5th wheel hitch replacement

[still-learnin]

I have a Huskey 15K hitch I bought in 2005. A few years laterI installed a trailer saver, blue ox? rig for just in case the jaw fails to prevent truck bed from getting smashed, and damage to the front of fifth wheel trailer.
I am getting very tired of the jerking, especially when towing on concrete hiways. Everytime the trailer rides over an expansion joint on concrete highways, or when there are bumps in the road and NC seems to have too many of these, I feel the jerking, and am thinking this jerking is not only destroying my old joints, but also doing some structural damage to the trailer. I think I need to buy a better 5th wheel hitch. Maybe one with a pivoting head, and maybe with some sort of shock dampening. Any suggestions???

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by still-learnin

I have a Huskey 15K hitch I bought in 2005. A few years laterI installed a trailer saver, blue ox? rig for just in case the jaw fails to prevent truck bed from getting smashed, and damage to the front of fifth wheel trailer.
I am getting very tired of the jerking, especially when towing on concrete hiways. Everytime the trailer rides over an expansion joint on concrete highways, or when there are bumps in the road and NC seems to have too many of these, I feel the jerking, and am thinking this jerking is not only destroying my old joints, but also doing some structural damage to the trailer. I think I need to buy a better 5th wheel hitch. Maybe one with a pivoting head, and maybe with some sort of shock dampening. Any suggestions???

I have a 16K Reese hitch with the Reese Revolution Sidewwinder and found that the Reese hitch itself had some clearance (slop) where the legs were pinned to the bed supports which allowed the hitch itself to "rock" just a little. I made steel shims to fit under all 4 legs and now have to lightly tap the hitch pins thru' the legs. That stopped the banging and a lot of the jerking on NC highways. After adding shocks to the trailer, that stopped all the jerking. Now, the trailer follows the contour of the highway and does NOT continue or exaggerate the humps/bumps in the highway. MUCH smoother ride in the truck and NO NOISE whatsoever.

[golfmedik]

If you don't have them, you might want to think about a set of air bags for your truck. I put them on mine and stopped all of the jerking and bouncing by airing them up. Won't ever tow heavy without them again.