Best hitch (non-slider)
I have been using the Superglide for about 10 yrs and have lost touch with the non-sliders. I am going to a long bed dually and would like to install the best hitch available. Any suggestions?
Forum Discussion
The Binkley head is not without problems.
The pivot pins wear out, sometimes within less than a year on heavy trailers (between 19K-25K). Many photographs of Binkley hitch heads exhibiting this pivot pin wear are searchable online. I found the best examples on hotshotter forums, as well as the Escapees forum. Those that redesigned or rebuilt their Binkley heads substituted the original pins with hardened bushings.
Another issue with the Binkley head, albeit trivial compared to the more concerning issue above, are the jaw thickness. Almost too much of a good thing. The Binkley jaws are larger than an inch thick... I can't remember they are 1.125" or 1.1875" or 1.25"... I have the specs somewhere.
Anyway, it is this jaw thickness that forces folks to find thinner lube plates, because of the stacked tolerances of how much these robust jaws grasp the fiver pin. Not a bad problem to have, but it is an issue that has caused some owners a bit of aggravation finding a lube plate, or cost them a bit of money ordering a special one from Trailersaver.
It seems like B&W struck a balance, with 1.00" jaws, between making them thicker than (almost) everyone else in the industry, but still thin enough so that any lube plate found at any RV store (including Camping World) throughout the land can be swapped in when needed.
That isn't intended to be a plug for B&W... as B&W hitches have problems of their own. The problems I've personally noticed have been with their turnover ball goosneck hitch heads and cross rails. Very poor quality paint that flakes off brand new product. I recently went through a small pallet of kits, and found most of the painted angle irons were corroded under the paint. It appeared that the steel was not prepped sufficiently enough for the paint to adhere.
Being quite surprised at this reality, given all the singing and praising that I have read about B&W hitches over the years, I researched it further. What I found was interesting...
1. No one has complained about the paint finish of the Companion 5th Wheel hitches. This would include the Patriot and the OEM versions of the same.
2. Several have complained about the paint finish of the Turnover Ball hitch head, as well as the attchment cross rails.
3. All the ones who complained are the ones who actually installed the underbed portion themselves, and were able to see the B&W product in the uninstalled state.
4. Many people who praise the B&W Turnover hitch they have, actually did not install the hitch themselves (by their own admission), but had it installed by a shop, and as such, they may not have had the opportunity to see the paint quality of the underbed portion of the hitch.
Paint easily flaked off of the 800R underbed hitch head I received. A fingernail was all that was needed to flick more paint off, so the entire piece was scotchwheeled, acid treated, primed, and repainted.
The angle iron cross rails had lines of rust bubbles in them. A putty knife was taken to them, and all the bubbling paint was scraped away to reveal the corrosion.
I find it hard to believe that these under bed pieces are "powder coated". The hitch head even had small places where no paint was applied, which doesn't seem consitent with an electro deposition process. My observations made me wonder if above bed hitch pieces are powder coated, whereas underbed pieces are wet painted? I plan to ask B&W this question next week.
To my mind, the paint quality of what is permanently affixed and not visible, nor easily accessible, nor easily servicable UNDERNEATH the truck is far more important that what is removable above the truck. The purpose is not aesthetics as much as it is corrosion protection.
Even for end users inclined to slide under their trucks to have a look at the B&W installation below, there are still only 2 out of 4 surfaces to each of the angle irons (or 1x2's, application depending) that are accessible to repaint. The other 2 surfaces are either mated to the hitch head, or facing the underside of the truck bed. Not serviceable without uninstalling the hitch.
If corrosion has already begun at the factory, and is simply painted over, and the paint (or powder coat) is not adhereing to the corrosion that is bubbling up beneath it, and those surfaces are flush mated up to the hitch head... then the end user will never see the eventual weakening that awaits as that corrosion continues, fed by water wicking inbetween the mated surfaces.
