Bear with me: Bought a 2016 Denali diesel 3500 HD SRW truck then an Open range light 5th wheel. Bought a B&W turnover ball hitch. Pulled camper home, no problem. Ran over bush and into light mud. Turned corner and kicked out the breakaway brake pin. Pulled camper another 1.2 miles without knowing problem. Reinserted pin, RV released. Parked it for 2 month. Hooked up last week and headed out for dry run trip 7 miles away. Noticed jerky, intermittent tugging as we towed. Thought brakes issueso n RV, etc. Took RV to service and they found no problem. Towed it with two of their vehicles, one old, one new and said it towed just fine. QUESTION: could there be an issue with the truck? It drives just fine without RV in tow. Hitch seems to be engaged ok. Could a fuse be blown in the truck? We have appt on Monday to take truck to dealer before heading out on 400 mile trip later in week. Ideas? Suggestions? (no warning lights on dashboard came on. Brakes and turn signals work on RV when towing. Looked underneath and all seemed ok). Thanks for any advice on things to check out.

Kind of a long shot, but could the trailer plug be miswired so that the brakes are energized when some other thing like turn signals, etc., are engaged?There are separate fuses under the hood for trailer brakes and the 12 volt power feed to the trailer in the trailer feed, but if those were blown the brakes simply wouldn't engage.

Have you looked closely at the tires? They might be beat up after towing over a mile with the brakes on. Might also give clues to any damage you might have caused while running over things. Did the other two TVs have the same pin height as your TV or was the geometry different? Did your TV pick up some mud in the brakes? Have you checked out your driveshaft, maybe a bad u-joint or carrier bearing vibrating under load, or maybe a problem in the rear end or axle bearings. Admittedly I am also struggling with this issue.

We looked at the tires. Although muddy, no damage was noted. The service center pulled the RV with their two trucks without any issue....so I'm thinking it's not the tires. I'm having to look in the manual for all the fuse locations. If you can point me to a website or video re: the fuses, I'd appreciate it.

This is the fuses location. The box is under the hood on the driver's side. Click For Full-Size Image.

If you have the companion hitch you need to make sure its tight and installed properly it sounds like the ubolts are loose and when you get on it you get a jerk where it shifts

Intermittent jerky towing of 5th wheel | Good Sam Community

TakingThe5th
Explorer
Mar 13, 2017
jerem0621 wrote:
Okay, what you are using is called a Gooseneck adaptor. It converts the standard fifth wheel king pin into a Gooseneck hitch. Some fifth wheel camper manufacturers tend to discourage the use of this style adaptor as it can put increased stress on the fifth wheel frame and damage the frame. I think that a poster was alluding to this earlier in the thread.

It's just another thing to check on. See if your particular frame manufacturer recommends a Gooseneck adaptor or not.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

How did the other trucks lash up when they tested your rig - did they use the gooseneck adapter or did they use a standard hitch? You might have some frame flex and/or frame damage from using the gooseneck adapter. I wonder if you could have cracked the frame when you were pulling thru the mud - that would be a lot of added stress. Check it out.
Mover480
Explorer
Mar 13, 2017
We have the same hitch, different trailer. Usually it is the road conditions that cause the jerky, intermittent tugging that you are experiencing. Slow down or speed up and it usually quits, or fine a better road.

As for the electric brakes, did the shop inspect all 4 brakes? Remove the wheels and pull the hubs? Did they reset the brake clearance? Can't imagine that you didn't do considerable wear or damage to the brake system.
Hannibal
Explorer
Mar 13, 2017
Ah! The Gooseneck adapter to tow a 5th wheel with a gooseneck ball. Yes there should be chains then. Also, check all around the 5th wheel pin box where it attaches to the overhang of the 5th wheel for stress cracks. The adapter puts extra leverage on the pin box and can lead to failure of the 5th wheel chassis structure around the pin box. Hopefully this isn't the case. If the area is all enclosed and hard to see the chassis, a pull test while watching the pin box might show any movement. Any movement would be abnormal. Many if not most 5th wheel manufacturers don't approve of gooseneck adapters.
jerem0621
Explorer II
Mar 13, 2017
Okay, what you are using is called a Gooseneck adaptor. It converts the standard fifth wheel king pin into a Gooseneck hitch. Some fifth wheel camper manufacturers tend to discourage the use of this style adaptor as it can put increased stress on the fifth wheel frame and damage the frame. I think that a poster was alluding to this earlier in the thread.

It's just another thing to check on. See if your particular frame manufacturer recommends a Gooseneck adaptor or not.

Thanks!

Jeremiah
goducks10
Explorer
Mar 13, 2017
I'm lost. Been reading this site for years and still can't figure out what the OP has. Pictures are worth a 1000 words.
madonetwo
Explorer
Mar 12, 2017
No, we don't have the puck. We have ONLY a single ball sticking up through the truck bed. The 5'er kingpin has a Lippert adapter thing that looks like a single piece of metal pipe that is welded to the 5'er. We back the truck up with the ball under this pipe thing and lower the front jacks so that the pipe fits down on the ball. That's all we have.
Cummins12V98
Explorer III
Mar 12, 2017
"I don't know what a puck system is, sorry"

This is the B&W RVK3600 for the RAM puck attachment system. GM and Ford have similar attachment systems.
TakingThe5th
Explorer
Mar 12, 2017
OP - You had said "Noticed jerky, intermittent tugging as we towed." Can you give us a better idea of what you meant by "intermittent"? Are you saying once every few seconds, several times a minute, a few times every xx minutes or ???? Is it a jerk, several tugs in a row, a rumble, ... Thanks.
jerem0621
Explorer II
Mar 12, 2017
Could the IBC be malfunctioning?

Also 1.5 miles with the brake away cable pulled is not a good thing. I can't imagine how hot those brakes got...or they don't work at all,
Wild_Card
Explorer
Mar 12, 2017
How bout cheap tires that have flat spots or broken belts.