Pin Box Adjustment and Trailer Leveling???

[bowler1]

My current setup has my trailer slightly nose-high. When I measure the clearance between my trailer and the bed rails I am right about 6 inches by the tailgate and the front of the trailer nose is about 8 inches.

My hitch in the bed of my truck is already as low as it will go.

Do you think I should try raising the Pin box up one more hole? Not sure if this will still give me enough clearance on the bed rails. I think it will put me close to 6 inches in the front, but I am not sure how close I will be in the back.

I don't want to end up having insufficient clearance. I also don't want to go to through the PIA of moving the pin box and then having to move it back again.

What do you recommend? thanks for your help

Matt

[schlep1967]

rhagfo wrote:

Work really smarter and far less harder.

No need to remove tailgate use as work surface, 5er parked and chocked. Now loosen all the bolts holding the pin box. The remove all except two in the front and two in the rear, these act as pivot points.
Now place some wood blocks on the tailgate to get near the level of the pin. now lower the front of the 5er until the pin just makes contact with the blocks. Then either remove the front OR rear set of bolts, then using the landing gear align the empty holes with the next set of higher holes. The holes are large enough that you can get the bolts back in. Once those are back in loosely then do the other set and raise or lower the gear to align.
This is how I did mine in about 30 minutes. Toughest part is getting the bolts/nuts loose in the first place. I was able to get an impact gun inside the pin box and work on the nuts, rather than trying from the bolt side.

That works too. Only difference is the other way you actually see your height above the rails and level of the trailer before fully assembling.

[rhagfo]

schlep1967 wrote:

HRJOHN wrote:
Just move the Pin Box. Get a couple buddies over, Get a 15/16ths socket and adjust it up. The change each hole up approximately 2”. Take a look after you get it moved and see what you got. Really not that hard and fun with friends helping

You really don't need any buddy's. Remove your tailgate (makes it easier to work). Remove the nuts from the pinbox bolts. Hook the 5th wheel up to the truck. CHOCK THE TRAILER WHEELS. Adjust the trailer legs so the truck and trailer are at the same height and remove the bolts. Adjust the trailer height to realign with the new holes and put the bolts back in.

Work smarter not harder.

Work really smarter and far less harder.

No need to remove tailgate use as work surface, 5er parked and chocked. Now loosen all the bolts holding the pin box. The remove all except two in the front and two in the rear, these act as pivot points.
Now place some wood blocks on the tailgate to get near the level of the pin. now lower the front of the 5er until the pin just makes contact with the blocks. Then either remove the front OR rear set of bolts, then using the landing gear align the empty holes with the next set of higher holes. The holes are large enough that you can get the bolts back in. Once those are back in loosely then do the other set and raise or lower the gear to align.
This is how I did mine in about 30 minutes. Toughest part is getting the bolts/nuts loose in the first place. I was able to get an impact gun inside the pin box and work on the nuts, rather than trying from the bolt side.

[schlep1967]

HRJOHN wrote:
Just move the Pin Box. Get a couple buddies over, Get a 15/16ths socket and adjust it up. The change each hole up approximately 2”. Take a look after you get it moved and see what you got. Really not that hard and fun with friends helping

You really don't need any buddy's. Remove your tailgate (makes it easier to work). Remove the nuts from the pinbox bolts. Hook the 5th wheel up to the truck. CHOCK THE TRAILER WHEELS. Adjust the trailer legs so the truck and trailer are at the same height and remove the bolts. Adjust the trailer height to realign with the new holes and put the bolts back in.

Work smarter not harder.

[HRJOHN]

Just move the Pin Box. Get a couple buddies over, Get a 15/16ths socket and adjust it up. The change each hole up approximately 2”. Take a look after you get it moved and see what you got. Really not that hard and fun with friends helping

[Dave_H_M]

Do it and see what you come up with.

[rhagfo]

bowler1 wrote:
My truck is a 3500. Pin weight 2600 dry factory spec. Maybe 3100 as it is now

Any chance of getting a picture, and what brand TV, you state 3500 Ram or GM?

