Chucking?

The bucking, or chucking is caused when you have irregular pavement like seams, pot holes, etc. When the chucking happens the truck and trailer are fighting each other-pushing and pulling so to say. When you hit a seam in the highway for instance, the trailer tires hit the seam and the trailer hooks or hesitates a split second putting drag on the truck. When it springs forward it pushes on the truck. When the seams or pot holes are in perfect harmony with the length between axles, it'll seem like your riding a wild bull. The more slop in the fifth wheel hitch the worse it will be, but even with zero slop it could still be noticeable on some highways. The idea with the king pin boxes with air bags/shocks/torsion rubber is to absorb and minimize this push pull effect.

ken burke wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Light pin weight will cause chucking

Nose High towing can cause chucking

To much clearance between hitch jaws and king pin (slop) can cause chucking

When we bought our 5th wheel, we had major problems with chucking. I checked out everything with no results. The dealer salesman was no help. Finally, our dealer mechanic had a Reese rep come to the shop. we have a 20K reese hitch on our truck. They changed out the top works on the hitch and the chucking stopped. Our hitch has a one piece hook that wrapps around the pin wheel. The hitch was a little loose. It does not take much. I wounder if a two piece hitch is best.
ken

More from Burke . . . . I think that it is really important to find the root cause of the chucking before adding a lot of equipment. After solving the root problem you can get a good hitch such as an air hitch.

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Light pin weight will cause chucking

Nose High towing can cause chucking

To much clearance between hitch jaws and king pin (slop) can cause chucking

When we bought our 5th wheel, we had major problems with chucking. I checked out everything with no results. The dealer salesman was no help. Finally, our dealer mechanic had a Reese rep come to the shop. we have a 20K reese hitch on our truck. They changed out the top works on the hitch and the chucking stopped. Our hitch has a one piece hook that wrapps around the pin wheel. The hitch was a little loose. It does not take much. I wounder if a two piece hitch is best.
ken

Actually if you want the BEST RV suspension it's the MORryde IS independent with disk brakes and shocks IMHO.

To the OP if you want to get ahead of the problem when you buy your 5th wheel get it with shocks and Mor/Ryde RE equalizer from the dealer. If the trailer doesn't have something like that make it part of the deal.

Denny

OK..........Different strokes........

I hauled a 39' 5er all over the USA with a F-350 short bed. Never once did I experience chucking or towing / stopping issues. I hauled across the Rockies and enjoyed the experience.

A short bed is no more suspect to chucking issues than a long bed. I've had both pulling 5th wheel and GN trailers. Just like a certain brand hitch will not eliminate chucking for all truck/trailer combinations.
The worst truck/trailer I've had with chucking issues was a crew cab long bed F350 DRW pulling a 38' 18K GN equipment trailer. Most equipment trailer axles are placed very far aft and places a very heavy load on the trucks rear axle....depending on how the trailer is loaded.
I tried loading the trailer nose heavy ...in front of the axle.....over the axle...and aft of the axles....and moving the GN floor plate from 5" forward of the rear axle to over the rear axle.
Hook up my other different length GN trailers eliminated chucking with this truck.
To say that all F350 DRW long beds crew cab will have chucking issues would be erroneous.
Too many variables to say any truck/trailer combo will have chucking issues.

Old-Biscuit wrote:

Blanco1 wrote:
Well, I currently run Air Bags & Torklifts lower stable loads, I also have the uppers but have not installed them yet.
With my Truck camper.

Being unexpected illness in the family put the brakes to our camping trips.
But things seem better & we've gone once after the treatments that just ended within a week of that & we got back into it, But now looking into a 5th wheel.

Sorry about the family illness...hope the future looks brighter




As for the 5th wheel....
Wait until you have bought one, hooked it up, towed several trips with it BEFORE you start 'any remedies'
In other words ---don't worry about issues until you have one.
(planning/info gathering is good.....just don't dwell on them. The 'what ifs' can drive one nuts)

:B

Once again Mr. Biscuit, sound advice.


Lakeside

Blanco1 wrote:
Well, I currently run Air Bags & Torklifts lower stable loads, I also have the uppers but have not installed them yet.
With my Truck camper.

Being unexpected illness in the family put the brakes to our camping trips.
But things seem better & we've gone once after the treatments that just ended within a week of that & we got back into it, But now looking into a 5th wheel.

Sorry about the family illness...hope the future looks brighter




As for the 5th wheel....
Wait until you have bought one, hooked it up, towed several trips with it BEFORE you start 'any remedies'
In other words ---don't worry about issues until you have one.
(planning/info gathering is good.....just don't dwell on them. The 'what ifs' can drive one nuts)

:B

eHoefler wrote:
I will never own a truck to pull a fifthwheel with a short bed.

OK..........Different strokes........

I hauled a 39' 5er all over the USA with a F-350 short bed. Never once did I experience chucking or towing / stopping issues. I hauled across the Rockies and enjoyed the experience.

I had an air ride hitch made by Trailersaver (TS3) and would highly recommend this hitch if you are experiencing chucking issues.

No fix for the short bed issue mentioned above.

Lakeside

I've heard every remedy out there. Some say air bags on your tow vehicle works but I don't get it. Air bags would help for up and down movement but I don't see how it could effect forward and backward motion which is what chucking is.