Yesterday my BIL went to bring his trailer home from storage lot. Has trouble hooking up as he had left the battery switch on the last time in visited the trailer a few weeks earlier. Has the generator in the bed of the truck and gets the batteries going. Hooks up and makes several turns get out of the lot. Stops at the highway entrance and waits on traffic, gets a clear spot and takes off and the trailer drops off the truck completely, ripping off his 5th wheel tailgate. Storage lot owner and a bunch of guys come to his aid. He has to use the generator again to charge batteries to be able to lift trailer back to hitching height and get hooked back up. He does not know what he did wrong!I am not familiar with the Superglide head and latch, but the day before he moving a trailer for a friend between sites at another park. I have not looked at his rig yet, he however says damage was mostly to the 5th wheel tail gate.

Wow!!, Scary. Good friend of mine a couple doors up got rid of his Superglide, got tired of it being so temperamental on hitching ,and unhitching . Have to be a fairly straight angle , not a hitch he was happy with. Won't go into what hitch he is very happy with .The biggest concern for me was why it didn't drop immediately if something was done wrong. Hopefully its wasn't the hitches fault . If so that doesn't say much for Superglide .

We may never know, as he is not a very technical type guy. After getting back on the truck he towed in 5 or 6 miles to the park here. They have towed it all over the country for 4 or 5 years. Florida to Ohio to Florida to Ohio Washington to Arizona to Ohio to Arizona etc.

I can say that this is the 1st I've heard of a Superglide drop.... I used mine from many years, and other than being a PITA sometime to be almost straight, I loved it..Knowing how they work, The only way I see that happening is if he was high hitched??? BUT, If he was high hitched. chances are that the release arm would not spring in...???The spring snaps the retainer into place once you hit the rear of the head.. With that the arm snaps in and you're done.... IF the release arm does not go in, its not hitched.... pretty simple procedure.. I still shined a flash light from the tailgate to verify, but that is just habit...

X2 to always visually verifying that the bar slides across behind the pin.

Just a general reminder to all 5th wheel owners... If the battery in the trailer is dead, you most likely have a good one in the truck you are trying to hook up. Use jumper cables and raise the trailer to the height you need it. Leave it just a little low so the weight lifts off of the legs when you hook up. Then pull the pins and raise the legs for travel. I have cables long enough to reach the trailer battery when hooked up so I could raise the legs after being hooked up.Also, in the two times I have had to do something like this to unhook, both time I forgot to unhook the umbilical cord before pulling out from under the trailer. Especially after doing something unusual when hooking or unhooking, start over and walk through your normal steps before proceeding.

BIL with Superglide drops his trailer | Good Sam Community

JIMNLIN
Explorer III
Apr 27, 2020
His issue may have been a simple using the wrong type of lubrication in the slides and has nothing to do with high pinned or the jaws weren't closed around the pin.
I have a work buddy who was using WD-40 on his SG slides, because he read it on a rv website, which was the wrong lubrication for that year model Superglide. After several trips out west his SG dumped his trailer, ripping the tail gate open on his new '08 chevy, as he was turning in the middle of a busy intersection. The trailer landed in the street.

He admitted it was his fault but PullRite did replace the damaged hitch and the cost of a new gate for his truck. PullRite had changed their lube recommendations for that year model.
smarty
Explorer II
Apr 27, 2020
likely a case of being distracted and a step was missed?
time2roll
Nomad
Apr 27, 2020
My only observation is that you can get high hitched if the trailer does not ride up the saddle. May seem hitched but the pin is in the wrong position (too high). So the pin can sit there and you can probably move slowly on level ground. Accelerate into traffic and it comes off.

On mine the release arm does not get fully pulled in if this happens so it is rather obvious if you are paying attention. Of course an inspection of the pin or a pull test would also confirm the connection is locked in correctly.

Impossible to know once the damage is done. Ultimately I believe this is operator error. Probably due to being distracted with the battery issue and in a rush. I assume the hitch is still working and got him home.
Me_Again
Explorer III
Apr 27, 2020
schlep1967 wrote:
Just a general reminder to all 5th wheel owners... If the battery in the trailer is dead, you most likely have a good one in the truck you are trying to hook up. Use jumper cables and raise the trailer to the height you need it. Leave it just a little low so the weight lifts off of the legs when you hook up. Then pull the pins and raise the legs for travel.
I have cables long enough to reach the trailer battery when hooked up so I could raise the legs after being hooked up.

Also, in the two times I have had to do something like this to unhook, both time I forgot to unhook the umbilical cord before pulling out from under the trailer. Especially after doing something unusual when hooking or unhooking, start over and walk through your normal steps before proceeding.

Jumpering off these new trucks with all their electronics is not a very wise thing to do, plus the chance of blowing alternator diodes.
schlep1967
Nomad
Apr 27, 2020
Just a general reminder to all 5th wheel owners... If the battery in the trailer is dead, you most likely have a good one in the truck you are trying to hook up. Use jumper cables and raise the trailer to the height you need it. Leave it just a little low so the weight lifts off of the legs when you hook up. Then pull the pins and raise the legs for travel.
I have cables long enough to reach the trailer battery when hooked up so I could raise the legs after being hooked up.

Also, in the two times I have had to do something like this to unhook, both time I forgot to unhook the umbilical cord before pulling out from under the trailer. Especially after doing something unusual when hooking or unhooking, start over and walk through your normal steps before proceeding.
CarnationSailor
Nomad
Apr 27, 2020
X2 to always visually verifying that the bar slides across behind the pin.
ford_truck_guy
Nomad
Apr 27, 2020
I can say that this is the 1st I've heard of a Superglide drop.... I used mine from many years, and other than being a PITA sometime to be almost straight, I loved it..

Knowing how they work, The only way I see that happening is if he was high hitched???

BUT, If he was high hitched. chances are that the release arm would not spring in...???

The spring snaps the retainer into place once you hit the rear of the head.. With that the arm snaps in and you're done.... IF the release arm does not go in, its not hitched.... pretty simple procedure.. I still shined a flash light from the tailgate to verify, but that is just habit...
Me_Again
Explorer III
Apr 27, 2020
We may never know, as he is not a very technical type guy. After getting back on the truck he towed in 5 or 6 miles to the park here. They have towed it all over the country for 4 or 5 years. Florida to Ohio to Florida to Ohio Washington to Arizona to Ohio to Arizona etc.
cummins2014
Explorer
Apr 27, 2020
Wow!!, Scary. Good friend of mine a couple doors up got rid of his Superglide, got tired of it being so temperamental on hitching ,and unhitching . Have to be a fairly straight angle , not a hitch he was happy with. Won't go into what hitch he is very happy with .

The biggest concern for me was why it didn't drop immediately if something was done wrong. Hopefully its wasn't the hitches fault . If so that doesn't say much for Superglide .

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BIL with Superglide drops his trailer

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