hitch plates mystery.

[dlowr31733]

mystery -- have fifth wheel coachman chapparel, has anybody ever heard of a failure of pin assembly my lower and upper plates have severe gouges in steel, deck is thoroughly lubricated. some of gouges are located on bottom plate at 5 and 7 o'clock position where the 2 pins come up. the 2 pins show very little scuff on them but severe gouges adjoining pin. upper plate is severely gouged, never seen before. anybody have any ideas 16K Pro series hitch

[BarneyS]

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[dlowr31733]

[bpounds]

Gouges on the lower plate, which is the fifth wheel plate, could be from misaligning the pin. The bottom of the pin running up the plate would gouge it.

As for the top plate, I'm not sure how you would ram that into anything. Pictures of the gouges might be helpful.

Could it be a small stone that stuck to the grease and ended up between the plates? That's one of the reasons so many of us use plastic lube disks instead of grease. Grease collects every kind of grit possible.

[TucsonJim]

Hmmm. I have the same hitch, and I have some gouges on mine too. I always use a lube plate. Interesting.