5th Airborne Elite Rotating Pin Box failure

[amauri]

Anyone heard of a pin box failure under normal conditions?

As we pulled up to the campground yesterday we heard unusual noises coming from the hitch & pin box area.

After disconnecting the TV, I checked all the bolts and none were loose.
Using a strong light I carefully inspected the hitch, pinbox and mounting wings on the trailer.

What i found was shocking to say the least.
Stress cracks about 2" long on each side of the pinbox, half way between the kingpin and mounting point attachement to the frame.
They start on the bottom and go up. I'll try to post some photos.

The trailer weighs 13,340 lbs fully loaded acording to CAT scale measurement last month.
Pin weight is 2,420.
The Reese Airborne Rotating PB is rated for 16k tow and 3.2k pin weight.
I've not taken it offroad and keep within speed limits.

The cracks are bad enough that I'm not going to risk towing it back home.
I'll have to remove the PB for a temporary repair just to get home, and later source a new PB.

[1st-tt2018]

Sounds like an overheated weld made the steel brittle....

[amauri]

Update...

Reese replaced the cracked Airborne Rotating Pin Box for me, no questions asked and shipped very quickly.

Thanks for the great customer support

[Toby Dog]

Hopefully it didn't take 3 months. I'd be tempted to sell the new one and get a Morryde.

[amauri]

Sorry for the late reply, it only took a couple weeks.

I needed a rotating type pin box and the Reese Sidewinder is the only option. I have a Ram Box on my truck.

But that is changing, I just sold my Ram truck and will be replacing it with a long bed truck.

Happy New Year

[Edd505]

Never did see pictures.

[amauri]

photos attached, click on them for enlarged view

[egwilly]

Yup...overheating the base material weakened it and caused it to crack under stress loads.

Ya dodged a bullet.

I'm changing out our Pullrite ISR tow hitch to their ball system Superlite. I already use the Moryde rubber pin. Long bed truck is the bee's knees.

[amauri]

Originally Posted by egwilly

Yup...overheating the base material weakened it and caused it to crack under stress loads.

Overheated welding may have contributed to the failure, but in my opinion there is more to it than that.

I'm no failure analysis expert, but anyone with metal fabrication experience will agree that the design is flawed once examining the pin box in person.
Hard to explain why I believe that is the primary cause of the failure, especially when I can't find any other reported failures when searching online.

In any case, I've traded the new Airborne Sidewinder they sent me for a new Goose Box to use with my new (used) long bed F350.