Urgent pull rite hitch help needed

[RVcrazy]

Our pull rite 20k hitch won"t release. It looks like the lock lever is bent up by the hitch pin. We can"t unhitch. We would like to level the trailer, but can"t figure out if we will make it better or worse. Does anyone know how to help? I do have a pix to email or text, but don't know how to post it to the forum. Stress!!! Thanks

[Cummins12V98]

Itching2go wrote:

Bowti wrote:

kakampers wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:
Do yourself a favor. Ignore anybody that tells you that you should see daylight between the plate and the pinbox. Look at the pin on the pin box. It looks something like an upside down "T". The latch part of your hitch fits between the the lip at the bottom and the flat at the top. If you lift the trailer until you see daylight you can pinch the latch between the bottom lip and the underside of the plate.

When hitching you want the pinbox to hit about the middle of the plate and ride up the plate and into the slot. When it goes in the the curved jaw will snap into place behind the pin.

When unhitching you want to raise the trailer taking most of the weight off the suspension of the truck. Make sure to chock the trailer wheels at this point. Then put the truck in reverse and ease back. Set the parking brake. Then put the truck in Park. Now go see how easy it is to unlatch the hitch. Unhook cord and brake safety cable and ease the truck out from under the trailer.

Excuse me...we've been using Pullrite hitches for almost nine years...have ALWAYS lifted the pinbox until we see a sliver of daylight...have NOT had one issue with this procedure, and have NEVER had it pinch or bind!!

This may have worked for you, as maybe you have been very careful to not lift the pinbox to a binding condition, but why do this and take the chance of binding/ damaging the jaws?

Also remember all these hitches have different thicknesses to the jaws and some might bind more easily, especially if they are using 1/4 inch Teflon lubrication plates.

Good point on the teflon lube pad. I found that while I was able to lift the kingpin slightly above the saddle before I started using a lube pad, that additional 1/4 inch was enough to cause some binding. Now, I raise/lower the kingpin only far enough when hitching or unhitching, that it rides up/down the saddle. Haven't had any binding with my Pullrite since. Having said this, I do need to move the truck a bit to take the tension off before I can easily pull the handle and release the jaws. Minor inconvenience, though, and I really, really like that hitch.

I went from a 1/4" to a 1/8" lube plate because there was such a small amount of vertical slop with the 1" thick B&W jaws. Hensley sells the 1/8" plate but it's not cheap.

Bottom of a 5 gallon bucket works well! I keep one as a backup.

[Cummins12V98]

kakampers wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:
Do yourself a favor. Ignore anybody that tells you that you should see daylight between the plate and the pinbox. Look at the pin on the pin box. It looks something like an upside down "T". The latch part of your hitch fits between the the lip at the bottom and the flat at the top. If you lift the trailer until you see daylight you can pinch the latch between the bottom lip and the underside of the plate.

When hitching you want the pinbox to hit about the middle of the plate and ride up the plate and into the slot. When it goes in the the curved jaw will snap into place behind the pin.

When unhitching you want to raise the trailer taking most of the weight off the suspension of the truck. Make sure to chock the trailer wheels at this point. Then put the truck in reverse and ease back. Set the parking brake. Then put the truck in Park. Now go see how easy it is to unlatch the hitch. Unhook cord and brake safety cable and ease the truck out from under the trailer.

Excuse me...we've been using Pullrite hitches for almost nine years...have ALWAYS lifted the pinbox until we see a sliver of daylight...have NOT had one issue with this procedure, and have NEVER had it pinch or bind!!

That is what I do with the B&W, anymore than 1/8" space and I will be lifting the truck.

[kennethwooster]

Till I got a long bed we used a Pullright SG. I consider it an excellent hitch, but really like the current B&W. Anyway an excellent discussion on hitching and unhitching. You mentioned the Pullright booklet was not very helpful. I agree. However; go on line and they have some good instructions on using their hitches. This really helped me with their hitch. It took me awhile but learning to let the pin box travel up the slopped wings of the hitch is essential. Prevent s high hitching and just make it latch properly. Definitely all hitches must have pressure hitch to get it to unhook. B&W is the easiest I've owned. Reese was the hardest. Anyway good discussion.

[Coach-man]

Unless you are on a steep incline, chock the trailer well then put TV in neutral, foot off brake, then park with parking brake. That is supposed to take all tension off pin for easy release.

[Itching2go]

Bowti wrote:

kakampers wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:
Do yourself a favor. Ignore anybody that tells you that you should see daylight between the plate and the pinbox. Look at the pin on the pin box. It looks something like an upside down "T". The latch part of your hitch fits between the the lip at the bottom and the flat at the top. If you lift the trailer until you see daylight you can pinch the latch between the bottom lip and the underside of the plate.

When hitching you want the pinbox to hit about the middle of the plate and ride up the plate and into the slot. When it goes in the the curved jaw will snap into place behind the pin.

