We just purchased a Landmark Newport and a new GMC 1 ton dually to pull it with. Never imagined there was going to be so much chucking. We have a Reese Titan 20K hitch and the Mor Ryde pin box. Even the dealer is amazed at the amount of chucking we are experiencing. To make matters worse, it doesn't have near the problems when towed with the company pu on their lot, not a dually. Any thoughts or suggestions?
Chucking down the highway
- Thread starter Club91
- Start date
Doublegranch
Mountain Region Director-Retired
Congrats on your new Landmark! Now you need to consider joining the Heartland Owners Club and enjoying our many Rally's!!!
Hope to meet you down the road. Safe Travels.
Hope to meet you down the road. Safe Travels.
Club91: As others have said, welcome.
We have the LM 365 Key West and a Ford F450 and we also seem to feel more chucking. We did exchange our MorRyde hitch for a TrailAire with the airbag and the quad-pivot king-pin (older assembly than their newer model but one I was familiar with). That said, we had a shorter coach that was traded in and we experienced some chucking with it as well. That we attributed to the length of the truck and coach being the right (???) length to extenuate the effect of the concrete cuts on our ride. Now, with the LM being almost seven feet longer, I think we just traded one that met that length to another one :angel:
Of course our deteriorating roads don't help much when they patch them with what appear to be rail-road ties between the concrete slabs (at least here in Kansas - I don't know what they use to level the concrete patches but it sure isn't working LOL ). Then we also add the fact that our KW is 4K heavier than our old coach so we have more back there pushing / pulling on us when we go over those things.
On our Key West it seems to be much worse when the coach is light (no water in the fresh water tank). That leads me to believe that hitch king-pin weight might also be a factor. I mentioned this to a local Keystone dealer who suggested that I get a pin weight both with an empty fresh water tank, and then with what I would normally travel with plus clothing, etc. As I recall we should have 20 to 25 percent of our weight on the pin. I have yet to do that but we recently came back from a trip to New Mexico where we did travel with water about half full, plus food and clothing, and I'd swear that the chucking was much less. Sorry I can't be of more help - I also suggest you check the water/pin weight theory though. Let us know what you find out.
We have the LM 365 Key West and a Ford F450 and we also seem to feel more chucking. We did exchange our MorRyde hitch for a TrailAire with the airbag and the quad-pivot king-pin (older assembly than their newer model but one I was familiar with). That said, we had a shorter coach that was traded in and we experienced some chucking with it as well. That we attributed to the length of the truck and coach being the right (???) length to extenuate the effect of the concrete cuts on our ride. Now, with the LM being almost seven feet longer, I think we just traded one that met that length to another one :angel:
Of course our deteriorating roads don't help much when they patch them with what appear to be rail-road ties between the concrete slabs (at least here in Kansas - I don't know what they use to level the concrete patches but it sure isn't working LOL ). Then we also add the fact that our KW is 4K heavier than our old coach so we have more back there pushing / pulling on us when we go over those things. On our Key West it seems to be much worse when the coach is light (no water in the fresh water tank). That leads me to believe that hitch king-pin weight might also be a factor. I mentioned this to a local Keystone dealer who suggested that I get a pin weight both with an empty fresh water tank, and then with what I would normally travel with plus clothing, etc. As I recall we should have 20 to 25 percent of our weight on the pin. I have yet to do that but we recently came back from a trip to New Mexico where we did travel with water about half full, plus food and clothing, and I'd swear that the chucking was much less. Sorry I can't be of more help - I also suggest you check the water/pin weight theory though. Let us know what you find out.
Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn
Well-known member
My 2 cents: I had the More-Ryde at first and didn't have much noticeable chucking. I then replaced it with the flex-air Trailair pin box at first the chucking seemed to be a little bit worse. then I started airing up my airbags a little bit higher and it seemed to make a difference. I used to run it about 45psi now i run it at 60psi. Fast forward to today we just did 250 mile trip and I have a small air leak and as we were traveling I would notice the ride to start getting rougher and we were getting bucket around more, I would look down at my gauge and see that we had lost 10 or 15 psi. I would air it back up and you could feel the difference instantly.
