Using Air Ride 5th Wheel Hitch Together With Air Ride Pin Box

Question:

My Lippert Trail Air Tri-Glide failed, and I wanted to replace it with a Flex Air LC369535, I have a Hensley Trail Saver TS3 Hitch in the bed of my truck, I spoke to a support tech at Hensley and he said it was not necessary to replace the pin box with a similar box as the Tri-glide as the hitch will provide all the same benefits, just to replace with a standard pin box, he said the Tri glide pin box probably will increased the chucking of the trailer during start and stop, since the TS3 head plate pivots. Any Thoughts

asked by: Douglas E

Expert Reply:

I've seen the Trailer Saver before, it looks like a great hitch but we don't have any personal experience with it. I've done some research though, and I can certainly see how a flexible linkage between the hitch and vehicle (air bags on the hitch) and a flexible linkage between the king pin and the fifth wheel (air bag in the pin box) could tend to amplify the chucking.

I did some searching around, and really the only online opinions I can find pretty much mirror what Trailer Saver's website and their tech person told you. They don't offer pin boxes, so they really don't have a dog in the fight, so to speak. Lippert does't have an opinion, one way or the other. Since I couldn't find anything to contradict Trailer Saver's statement, I'd tend to believe it.

We do offer a Lippert model 1621 standard pin box as part # LC1387883

expert reply by: Mike L