5th wheel rails

[hoffbrew]

Ok... I left the rails in the ford because I have another Reese hitch from some kind of horse trading! I had them installed yesterday, brought truck home, hooked up fiver and towed. Had a little bit of clunking and after investigating I noticed a little bit of play, up and down play, where the 4 pins go to keep hitch on rails. Side to side is solid but if you grab the hitch it self you can move it up and down, not a lot just enough to make it clink. Would thicker pins work, if they make them thicker?

[hoffbrew]

I did try to set my old hitch from ford in Duramax and will not fit, it is about 1/2" off from dropping in rails! For some reason I thought all theses rails where universal... Now I know.

[rnkburg]

Reese and b and w patriot take the same rails. However I installed my rails for the Reese and when I put the b and w in it was a little off. Had to do a little engineering on there to get it in , bit its snug now. I only take it out when I have too.

They do make replacement pins and they come in other sizes, but if they are tight going through the hitch it wont help if the rails have larger holes.

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[SteveC7010]

Originally Posted by rnkburg

They do make replacement pins and they come in other sizes, but if they are tight going through the hitch it wont help if the rails have larger holes.

If the rail holes are a bit too large, it'd be possible to make up some sleeves to fit over the pins to take up the slack. Some thin wall tubing would probably do the job. My pins are 5/16" diameter. I'd take a piece of 1/2" thin wall electrical conduit, cut it to length, and slit it lengthwise as needed to make a snug fit over the pin. It the pin is already snug in the hitch tab hole, you'd have to make two sleeves for each pin.

[SteveC7010]

Originally Posted by hoffbrew

Ok... I left the rails in the ford because I have another Reese hitch from some kind of horse trading! I had them installed yesterday, brought truck home, hooked up fiver and towed. Had a little bit of clunking and after investigating I noticed a little bit of play, up and down play, where the 4 pins go to keep hitch on rails. Side to side is solid but if you grab the hitch it self you can move it up and down, not a lot just enough to make it clink. Would thicker pins work, if they make them thicker?

I'm wondering if there will be any movement with 2,000# of pin weight on the hitch. Seems unlikely, but it would have to be checked out with drive around the block or something.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by hoffbrew

I did try to set my old hitch from ford in Duramax and will not fit, it is about 1/2" off from dropping in rails! For some reason I thought all theses rails where universal... Now I know.

On the 1999-2010 Silverado/GMC longbed the rear edge of the rear rail should be 30" from the rear margin of the bed. In 2011 that measurement changed to 30 3/8". Once that rail is installed, the front rail is "supposed to be" centered and aligned with the hitch installed, marked and then installed to allow the hitch to be mounted. In the Curt intall guide, there's a note that says,

"7. Center hitch between fender wells and make sure rails are square. Adjust position of rails until both diagonal measurements are the same. This should allow installation of a gooseneck or other 5th wheels to these rails (See Fig. 2)."

The distance between the rails is "universal" however, the rails can be adjusted during install and/or after install to fit specific hitches (which also are "supposed to be" universal. However, it looks like you've discovered a small difference between a couple of hitches.

My guess is you'd have never even known this if the other hitch had been the one the installers used to adjust the front rail during installation.

The bed rails on my hitch have slots the flanges on the actual hitch fit into and then are pinned. These slots are longer than they are wide. My hitch flanges fit right up to the closest edges of these slots. A slightly wider hitch (space between the front and rear leg) would fit into the slots, but a slightly narrower hitch would not fit unless I adjusted the front bed rail. It looks like they adjusted your bed rails to one extreme rather than in the center of the margin. I'm wondering if maybe that's why you're getting some "chunking" when you stop or start ???

[PerryB]

I've owned several rail mounted hitches over the years and they all have a little slop in them. This is necessary to allow for production tolerances that occur from hitch to hitch. If you want to take the clunk out of it, I'd try some of those little felt "buttons" that you stick on the backs of cabinet doors so they don't bang shut. Of course, you'll occasionally have to replace them.

[concours]

I don't think that the clunk is from the pin clearence at the rails, check the pivot pin and see if it has a wear grove in it if so clean it up with emery cloth and lube it up I had te same clunk with mine and after a good clean up and lube the noise is totaly gone

[hoffbrew]

The clunk/slop is from rail pins, while hitch is in place on rails with the 4 pins in, you can pull up on hitch and see that there is play between rails and hitch. I have not found bigger diameter pins yet. I am going to stop by a trailer mfg or truck stop to see if they have any??? Or I might just take my other hitch and rails and have them installed. OR sell my old set up and buy a new hitch that will fit nicely in the rails that are already had mounted in truck?

[Escs36]

Every fifth wheel hitch I have used or have seen has some slop to them. Welding it solid is an option, but probably not useful for most pick up truck owners. Goose necks have virtually no slop. Converting a fifth wheel to goos neck is feasible.

[PerryB]

You can blow a big part of a thousand bucks on a new hitch and I'll bet it still has some "clunk" in it. Get over it.