5th wheel hitch installation question in Ford pucks

[Minnesotajeff]

Hi everyone, new member, first post here. We are making the jump from a TT to a 5th wheel toy hauler this spring. I have a F350 with the factory installed 5th wheel pucks in the bed.

I purchased a used Reese Signature 18K slider yesterday. When i install it in the pucks, i have some vertical "slop". I can move the 4 anchor pins up and down about 1/8 of an inch while it is locked in the pucks.

Should i adjust this out so it fits tight or is this pretty normal and the pin weight of the trailer takes care of holding it all down tight?

I have the instructions with the hitch and i did follow the procedure to set the anchor pins per the instructions. I figure i can adjust them further to get rid of that 1/8" of slop, but thought i'd ask first.

thank you

[MFL]

Minnesotajeff wrote:
I adjusted all the slop out of it now so it fits pretty tight. I fell much better about it now!

Good to hear!! Also welcome to the forum!!

Jerry

[BarneyS]

Moved to 5th wheel forum from Towing.

[Minnesotajeff]

I adjusted all the slop out of it now so it fits pretty tight. I fell much better about it now!

[lawnspecialties]

Slop is not acceptable. Find out which one is not in there snug, remove the hitch, and turn it in to tighten up the gap.

[MFL]

I am not familiar with your exact hitch, but with any hitch, slop is not good. Everything should be snug and quiet when towing.

The weight of the hitch will not hold it from movement when starting/stopping, or going over even small bumps. Snug it up if you can. The puck system is a very solid setup, some hitches have less slop than others.

Good luck,
Jerry

[BB_TX]

I have an F350 with the factory hitch prep and a Reese Elite hitch. When I first installed the hitch, I also had a small amount of movement. But after following the directions in the hitch manual to take up the slack, it fits snug now.

[Second_Chance]

I don't know about the design of your hitch and mounting pins, but my PullRite has large nuts on the top side of the mounting pins (between the turning/locking arms and the upper surface of the base plate. When installing, the locking arms and mounting pins are rotated 1/8 - 1/4 turn loose, the large nuts are finger tightened against the hitch base plate, and then the turning/locking arms are rotated into their locking positions to tighten town the hitch to the truck. It's very snug with no movement or noise at all. Any significant movement could cause unnecessary wear of the parts and pucks.

Rob