. I was worried about the saftey, they said no problem. The chucking was the same as the reg hitch, hope that changes with the larger bag. My son said the new bag arrived about four hours after we pulled out. I will replace it but won't get to check it out on a trip till the Pa Rally in August.

 

[jjbowl]

Just got off the phone with Lippert and had an interesting conversation. I was told that there have been no problems ever reported with chucking with the Trail Air hitch. The problem is probably that I have timbrens on my tow vehicle according to them. This hitch probably does not work properly with these or air bags on the TV, plus the mor ryde system also creates problems. Of course this was the first time anything like this was mentioned to me. I also asked about the 60 day 100% money back guarantee as show on the Trail Air web site and was informed that there was a 20% restocking charge. Evidently Lippert bought out Trail Air and didn't seem to know much about what I was talking about. I was not given any written info when it was installed but was told to go to the web site where I could find out about it. Something does not sound right about this. This could be a costly mistake on my part.

 

[Pulltab]

JJbowl, are you referring to the trailair pinbox with or without the triglide? I have the trailair regular pin box and the trailair centerpoint suspension and we still get some chucking.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

The basic Trail Air, in my opinion, does not remove chucking. I do, however think it reduces or minimizes the shock to the trailer from bad roads and bumps. Much like a set of properly inflated air bags on a truck. I think if you already have air bags on a truck, the trail air is not needed. For me, because I had the Trail Air originally, my options were to scrap the T/A and buy the Mor/ryde or add the Tri-glide. The Tri-Glide was the cheaper option. I only hope it works as promised. Otherwise I'll be on the phone too! Sadly, I won't know till July 23rd.

 

[beardedone]

I'll ad my experience here that you might find interesting. When we had our Titanium my wife and I went to the Yukon & parts of Alaska for 4 months. I towed it with a Dodge 2500 4x4 with the Cummins. Before departing I installed Ride-Rite air bags to keep the truck level and the trailer had a fixed pin box. During that trip I can guarantee you that the truck air bags did not improve the ride for the trailer and they were not designed for that. They are designed to assist with keeping the truck on an even keel to enhance operational safety (no front end floating). During the trip the trailer would slam about on the hitch when we hitch an unexpected bump in the road, and there were a few of those. Once home I installed the TA pin box. Immediately I could see the improved ride for the trailer and the proof was in the fact that fewer things were falling out of the cupboards. If you check around you will find out that air bags on the truck do not improve ride and I do not believe the two air bags conflict with one another. The exception there would be if you had a fifth wheel hitch with built in air bags and in that case you only need the air ride hitch and a fixed pin box on the trailer. Opposing air bags on either side of the pin box (not including the truck axle bags) will fight each other.

 

[Delaine and Lindy]

Air bags on a Truck doesn't change the ride. It just helps to take the sagging out of the Truck due to the pin weight. The best combination I ever had was the Trailer Saver air ride 5th wheel hitch and the Mor/Ryde pin box. I have also had two Trialair pin boxes, it does help in the up and down ride of the 5th wheel. That is why the Mor/Ryde pin box helps, it helps in the front to rear and side to side movement. The new tri-glide from Trailair might help not sure. I just ordered the Trailer Saver Air ride hitch (TSLB2H 32,000 Capacity) the Truck already has Air ride suspension and Air ride seats. Good Luck. GBY...

 

[Pulltab]

You beat me to it D&L, airbags on a truck are for supporting the load not for improving the ride. What you don't want to do is air ride the pin box AND the hitch.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

The Results Are In.

If I had to choose one word to describe the Tri Glide addition,that word would be, Amazing. It works exactly as described to me by a Cedar Creek owner. I could tell the difference as soon as we got underway today. I took roads I traveled before and the difference was, well, amazing. On the worst areas of the road I could feel minimal chucking but nothing like before. In fact what I did feel was a "Cushioned" feel to the chucking. For the most part is was very smooth. The combination of the Trail Air with Tri Glide and Mor/ryde I.S. was smoother overall and was evident by the fact that everything in the trailer stayed put. Call me a Happy Camper.

 

[bill40]

If I had to choose one word to describe the Tri Glide addition,that word would be, Amazing. It works exactly as described to me by a Cedar Creek owner. I could tell the difference as soon as we got underway today. I took roads I traveled before and the difference was, well, amazing. On the worst areas of the road I could feel minimal chucking but nothing like before. In fact what I did feel was a "Cushioned" feel to the chucking. For the most part is was very smooth. The combination of the Trail Air with Tri Glide and Mor/ryde I.S. was smoother overall and was evident by the fact that everything in the trailer stayed put. Call me a Happy Camper.

Hi Ray,
Finally got the test drive in with the new bag (105psi), must say it does smooth out the chucking to where it is not that sharp feeling in your back. I guess I was expecting too much. The bouncing has a 100% improvement. This was on mainly back roads will get the full test in August when we go north on Rt 15 and Rt 81 too the rally. Keeping the primer and paint handy.