When unhitching you want to raise the trailer taking most of the weight off the suspension of the truck. Make sure to chock the trailer wheels at this point. Then put the truck in reverse and ease back. Set the parking brake. Then put the truck in Park. Now go see how easy it is to unlatch the hitch. Unhook cord and brake safety cable and ease the truck out from under the trailer.

Excuse me...we've been using Pullrite hitches for almost nine years...have ALWAYS lifted the pinbox until we see a sliver of daylight...have NOT had one issue with this procedure, and have NEVER had it pinch or bind!!

This may have worked for you, as maybe you have been very careful to not lift the pinbox to a binding condition, but why do this and take the chance of binding/ damaging the jaws?

Also remember all these hitches have different thicknesses to the jaws and some might bind more easily, especially if they are using 1/4 inch Teflon lubrication plates.

Good point on the teflon lube pad. I found that while I was able to lift the kingpin slightly above the saddle before I started using a lube pad, that additional 1/4 inch was enough to cause some binding. Now, I raise/lower the kingpin only far enough when hitching or unhitching, that it rides up/down the saddle. Haven't had any binding with my Pullrite since. Having said this, I do need to move the truck a bit to take the tension off before I can easily pull the handle and release the jaws. Minor inconvenience, though, and I really, really like that hitch.

[Coach-man]

Bowti wrote:

kakampers wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:
Do yourself a favor. Ignore anybody that tells you that you should see daylight between the plate and the pinbox. Look at the pin on the pin box. It looks something like an upside down "T". The latch part of your hitch fits between the the lip at the bottom and the flat at the top. If you lift the trailer until you see daylight you can pinch the latch between the bottom lip and the underside of the plate.

When hitching you want the pinbox to hit about the middle of the plate and ride up the plate and into the slot. When it goes in the the curved jaw will snap into place behind the pin.

When unhitching you want to raise the trailer taking most of the weight off the suspension of the truck. Make sure to chock the trailer wheels at this point. Then put the truck in reverse and ease back. Set the parking brake. Then put the truck in Park. Now go see how easy it is to unlatch the hitch. Unhook cord and brake safety cable and ease
the truck out from under the trailer.

Excuse me...we've been using Pullrite hitches for almost nine years...have ALWAYS lifted the pinbox until we see a sliver of daylight...have NOT had one issue with this procedure, and have NEVER had it pinch or bind!!

This may have worked for you, as maybe you have been very careful to not lift the pinbox to a binding condition, but why do this and take the chance of binding/ damaging the jaws?

Also remember all these hitches have different thicknesses to the jaws and some might bind more easily, especially if they are using 1/4 inch Teflon lubrication plates.

Why would anyone use a Teflon lubrication plate on a Pullrite? The hitch does not turn under the plate, in fact you have a capture plate to prevent this, the entire hitch rotates!
One of the advantages of the Pullrite.

[Bowti]

kakampers wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:
Do yourself a favor. Ignore anybody that tells you that you should see daylight between the plate and the pinbox. Look at the pin on the pin box. It looks something like an upside down "T". The latch part of your hitch fits between the the lip at the bottom and the flat at the top. If you lift the trailer until you see daylight you can pinch the latch between the bottom lip and the underside of the plate.

When hitching you want the pinbox to hit about the middle of the plate and ride up the plate and into the slot. When it goes in the the curved jaw will snap into place behind the pin.

When unhitching you want to raise the trailer taking most of the weight off the suspension of the truck. Make sure to chock the trailer wheels at this point. Then put the truck in reverse and ease back. Set the parking brake. Then put the truck in Park. Now go see how easy it is to unlatch the hitch. Unhook cord and brake safety cable and ease the truck out from under the trailer.

Excuse me...we've been using Pullrite hitches for almost nine years...have ALWAYS lifted the pinbox until we see a sliver of daylight...have NOT had one issue with this procedure, and have NEVER had it pinch or bind!!

This may have worked for you, as maybe you have been very careful to not lift the pinbox to a binding condition, but why do this and take the chance of binding/ damaging the jaws?

Also remember all these hitches have different thicknesses to the jaws and some might bind more easily, especially if they are using 1/4 inch Teflon lubrication plates.

[kakampers]

duplicate post...

[kakampers]

schlep1967 wrote:
Do yourself a favor. Ignore anybody that tells you that you should see daylight between the plate and the pinbox. Look at the pin on the pin box. It looks something like an upside down "T". The latch part of your hitch fits between the the lip at the bottom and the flat at the top. If you lift the trailer until you see daylight you can pinch the latch between the bottom lip and the underside of the plate.

When hitching you want the pinbox to hit about the middle of the plate and ride up the plate and into the slot. When it goes in the the curved jaw will snap into place behind the pin.

