Quote:
Originally Posted by GMH
That doesn’t sound normal to me. The bolts or locking pawls only hold the hitch down in the pucks. The pins on the bottom of the hitch should fit smoothly into the oblong holes in the bed pucks. Those pins take all the loads from the trailer, not the bolts.
Edit: My hitch is not a slider, so maybe the clunk you folks experience is not coming from the bed mounting system?
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If you have your CURT installation manual handy, I'm talking about item #7 (puck) and item #2 (locking bolt) Go to your hitch and remove one of the cotter pins, nut and pull the locking bolt and puck from the hitch. Turn the puck upside down and you'll see that they have an "oval shoulder" that slips into the oval hole in your truck fittings. That oval shoulder (on the puck) is about 1/8" smaller than the oval hole (on the truck). If you "adjust the hitch locking bolts properly" (so the locking arms can be moved to the locked position by hand) there is not enough "downward force on the puck" between the locking surface on the locking bolt and the shoulder on the puck to prevent the hitch from shifting that 1/8" with acceleration or braking. The shoulder will, with the weight of the fifth wheel, push the pucks that 1/8" causing the "chunk".
Here's the installation instructions in case you might not have them handy:
https://assets.curtmfg.com/masterlib.../16017_INS.pdf
I can't tell you with certainty, that the locking bolts and the pucks are the same configuration on the sliding base hitch platform, but I would assume that the issues that Laredo Tugger has with his sliding hitch in his Ford factory system are either the same or very similar and his "puck shoulders" are sliding that same 1/8" causing the "chunk".
Curt is aware of the problem, I contacted them initially in 2013 with the issue. They have yet to devise a means to stop the "chunk". It's my "individual opinion" that the system is built to allow for variances in "truck component installation" and that 1/8" shoulder was incorporated so the CURT legs would fit vehicles over the "manufacturing design variance measurements". What it means (to me) is a "CHUNK" when the hitch is properly adjusted.
So, to eliminate carrying (and throwing away) cotter pin remnants in the campground, potentially that might end up in someone's tire and causing damage "down the road', I have come to adjust my hitch locking bolts (#7) tighter than hand tight, as often as necessary. That means, sometimes, adjusting them in a rest area if the "chunk" becomes noticeable in the middle of a trip. With the spring pin clips, I don't have to deal with cotter pins on a "regular basis".....