Getting new 310RL and have bent frontjack post at dealership trying to hookup

[harudrich]

We were excited to receive our new 310RL yesterday and we got the main walkthrough about a month ago and the coach needed to stay at the dealership for installation of slide toppers. We did not get thoroughly checked out on the hookups. We have the new Curt Helix coil spring pin box which is tipped down. We have had for 9 years a GD Reflection so we are somewhat experienced 5th wheelers. At the dealerships things started off badly because the battery was run down -almost dead because they had left some lights on. The service people tried to hook us up but the manual adjustment of the landing gear was sporadic because of the battery power - even though they hooked it up to shore power. I was inside the truck so I did not see how they lined it up but the 5th wheel hitch would not catch and the service person I believed had the pin box too high. He had us push backward with the truck several times to see if it would catch but what ended up happening was that one of the front jacks rod became bent because it was fully extended out, and the weight of the trailer obviously bent the shaft.
They acknowledge that they should have had the Experienced personnel come out and help us, but we were following the directions of the service people. I have since read up on what is the proper alignment. But it seems that hooking up this type of pin box is somewhat tricky and you don't wanna do things to push the coach backwards especially with these skinny little Jacks. Our reflection had the nice square angle iron type front jacks you see on older5th wheels. Have had problems with bent front jacks? (We know that proper procedure is to have blocks under the front jacks so that the posts aren't extended so far and the wheels should be blocked. But I don't see hardly anybody doing that). TIA for any advise.

 

[Oregon_Camper]

Good grief...some "service" folks need to find another job. As far as the jack is concerned, it can be replaced in about 30 mins, so no need to worry about that.

What hitch are you using in the truck?

 

[7426TRISS]

I would agree with Oregon_Camper, but the landing gear should have never bent, the systems should have given out of Stroke on the panel., lower the nose, the dealer should probably changed the pin box

 

[Oregon_Camper]

Can you post picture of the pin box? I'd like to see where it is attached with the bolt pattern on RV

 

[BryanValRox]

We were excited to receive our new 310RL yesterday and we got the main walkthrough about a month ago and the coach needed to stay at the dealership for installation of slide toppers. We did not get thoroughly checked out on the hookups. We have the new Curt Helix coil spring pin box which is tipped down. We have had for 9 years a GD Reflection so we are somewhat experienced 5th wheelers. At the dealerships things started off badly because the battery was run down -almost dead because they had left some lights on. The service people tried to hook us up but the manual adjustment of the landing gear was sporadic because of the battery power - even though they hooked it up to shore power. I was inside the truck so I did not see how they lined it up but the 5th wheel hitch would not catch and the service person I believed had the pin box too high. He had us push backward with the truck several times to see if it would catch but what ended up happening was that one of the front jacks rod became bent because it was fully extended out, and the weight of the trailer obviously bent the shaft.
They acknowledge that they should have had the Experienced personnel come out and help us, but we were following the directions of the service people. I have since read up on what is the proper alignment. But it seems that hooking up this type of pin box is somewhat tricky and you don't wanna do things to push the coach backwards especially with these skinny little Jacks. Our reflection had the nice square angle iron type front jacks you see on older5th wheels. Have had problems with bent front jacks? (We know that proper procedure is to have blocks under the front jacks so that the posts aren't extended so far and the wheels should be blocked. But I don't see hardly anybody doing that). TIA for any advise.
View attachment 4240

Is the other side bent as well?

 

[BryanValRox]

Took another look at your picture.

Based on the witness mark/ dust line, it would appear that the jack were extended quite a bit. This alone shouldn’t have led to the bend. It is more likely the root cause is related to the slamming you reported resulting in rearward trailer movement.

So as OC stated a broader picture of this event might be helpful to understand the full issue.

Obviously, the wheels should have been firmly chocked and the pin height set properly so it rides up the fifth wheel plate, causing it to pivot to a flat plane and enter the jaw. Be cautious of Teflon wear plates, thickness can impact engagement. Slamming should not be involved if the jaws are open and the height is set properly and you have a properly functioning hitch.

Additionally, not sure if it is an optical illusion or not, BUT do you even have enough clearance between the truck and the trailer to turn without the bumper contacting the trailer?

Also, and this is by no means intended to pour salt in the wound, IMHO, the driver has full ownership of this process. You shared 9 years of experience with a previous GD Reflection so, hitching and unhitching should be familiar to you.
If you were not comfortable with the direction you were given or were receiving, it would have been wise to call an all stop and review the sisutation.

Unless your taking direction from a trusted individual that you know is qualified to offer assistance, IMHO, as the operator you need to stop the process and ensure things meet your satisfaction.

Hope we can still be friends, just sharing my opinion!

I can certainly understand how the excitement of taking delivery of your new rig and the illusion that you are dealing with experienced professionals at the dealership might have factored in.