When unhitching you want to raise the trailer taking most of the weight off the suspension of the truck. Make sure to chock the trailer wheels at this point. Then put the truck in reverse and ease back. Set the parking brake. Then put the truck in Park. Now go see how easy it is to unlatch the hitch. Unhook cord and brake safety cable and ease the truck out from under the trailer.

Excuse me...we've been using Pullrite hitches for almost nine years...have ALWAYS lifted the pinbox until we see a sliver of daylight...have NOT had one issue with this procedure, and have NEVER had it pinch or bind!!

[Coach-man]

My experiance with the pull right hitch is if I raise the trailer to high, "looking for the light between the hitch...", is when I have a problem releasing the hitch. I try and get some weight on the front legs and the pull the lever, the trailer dose not drop but the TV comes up slightly when I pull out. When hitching, I pick up the front of the trailer when backing into the pin, bang it hitches just fine. I use a pad lock to keep the release lever in place while towing. That gives me piece of mind, and I have read where some smart A$$ will pull the release lever when your stopped at a rest stop and you start to drive off and then ....!

[jnharley]

When disconnecting, we just back into the hitch with a chock in place and the lever always releases. We always walk the pin box up the hitch when connecting, we have had a Pullrite hutch for over 10 years with no issues.

[2112]

schlep1967 wrote:
...
When hitching you want the pinbox to hit about the middle of the plate and ride up the plate and into the slot. When it goes in the the curved jaw will snap into place behind the pin.

When unhitching you want to raise the trailer taking most of the weight off the suspension of the truck. Make sure to chock the trailer wheels at this point. Then put the truck in reverse and ease back. Set the parking brake. Then put the truck in Park. Now go see how easy it is to unlatch the hitch. Unhook cord and brake safety cable and ease the truck out from under the trailer.

This is EXACTLY how I have been doing it and no more problems. I usually don't need to put it in reverse during the process.

I would occasionally have problems pulling the lever when 'looking for the light'. I guess I was going too high or otherwise putting it in a bind. I have had to pull my side pins twice before to get the hitch off of the pin. I stopped looking for the light (gap)and now it's all good.

[schlep1967]

ol Bombero-JC wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:

Ignore the first sentence!

The "anybodys" are referring to UN-hitching.

~

And like I said, If you lift the trailer off the plate you risk pinching the jaws between the bottom lip of the pin and the bottom of the hitch plate. If you continualy do this you will damage the latching part of your hitch. There may be some fifthwheel hitches out there that the instructions tell you to do that. Pull-Rite is not one of them. Again look at how the system works. Look at the pin shape. Get a yardstick or other thin piece of wood and look under the hitch. You will see a small protusion sticking down. Carefully push on that with the stick until the hitch snaps shut while keeping fingers out of the way. Now with the jaw closed look at the hitch. The "post" fits through the hole you see down the middle. The "lip" at the bottom of the post is larger than the hole down the middle. As long as the pin box is sitting flush on the plate there is no way the "lip" at the bottom can bind on anything preventing you from pulling the handle and unlatching or from easily pulling out from under the pin box. If you lift the pinbox off the plate you can pinch the jaw between the bottom "lip" and the bottom of the plate. Making it hard or impossible to unlatch. If you do get it unlatched and the pull out you will be dragging that "lip" across the moving parts of your hitch.

I worked as a yard jockey at a trucking company for 10 years. Hooking and unhooking up to 100 times a night. I've been using a pull-rite for 4 years and have never had any problem hooking or unhooking while useing the proper technique as described in the instruction book I got with the pull-rite hitch. Keep the pin box on the plate when hooking and unhooking.

[ol_Bombero-JC]

schlep1967 wrote:
Do yourself a favor. Ignore anybody that tells you that you should see daylight between the plate and the pinbox. Look at the pin on the pin box. It looks something like an upside down "T". The latch part of your hitch fits between the the lip at the bottom and the flat at the top. If you lift the trailer until you see daylight you can pinch the latch between the bottom lip and the underside of the plate.

When hitching you want the pinbox to hit about the middle of the plate and ride up the plate and into the slot. When it goes in the the curved jaw will snap into place behind the pin.

When unhitching you want to raise the trailer taking most of the weight off the suspension of the truck. Make sure to chock the trailer wheels at this point. Then put the truck in reverse and ease back. Set the parking brake. Then put the truck in Park. Now go see how easy it is to unlatch the hitch. Unhook cord and brake safety cable and ease the truck out from under the trailer.

Ignore the first sentence!

The "anybodys" are referring to UN-hitching.

("bpounds")- "Scariest thing" = Wow! - Very! ..:E

OP - No disrespect intended, but a thorough inspection of your hitch *for damage* is in order by someone other than yourself!

A Blue Ox Bedsaver might be a good investment also.

BTW - prime example of "why" to tell folks asking where/how to jack trailer wheels off the ground - to *NOT* jack under the axles!
The mechanical skills & ability of the person asking is *unknown* on a computer monitor..:R

~