Vibration in the Cougar 5th Wheel

[mashburn]

We’ve owned our 2016 Cougar 336BHS 5th wheel for over two years now and have traveled fairly extensively. We’ve had significant issues with parts of the trailer coming apart from the middle of the trailer on back, I’m assuming the cause is vibration. A bolt protruded through the kitchen floor, was screwed back down, and has come up again. Almost all of the screws have come out of the trim over the tires on both sides. All nails holding the trim and the bottom of the top bunk have come out (I glued the pieces back together). Trim has come apart on the bottom of the main kitchen slide near the rear of the camper, as well as on the bottom of the bunkhouse slide. The flap covering the stove in the outdoor kitchen came off (screws came out). Plus the cabinets in the bunkhouse regularly come open during travel, even though they are empty, and get caught in the slide. Have ripped the doors off twice with the slide. We have airbags on the truck to lessen bounce and load while traveling and recently had the tires balanced. Nothing has come apart from mid-trailer on forward. We’ll see if the tire balancing helps, but getting ready to do a cross country trip this summer and am worried about what will come apart next! Anyone else have vibration issues and what have you done to mitigate? Thanks!

[rhagfo]

Install shocks on the your 5er.

[travelin texans]

Having the tires balanced would be my 1st step.

[flybouy]

That sounds like a whole lotta shak'n going on. How fast are you driving and what shape are the roads in?

[Ken / Claudia]

Also, quit just retightening loose screws put some glue on them or anything that will help hold them in place.

[sourdough]

Fenders come loose on lots and lots of trailers, the other stuff some, but it sounds pretty extensive. What trailer do you have, gvw etc.? What tires are on it and load range? I had Ds on mine and they were too light IMO, went to Es and it smoothed things up a lot seemed to me.

[mashburn]

Thanks for all the responses, we're going out this weekend and we'll see if we notice any improvement after having the tires balanced. When I replaced the screws on the trim over the wheels I used some flex glue on the back of half of the screws and left the other half without. All the screws with glue stayed in, all the other screws fell out, so yes, I will continue to use glue on the screws. We typically drive right around the speed limit, on various types of roads - some good, others not so good.

Russ & Paula/rhagfo, do you have shocks on your 5th wheel? That's something we'll consider if we continue to have issues.

Danny & Susan/sourdough, I'll look at the tires and see what the load range is. And how much load should I assume is being carried by the tires? Let's say the loaded 5th wheel is 12,500... and I think about 2,000 or so is being carried by the bed of the truck. Then do I say 10,500 is carried by the 4 tires?

[Javi]

Thanks for all the responses, we're going out this weekend and we'll see if we notice any improvement after having the tires balanced. When I replaced the screws on the trim over the wheels I used some flex glue on the back of half of the screws and left the other half without. All the screws with glue stayed in, all the other screws fell out, so yes, I will continue to use glue on the screws. We typically drive right around the speed limit, on various types of roads - some good, others not so good.

Russ & Paula/rhagfo, do you have shocks on your 5th wheel? That's something we'll consider if we continue to have issues.

Danny & Susan/sourdough, I'll look at the tires and see what the load range is. And how much load should I assume is being carried by the tires? Let's say the loaded 5th wheel is 12,500... and I think about 2,000 or so is being carried by the bed of the truck. Then do I say 10,500 is carried by the 4 tires?

You need to find a CAT scale... My 333MKS has a pin weight of 2400 -2800 depending on the loading.. All the storage is in front of the wheels... little to nothing behind the wheels unless you fill the freshwater tank..

[anthonbloom]

I have a lot of miles on my 2012 Cougar 318 SAB and I have the same issues...my oven is now pop riveted as the screws were forever falling out and all the lower bodywork trim is rescrewed with fender washers after the screw heads wore through the aluminum. I suspect that torquing and racking of the ladder frame is partly responsible as there is not much box structure to resist those forces. 40,000 miles on the trailer and I know it was not engineered for that much use!