I have a GMC 3500 DRW with a 2" drop shackles and I lowered the overload spring stops a few inches too. So i run the air bags up to keep the overload springs from touching the stops.
I have a GMC 3500 DRW with a 2" drop shackles and I lowered the overload spring stops a few inches too. So i run the air bags up to keep the overload springs from touching the stops.
Just a thought since it is a new truck and hitch, check hitch location in the truck bed, it has to be centered a couple of inches ahead of the rear axle. I mentioned this because a friend of ours had a new hitch installed and they mounted his hitch centered directly over rear axle and his ride was horrible until it was moved a little forward.
Crumgater
Well-known member
We found our chucking noises were coming from the hitch moving in the rails... not a lot of space there, but it was enough to 'clunk' around... we put a piece of shelf lining (the foam variety) between each post that inserts into the truck bed and the bed rails... and that really quieted the ride. That, and our hitch has an adjustment bolt to tighten the pin in the receiver... not sure if yours has that adjustment or not.
Of course... right after making this "fix" we started getting "trailer wiring fault" errors on the truck's dashboard (F350)... and best we can determine, we diminished the ground-to-ground connection between the trailer and truck, causing some current limitations. We've been working around that with some extra grounding wires between the frame of the trailer and the frame of the truck, and that seems to do the trick.
Of course... right after making this "fix" we started getting "trailer wiring fault" errors on the truck's dashboard (F350)... and best we can determine, we diminished the ground-to-ground connection between the trailer and truck, causing some current limitations. We've been working around that with some extra grounding wires between the frame of the trailer and the frame of the truck, and that seems to do the trick.
coram8
Active Member
I got a new GMC 3500 a few weeks ago and just put a Moryde pin box on our Gateway. Went on the first trip this past weekend and I noticed it was chucking worse than my Chevy 2500 did. I noticed at one stop the trailer seemed to be slightly unlevel, leaning towards the front. The new dually actually sits lower than the other truck. I was wondering if I needed to lower the Moryde one bolt hole and if that would level the trailer completely and reduce the chucking. As I was running down the road, I ran the air in the airbags up from 40 to 65 psi and it really helped reduce the chucking. I may still lower the Morryde, but I think I will have one more test run before I do to see if I really need to.
Nbomar
Well-known member
I have bad chucking on my road warrior and 2015 gmc 3500 as well. My Ford F-250 while grossly overloaded rode like a Cadillac and drove fine towing the camper. I did have airbags on the ford and not on the gmc. I am going to try that first as that's the only difference between the two trucks. Same hitch and all.
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billyjoeraybob
South Carolina Chapter Leaders-Retired
We just went to the SE Regional Rally in TN this past weekend. Some of the roads were really bad. The DW and I were noticing how little chucking we were experiencing with my Chevy 3500 DRW and our Ashland. If we had been towing our former rig the Sundance, we would have looked like a couple of chickens bobbing our heads. The Ashland has approximately twice the pin weight of the Sundance. I believe the difference in pin weight is what has made the difference in the ride. The extra weight is taming the springs on the truck. Our pin box is the standard one and our hitch is a 20K basic PullRite nonslider hitch.
JohnD
Moved on to the next thing...
I'm thinking that you might need more weight on the pin box . . .
Maybe you have too much weight behind the axles.
We have a light weight 5th-wheeler (under 10,000 lbs) and towing with a 2015 Chevy 2500HD SRW gasser with a Reese 16K Pro Slider hitch and we have no chucking what-so-ever.
Maybe you have too much weight behind the axles.
We have a light weight 5th-wheeler (under 10,000 lbs) and towing with a 2015 Chevy 2500HD SRW gasser with a Reese 16K Pro Slider hitch and we have no chucking what-so-ever.
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