Ram tends to a$$ high, so if the pin is not heavy enough to level the TV then best option would be to lift the 5er at the axles.
Best way to determine is to find a nice level area to do some measurements with enough room to unhitch and move forward enough to level 5er.

First with 5er attached and supported by TV measure at pin location from ground to top of bed rail. Call this Measurment1.

Second, leaving 5er in same spot, unhitch and move TV so you can drop nose until the 5er is level. Now measure distance from the ground to bottom of the overhang near or at the pin, Call this Measurement2.

Now math time (measurment1+6)-measurment2=lift needed at axles.

The 6 added to measurment1 is the 6" desired clearance to bed rails, the height the nose of the 5er needs to be at for that clearance.

As you see measurement2 is the height of the overhang when the 5er is level, so subtracting this from the loaded height of the TV plus 6" or desired rail clearance, gives you the height the 5er would need to raised at the axles to tow level. 🙂

[Cummins12V98]

Nose high a little is fine. But to know whether it's ok axle weights need to be taken!!!

Before having the 3" risers added to our Mobile suites at MORryde the rear axle in this pic weighed WELL over 1,000# more than the front axle. Deceiving right??? The distance from ground to bottom of the frame at front and back was 5-6" difference in pic. Pic taken on flat ground at the A DOT Scales right after weighing.

It towed great but it placed the tires near the MAX weight allowed.

[mowingman]

If you have adjustment holes in your pin box, then how far is it to the next set of holes? This will be approx. how much the nose of the trailer will drop if you move the pin box up. A major hitch manufacturer told me that 5" is the min. clearance you should have above the bedsides, however, that 6" would be better. Raising the pin box should be easy. It took two of us about 30 minutes to reset my pinbox into a different set of holes. However, they can be pretty heavy.

[Cummins12V98]

valhalla360 wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Most likely the overhang won’t be level even if RV is level. My overhang slopes up towards the front some.

Check if this is the case.

2" from tailgate to hitch is a lot if the bottom of the overhang is parallel to the interior floor.

That would be an insane amount!

Get the RV level by adding planks under the RV's tires as mentioned. See if that changes the tailgate clearance. The shimmed amount will tell you how much to raise the RV/lower suspension minus the increase of the tailgate dimension.

[laknox]

For me, who likes to boondock, 6" clearance would have put more than one hole in the bottom of my overhang. I had right at 8" with my old Komfort and was about 3" nose high and I lived with it. My KZ sits about 1.5-2" nose high and I've got over 8" clearance, so I'm thinking of dropping my hitch 1 hole...but I may not, as ride is OK and I travel pretty light, so tire weights aren't a concern.

Lyle

[thomas201]

Read what Schlep1967 says. If the weights are good how does it tow? Tracks good? Have somebody follow you, does it porpoise? Tail wagging the dog? Drive it 1,000 miles, funny wear patterns on the tires?

You are investing a lot of work for a goal that does not always matter to the functioning of the system. But, if you must have it level, I think the suggestions about either lowering the truck or raising the RV are the way to go.

[MudChucker]

Move the pin box and see what happens, I'd say try and keep a good fist width of clearance between tailgate and RV.

I've done all of the above over the years and I can say from experience, moving the pin box on some units can actually be more work than adding new u bolts and 2 inch lifting blocks to the RV springs. Takes about 30 minutes to kit the RV springs, 2 hours with beer.

[Toolguy5]

Would you get a close reality of what it would be if you move pin box by backing the truck just before the hitch hits the pin and lower the landing gear equivalent to the new pin box height. Then measure rail distance.

I would believe this would give you some indication of how much the distance would change from front to back. With out going through the effort of moving pin box.

Just an idea?

[valhalla360]

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Most likely the overhang won’t be level even if RV is level. My overhang slopes up towards the front some.

Check if this is the case.

2" from tailgate to hitch is a lot if the bottom of the overhang is parallel to the interior floor.