Trailair Tri-Glide hitch failure

[Gwbunt]

Mine broke in the same way. I was out of town and had to buy a new one to get home. I will be contacting Trailair this week. 1200.00 to replace on a Saturday.

[Gwbunt]

5 of the 6 pivot points broken.

[VCToyhauler]

Apologies if this has already been noted.... There are 9 zerks on the triglide for the rollers; 3 on each side and 3 in the middle. Since no one pointed that out to me when i first got the unit, i suspect many people may not have known this needed to be lubed and just used them until they failed.

Also make sure the trailer's brakes are adjusted to grab first. If the trailair comes forward at each red light and the slams back at each green light then the trailer brakes need to be adjusted up at the controller.

[Rob C]

I find it unbelievable that this style of hitch is even manufactured. It is built to fail and I can’t imagine what advantage it provides over a solid jaw with the airbag still in place for shock loads.
I tow with a 6 speed manual trans and a Jacobs brake. The slide hitch would bang back and forth all the time. My 3905 Voltage is a 2013 model with about 10K miles when I noticed substantial cracks developing on both ends of the slide mechanism.
I ordered up a solid jaw from Lippert and swapped out the garbage slide. It might make a good boat anchor!

[Gwbunt]

Greased all 9 fittings regular. The trailer doesn't have 2000 miles on it 2 years old. It broke all at once pulled away from a red light and heard a loud pop. Made it 60 miles to my destination and found 5 of the 6 pivot points broken. Bought another trailair hitch w/o the triglide option and installed myself where I was camping.
Sent an email to the manufacturer to see if they would offer any assistance. I will update when they reply

[Gwbunt]

Lci. Responded and is sending me a refund of 390.00. They said that this is the cost of replacing the lower triglide jaw for a standard jaw. Not sure if I agree with this but it's all I am going to get from them.

[azdryheat]

Camping World installed a whole new hitch under warranty; a Trailair. It's been working great.

[Pirate]

VC,

Help me understand how to adjust things so the trailer brakes grab first?

I know how to adjust the trailer brakes in my Silverado, but how do I determine the trailer brakes are grabbing first?

Thanks,

Pirate

[Fanboy]

Originally Posted by Pirate

VC,

Help me understand how to adjust things so the trailer brakes grab first?

I know how to adjust the trailer brakes in my Silverado, but how do I determine the trailer brakes are grabbing first?

Thanks,

Pirate

Pirate, use the slider slightly and look in the rear view mirror and watch the air bag. Compress/open. Then do with your brakes(pedal). If the opposite happens. Increase your gain. It's a good visual. Also the feel of the trailer slowing the truck. I have basically the same truck as you. I had to get use to going deeper on the pedal for engagement on the trailer. I was too light on the brakes. I had to watch the brake bar light up for me to learn to brake properly on my rig. All good now

[lcv800]

If you can find a gravel lot to test in, you can hear and feel the brakes grab on the trailer over the gravel.
Rusty

[Fanboy]

I have to laugh, LCI tells me there are no complaints of failures. Haha


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[hddecker]

Originally Posted by Fanboy

I have to laugh, LCI tells me there are no complaints of failures. Haha


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and the check is in the mail.

[donzinger]

Originally Posted by Fanboy

I have to laugh, LCI tells me there are no complaints of failures. Haha


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That's a load of bs. I have the emails from when my father in laws failed. They covered the same $390 for his. I also have the emails between myself and an LCI rep who suddenly stopped responding when the topic of failures was brought up.

[Fanboy]

I know its BS. I just thought I'd share. It's the same person I've been going back and forth with citing specific problems. I am saving my email trail with him.


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[Rob C]

My personal opinion.. It's just not possible. You may get them to grab first in a slow planned stop on level ground but changes in vehicle attitude and how rapidly you apply brake pressure are not going to be predictable factors in every situation. Your tow vehicle brakes ate going to grab first in a panic stop. the trailer is going to slam forward and then backward. The tri-glide hitch is an accident waiting to happen.

[azdryheat]

There's a reason (failure) that Trailair Tri-Glides are no longer in production. But I see they are still on unsold Voltages, buyer beware. When mine failed I had severe banging at stop lights and I didn't know how bad things were. CW mechanic was surprised we made it home to Tucson from Michigan with only one of the three rollers still intact. My Trailer was still under warranty and CW got me a new Trailair pin box and installed it. I must say that I'm very impressed with the Trailair that replaced the Tri-Glide.

If your Tri-Glide is banging when starting and stopping I'll bet it has already failed and you need to replace it immediately.

[Fanboy]

Well, got a call today. Double checking all my info and they are sending me a different lower jaw. I was surprised. He said it was going to be processed to day to ship out to the house


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[calewjohnson]

Add mine to the list of failures!!

Luckily mine is already in for repairs on a slide, they are asking for authorization to just replace the whole pin box...

As mentioned previously, lots of banging at startup and stopping...

One side is hanging down much more noticeably than the other.









Cale

[lcv800]

Cale, how many tow miles do you have on your hitch? Very little off-road boondocking, right?
Rusty

[calewjohnson]

Rusty,

No off road boondocking...but plenty of rough roads. All total, about 15k miles towing, nearly 7k was our cross country trip last summer during our duty station change from CA to MD.

We went through CA, AZ, NM, TX, OK, KS, IA, WI, IL, IN, KY, TN, SC, NC, VA, and finally MD. We did go across some roads that could have fallen into the off-road category.

Cale