Congratulations on your purchase ,we love our 310RL, welcome to the forum!

 

[harudrich]

Good grief...some "service" folks need to find another job. As far as the jack is concerned, it can be replaced in about 30 mins, so no need to worry about that.

What hitch are you using in the truck?

We have had the Pullrite Superglide 20K hitch because we have the ford shortbed truck. Thanks for the response.

 

[harudrich]

Can you post picture of the pin box? I'd like to see where it is attached with the bolt pattern on RV

No the other side did not bend. These are some pics I had, I wanted to see it hooked before we bought it, and I was concerned about the Tongue weight of the alliance which was more than our reflection. Can't see all the holes due to the shadows.
The Pullrite hitch is quite high - you see that there is a silver color bracket system that accepts the pegs from the underneath the truck bed. Now Pullrite makes a different bracket that accepts the pegs which bolts onto the side of the lower black U shaped bracket which would lower the hitch three inches.

 

[harudrich]

Took another look at your picture.

Based on the witness mark/ dust line, it would appear that the jack were extended quite a bit. This alone shouldn’t have led to the bend. It is more likely the root cause is related to the slamming you reported resulting in rearward trailer movement.

So as OC stated a broader picture of this event might be helpful to understand the full issue.

Obviously, the wheels should have been firmly chocked and the pin height set properly so it rides up the fifth wheel plate, causing it to pivot to a flat plane and enter the jaw. Be cautious of Teflon wear plates, thickness can impact engagement. Slamming should not be involved if the jaws are open and the height is set properly and you have a properly functioning hitch.

Additionally, not sure if it is an optical illusion or not, BUT do you even have enough clearance between the truck and the trailer to turn without the bumper contacting the trailer?

Also, and this is by no means intended to pour salt in the wound, IMHO, the driver has full ownership of this process. You shared 9 years of experience with a previous GD Reflection so, hitching and unhitching should be familiar to you.
If you were not comfortable with the direction you were given or were receiving, it would have been wise to call an all stop and review the sisutation.

Unless your taking direction from a trusted individual that you know is qualified to offer assistance, IMHO, as the operator you need to stop the process and ensure things meet your satisfaction.

Hope we can still be friends, just sharing my opinion!

I can certainly understand how the excitement of taking delivery of your new rig and the illusion that you are dealing with experienced professionals at the dealership might have factored in.

Congratulations on your purchase ,we love our 310RL, welcome to the forum!

On one of the other posts I submitted some pictures. I respect your opinions, it's good to look at it from all sides. It was weird that we were there to pick up the trailer and there was a dead battery. I said why don't you just swap it out, but they can't do that. When the service manager couldn't get the hook up done right away he called another assistant who took charge right away and sounded very confident and gave me instructions. It's true I'm not confident yet with Curt Coil type pin box which has a downward slant at the nose. But just like other pin boxes it needs to slide up the so called hitch ramp and in doing so the Coil should compress so that it goes horizontal.
It was only after the fact that they stated that as service people they should not be hooking it up and Another superior service manager then came out and counseled the service people that they should have got the walkthrough technicians out to help with hook up. We should have been trained by them also.
Maybe the fact that this was the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving they did things on the quick. Hindsight is 2020. We should have told them to charge up the battery and come back on Friday. They alluded to the fact what you're saying that it's maybe our responsibility, but the fact that it occurred on their soil, and under the direction of their personnel, and they did not follow their own protocol -We are hoping that they will cover the cost of the repair. If not they will have to deal with my wife! She's a fair person but is adamant it's their fault. You know what ...it happens!

 

[harudrich]

Also we have a sliding hitch so on turning The trailer should back away And give us the room. We did notice that with a tailgate down it was a little bit close for comfort. I wonder if we always need to put up the tailgate when we are 6 inches from hooking up.

 

[BryanValRox]

Also we have a sliding hitch so on turning The trailer should back away And give us the room. We did notice that with a tailgate down it was a little bit close for comfort. I wonder if we always need to put up the tailgate when we are 6 inches from hooking up.

The slider certainly explains the distance I was concerned about.
I will assume that your capture plate required for your hitch was installed correctly on your new trailer.

Hope you get it all worked out, enjoy your new coach!

 

[Lantley]

Also we have a sliding hitch so on turning The trailer should back away And give us the room. We did notice that with a tailgate down it was a little bit close for comfort. I wonder if we always need to put up the tailgate when we are 6 inches from hooking up.

Having to worry about the tailgate is a deal breaker. Hopefully there is an alternative or an adjustment that can be made

 

[harudrich]

Having to worry about the tailgate is a deal breaker. Hopefully there is an alternative or an adjustment that can be made

You're right, hopefully we'll go back to the dealership and see if the pin box can be adjusted forward that would be a big relief on The space we need with the tailgate being down. You know with our last 5th wheel we've never chalked the wheels before (Unless it was on drastic slope at a state or national campground), Specifically which wheels do you chalk and front or back of the wheel? Do you go with the slope?