The self installers who have reported these problems were able to see these problems first hand... myself included. Most folks, however, have their hitches installed. The boys that do the installing get paid for completeing the task, not for stopping along the way to strip and refinish parts that should have been better controlled by the factory.
The pivot pins wear out, sometimes within less than a year on heavy trailers (between 19K-25K). Many photographs of Binkley hitch heads exhibiting this pivot pin wear are searchable online. I found the best examples on hotshotter forums, as well as the Escapees forum. Those that redesigned or rebuilt their Binkley heads substituted the original pins with hardened bushings.
Another issue with the Binkley head, albeit trivial compared to the more concerning issue above, are the jaw thickness. Almost too much of a good thing. The Binkley jaws are larger than an inch thick... I can't remember they are 1.125" or 1.1875" or 1.25"... I have the specs somewhere.
Anyway, it is this jaw thickness that forces folks to find thinner lube plates, because of the stacked tolerances of how much these robust jaws grasp the fiver pin. Not a bad problem to have, but it is an issue that has caused some owners a bit of aggravation finding a lube plate, or cost them a bit of money ordering a special one from Trailersaver.
It seems like B&W struck a balance, with 1.00" jaws, between making them thicker than (almost) everyone else in the industry, but still thin enough so that any lube plate found at any RV store (including Camping World) throughout the land can be swapped in when needed.
That isn't intended to be a plug for B&W... as B&W hitches have problems of their own. The problems I've personally noticed have been with their turnover ball goosneck hitch heads and cross rails. Very poor quality paint that flakes off brand new product. I recently went through a small pallet of kits, and found most of the painted angle irons were corroded under the paint. It appeared that the steel was not prepped sufficiently enough for the paint to adhere.
Being quite surprised at this reality, given all the singing and praising that I have read about B&W hitches over the years, I researched it further. What I found was interesting...
1. No one has complained about the paint finish of the Companion 5th Wheel hitches. This would include the Patriot and the OEM versions of the same.
2. Several have complained about the paint finish of the Turnover Ball hitch head, as well as the attchment cross rails.
3. All the ones who complained are the ones who actually installed the underbed portion themselves, and were able to see the B&W product in the uninstalled state.
4. Many people who praise the B&W Turnover hitch they have, actually did not install the hitch themselves (by their own admission), but had it installed by a shop, and as such, they may not have had the opportunity to see the paint quality of the underbed portion of the hitch.
Paint easily flaked off of the 800R underbed hitch head I received. A fingernail was all that was needed to flick more paint off, so the entire piece was scotchwheeled, acid treated, primed, and repainted.
The angle iron cross rails had lines of rust bubbles in them. A putty knife was taken to them, and all the bubbling paint was scraped away to reveal the corrosion.
I find it hard to believe that these under bed pieces are "powder coated". The hitch head even had small places where no paint was applied, which doesn't seem consitent with an electro deposition process. My observations made me wonder if above bed hitch pieces are powder coated, whereas underbed pieces are wet painted? I plan to ask B&W this question next week.
To my mind, the paint quality of what is permanently affixed and not visible, nor easily accessible, nor easily servicable UNDERNEATH the truck is far more important that what is removable above the truck. The purpose is not aesthetics as much as it is corrosion protection.
Even for end users inclined to slide under their trucks to have a look at the B&W installation below, there are still only 2 out of 4 surfaces to each of the angle irons (or 1x2's, application depending) that are accessible to repaint. The other 2 surfaces are either mated to the hitch head, or facing the underside of the truck bed. Not serviceable without uninstalling the hitch.
If corrosion has already begun at the factory, and is simply painted over, and the paint (or powder coat) is not adhereing to the corrosion that is bubbling up beneath it, and those surfaces are flush mated up to the hitch head... then the end user will never see the eventual weakening that awaits as that corrosion continues, fed by water wicking inbetween the mated surfaces.
The self installers who have reported these problems were able to see these problems first hand... myself included. Most folks, however, have their hitches installed. The boys that do the installing get paid for completeing the task, not for stopping along the way to strip and refinish parts that should have been better controlled by the factory.
