So I have a 2012 f350 drw 8ft bed with factory puck system. The issue I have is the pucks sit slightly higher than the bed and the Anderson sits on them not the bed. This means the trailer weight is not sitting across the Anderson frame and is concentrated on the 4 pucks which I feel is putting unplanned stress on the Anderson. And is actually wearing on the aluminum frame. Also it means the Anderson does move slightly on longer trips. Picture of bottom of Anderson frame. Can see the 4 contact points and the top 2 are wearing into the aluminum a little. Any tips or thoughts?

 

I have a 2019 with the puck system. I don’t think that there is any contact with the pucks on mine. I’m not sure, because I put a piece of horse stall rubber mat between the Andersen and the bed. I have the spray-in liner and didn’t want the hitch rubbing on the liner. The mat is only 1/4” thick, but it does the job.

You can pick up a small piece of stall mat at Tractor Supply.

 

Have you talked with Andersen about this to see what they say ? They may have a fix for this already.

 

Thanks guys. No I have not contacted Anderson yet. And the height difference is so slight that even having spray in bedliner would probably eliminate the issue. I'm sure a rubber bed mat would be plenty. I have considered the rubber mat. I guess I mostly wondered if anyone else has noticed this on their truck and hitch?

 

I use the steel rail mount version of the AUH to haul a 5th wheel cross country, so I can offer no personal experience. Although, I seem to recall reading about the puck system in a way that you are describing.

I think the owner ended up using an appropriately thick hard rubber horse stall mat like you can get at Tractor Supply, Farm & Fleet, etc. He cut it up with a razor blade and it worked well. I fully support you contacting Andersen first, but this may be a viable solution for you.

 

I don't have the puck system but did lay down a piece of stall mat under my hitch.

 

If you don't want to make your own mat, Andersen sells a small mat that fits the perimeter of the hitch and has the cutout for the goose ball connection

 

Thoughts? Change to a regular 5th wheel setup or B&W setup. I have seen two of these come into the shop bent and broken. We had a larger toyhauler that with us for 6 months while our frame guy rebuilt the front end of the trailer after it slammed down and did heavy damage to the truck and the frame of the trailer. I know guys will get on here and swear by these hitches and how great they are blah blah. Look at the small welds alone. If you MUST have a gooseneck setup, go with the Reesebox. There are two hitches that are covered by Lippert apart from standard 5th wheel setup and Anderson is not on that list. Sure, these hitches are great.....until they aren't.

 

I can attest to the robust reese goosebox. I recently had a run in with traffic slamming on breaks and locking them up. I had to do the same. Goosebox fine.

 

How much weight are you talking about?

 

Anything made or designed by humans can and will fail at some point.

Failure is imminent if the hitch is not used appropriately or beyond the capability. That goes for every hitch out there.

Common sense is not so common any longer and the weakest point will be exposed if the user does not follow instructions. Just like the people that drop their 5th wheel on a truck after the pin comes out of the hitch.

I like my AUH, but if you don't trust it, don't run it. I like B&W as well and that was my hitch of choice before I discovered the AUH.

I am very detail oriented and triple check connections, plugs and pins before heading out.

10's of thousands of miles logged traveling cross country on all road surfaces including BLM land and Forest Service trails as we prefer to boondock.

 

We are very close to convert from "bumper pull" to "5er" since the EX is now a true SD pick up. My RV dealer really likes the Anderson, I like the concept. @Sous when you get back to God's country I'd like to see your set up.

 

Not a problem at all sir. Although, our previous meeting spot "Dad's restaurant" closed due to lack of business over the past year. Lavonia (exit 172) has several places we can meet up though.

We leave Challis ID on Wednesday to start our meandering home toward GA. The AUH will be used during the remainder of our 6,000 mile trip towing the 5th wheel.

I will be in touch Mark.

 

Pin weight...2200-ish

Trailer weight....unknown due to the immense amount of stuff in the trailer, but I would venture to guess 16000-ish based on the trialer having a 15400 GVW...all just a guess. i guess I could correctly say "really effen heavy".

 

Interesting...

Again, if anything is used in a way it wasn't designed, it will likely fail at some point. User error is a common failure mode in modern times. I have exhibited this failure mode before and will likely do so again.

Based on the commonly used and somewhat industry standard pin weight calculation of 20% of the 5th wheel GVWR, something seems amiss.

Some people/manufacturers use 25% of GVWR to calculate pin weight.

For simplicity sake, let's ASSume the 5th wheel weighed 15,500 lbs. Slightly more than the quoted 15,400, but less than the guestimated 16,000 lbs.

- 20% of 15,500 is 3,100 lbs for pin weight.
- 25% of 15,500 is 3,875 lbs for pin weight.

I cannot say what type of AUH (steel or aluminum and mounting style) the owner was using, what the max weight is of the specific AUH is or if the owner had the adapter and AUH installed properly. Or, if anything else was not set up right, but something apparently went wrong.

I don't care what hitch anyone uses, just as long as they are comfortable and confident with their decision. They are the ones that know their goals for traveling and safety.