 

[Fishfnatic]

We put chocks in front and back of wheels when we arrive at destination and do not remove the chocks until hooked up. I think the chocks on the back help keep the rig from moving as much when hitching up.

 

[BryanValRox]

To mirror Fishfnatic comments.

Our process is slightly differently, once we have the rig positioned(still hooked up) I validate that the pedestal has a properly functioning 50 amp receptacle with a tester. Once electric is confirmed, the wheel chocks come out.
Personally, I have 4 rubber style chocks, I place them in between the tandem wheels on each side. One behind the front tire and the other in front of the rear tire. This prevents movement in either direction. Once the rig is chocked, I hook up the power cord and start the unhooking process.

When departing, after hook up, the chocks are the last item that gets removed and stored before we depart the site.

 

[BryanValRox]

No the other side did not bend. These are some pics I had, I wanted to see it hooked before we bought it, and I was concerned about the Tongue weight of the alliance which was more than our reflection. Can't see all the holes due to the shadows.
View attachment 4241View attachment 4242View attachment 4243The Pullrite hitch is quite high - you see that there is a silver color bracket system that accepts the pegs from the underneath the truck bed. Now Pullrite makes a different bracket that accepts the pegs which bolts onto the side of the lower black U shaped bracket which would lower the hitch three inches.

Wow!
I am scratching my head a bit regarding the picture that shows you hooked up pre purchase I assume.
I see one front leg grounded and one raised, but more to my amazement is that the bedroom slide is extended.
One can only assume the dealership was involved and supervising this event as well.
Personally, our slides never get operated unless we are fully level with all jacks landed.

 

[7426TRISS]

I do the same as BryanValRox above, have the same chocks. Surge Suppressor. All is the first, before unhooking, Chocks last when reconnecting

 

[harudrich]

To mirror Fishfnatic comments.

Our process is slightly differently, once we have the rig positioned(still hooked up) I validate that the pedestal has a properly functioning 50 amp receptacle with a tester. Once electric is confirmed, the wheel chocks come out.
Personally, I have 4 rubber style chocks, I place them in between the tandem wheels on each side. One behind the front tire and the other in front of the rear tire. This prevents movement in either direction. Once the rig is chocked, I hook up the power cord and start the unhooking process.

When departing, after hook up, the chocks are the last item that gets removed and stored before we depart the site.

Thank you good advise.

 

[harudrich]

Wow!
I am scratching my head a bit regarding the picture that shows you hooked up pre purchase I assume.
I see one front leg grounded and one raised, but more to my amazement is that the bedroom slide is extended.
One can only assume the dealership was involved and supervising this event as well.
Personally, our slides never get operated unless we are fully level with all jacks landed.

Yes I know what you mean, it was supposed to be just a quick hitch up to see how it looked on the truck. Yes I don't know Why one league was down or nearly touching.

Sorry to prolong this, but I just heard back from the dealer and they stated they moved the trailer to a more level site and that the front Jack is now straight. It goes up and down fine. I questioned the Service Manager to make sure that When this post is fully extended it does not have a bend. I will examine this closely when we go pick it up tomorrow, Along with getting the a chance to hook it up a couple times correctly.

He stated that they do not do anything with the pin box, it gets installed at the factory and they don't mess with it? I'll have to see then if there is a space to advance the pin box forward?

 

[BryanValRox]

Yes I know what you mean, it was supposed to be just a quick hitch up to see how it looked on the truck. Yes I don't know Why one league was down or nearly touching.

Sorry to prolong this, but I just heard back from the dealer and they stated they moved the trailer to a more level site and that the front Jack is now straight. It goes up and down fine. I questioned the Service Manager to make sure that When this post is fully extended it does not have a bend. I will examine this closely when we go pick it up tomorrow, Along with getting the a chance to hook it up a couple times correctly.

He stated that they do not do anything with the pin box, it gets installed at the factory and they don't mess with it? I'll have to see then if there is a space to advance the pin box forward?

Thanks for the update,
I would not be comfortable with that jack based on the picture you supplied. The dealership is just trying to avoid participating in a replacement of it. While it might appear straight to him, there could be internal cylinder damage to the internal seals, piston or housing bore that could result in a future hydraulic seal leak or even hydraulic bypass which could result in that corner slowly dropping over time.

Regarding your pin box, the only adjustment would be vertically, up or down. This impacts your overall height of the rig and your bed rail clearance.

I am not aware of a solution that includes a slider that would improve you tail gate clearance.
I hope others here will chime in with their knowledge on that subject.

They do make specialized tailgates, but one change usually drives another, so it is a bit of give and take based on your priority list.

More importantly, have you ever determined root cause of your original issue where the hitch wouldn’t latch?