TSLBH head pin key?

lockmup68 · July 5, 2019

Finally back on the road and haded west. At a pit stop walk around, I noticed one of the big pins on the Brinkley head was sticking out too far, way too far. So I took the weight off the head and it popped out pretty easy. Theee is a cotter pin hole through it, but no pin in sight.

I found a bolt that fit through the hole in the head and went down across the side access hole so it would be supported top and bottom. Not an engineer, but I think the force is all shear from to back and the side force would be minimal.

i put the camera on the magnet mount looking right at the pin to keep an eye on it. Drove another 250 miles and it seems to be holding in good.

I assume this means I probably need a head rebuild kit or something. Anyone know what size pin it takes? I’m in St. Louis area for a couple of days. Hope tomsource one tomorrow. I’m going to peruse the Hensley website tonight. Thanks for your help.

Darryl&Rita · July 5, 2019

Short answer, your hitch is done. The head, pins, and mounts all wear, then the pins walk out. I replaced the head, pins, and mounts with new metal. A local welding shop did the dirty work. There's been a few different rebuilds on the forum, but I don't remember who did them.

crazybanshee · July 6, 2019

When mine wore out this year I replaced the whole head unit and main through bolt for $500 from Hensley. Took me 5 min to replace and done for another twelve years.

Wrknrvr · July 6, 2019

Where is the grease.

I do not see any signs of it being lubed.

Just curious,. Vern

lockmup68 · July 7, 2019

15 hours ago, Wrknrvr said:

Where is the grease.

I do not see any signs of it being lubed.

Just curious,. Vern

Of what being lubed? The pins are not greasable. The head has a teflon lube plate on trailer. The Jaws are greased and sprayed with lithium grease before each hookup.

lockmup68 · July 7, 2019

Update: I’ve been out of the loop or completely missed the announcements....I spoke to both Mr. Henry (of ETHitch) and Mr. Rick (Comfort Ride Hitch) and both have sold their companies. ETHitch is now produced by Young’s Welding in Chanute, KS. Comfort Ride Hitches are produced by Roadmaster, Inc. In Vancouver, WA. Mr. Rick said he has no more tooling or facilities to do anything. He doubts Roadmaster would want to make a one off head. Mr. Henry said he can’t produce any hitches, but can service existing hitches, but is on vacation for a couple of months in NH, and suggested I call Young’s Welding on Monday.

So I will call Young’s on Monday, I am actually heading from STL to Denver, so I’ll call them and maybe I can take an 6 hour detour if they can work on it.

Wrknrvr · July 7, 2019

I was looking at your hitch photo. I wish I had a picture from a remote camera in that open hole on top of the hitch head.

Mine does not have that hole but it may get one installed this week. I may take a remote picture of mine later today.

Safe Travels,. Vern

lockmup68 · July 7, 2019

I went and found a grade 8 bolt that fit down through the access hole and all the way through the pin and extended down below the side access hole. I think this will be much stronger and hold it in better until new head is in place. It is a 1/4” grade 8 bolt 3 inches long works. 3.5” prob better, but couldn’t source one yesterday three hardware stores I went to were closed for holiday weekend. Miss the days when you can go into a hardware store and find bolts. No tractor supply near me right now and farmers co-op was closed. I’ll keep close eye on it, but should do fine

GlennWest · July 7, 2019

Doesn't that head just weld on the hitch body? Should be simple job to replace. As long as one is a good welder.

Alie&Jim's Carrilite · July 7, 2019

You can order a new head from Henry- ET hitches. Mine was a drop in replacement.

GlennWest · July 7, 2019

11 minutes ago, Alie&Jim's Carrilite said:

You can order a new head from Henry- ET hitches. Mine was a drop in replacement.

I was thinking the pivot was welded to the hitch. May have to go back and look at mine.

Darryl&Rita · July 7, 2019

On a Trailer Saver, the hitch is welded to the pivot. As far as I know, Henry never did get a production run of Super Binkleys mounted to a Trailer Saver base, for us poor unfortunates. That may have changed, with the transfer of manufacturing that recently took place.

GlennWest · July 7, 2019

Mine is not a super brinkly. It is the 32k Brinkly. But my pin weight is in line with it. Just looked at mine. Yes, welding required to change when mine wears out. Pivot side to side is bolted and welded to hitch. But as a welder, it is a simple job. Cut or grind weld out. unbolt and install new head. Reweld. Hour or two at the most. Bet that TrailSaver same way.

Edited July 7, 2019 by GlennWest

lockmup68 · July 7, 2019

5 hours ago, Alie&Jim's Carrilite said:

You can order a new head from Henry- ET hitches. Mine was a drop in replacement.

Henry sold ETHitch. Young’s Welding now owns all the designs and tooling.

lockmup68 · July 7, 2019

4 hours ago, GlennWest said:

Mine is not a super brinkly. It is the 32k Brinkly. But my pin weight is in line with it. Just looked at mine. Yes, welding required to change when mine wears out. Pivot side to side is bolted and welded to hitch. But as a welder, it is a simple job. Cut or grind weld out. unbolt and install new head. Reweld. Hour or two at the most. Bet that TrailSaver same way.

Yes, Henry and Rick used to weld their heads onto the trailersaver pivot base. I’m hoping Young’s will weld a Henry’s head onto my trailersaver base for me tomorrow.

Alie&Jim's Carrilite · July 7, 2019

2 hours ago, lockmup68 said:

Henry sold ETHitch. Young’s Welding now owns all the designs and tooling.

Henry put together an ET Super Binkley head to a trailer saver rocker box. All we did at the national rally last year was pull the bottom bolt, lift the assembly off and reinstall. Had to clean up the bolt a little but and was an easy swap. You might ask Youngs that if you sent them your rocker box and head assembly, if they could install the Super Binkley.

Alie&Jim's Carrilite · July 7, 2019

2 hours ago, lockmup68 said:

Yes, Henry and Rick used to weld their heads onto the trailersaver pivot base. I’m hoping Young’s will weld a Henry’s head onto my trailersaver base for me tomorrow.

Just saw this. They might, tell them its been done already once. You may need to trim the skirt around the head a little so it clears there the Trailersaver airlines go to the bags. Those little bent covers are really close on mine.

rickeieio · July 8, 2019

I doubt that gr 8 bolt is any better than a gr 5, or gr 2 for that matter, as in this application, it's no better than a cotter pin, as it has no load.

Don't get me wrong, gr 8 has it's place, it's just not every place.

noteven · July 8, 2019

My Holland FW0001 fifth wheel looks just like that “Binkley hitch” but has no pins through the pins. Is it going to fall right off the truck?

Wrknrvr · July 8, 2019

It would be interesting to see what happened to your hitch. If you can get a picture of the parts . Maybe keep the old hitch for discussion.

Curious,. Vern

lockmup68 · July 8, 2019

Got to Young's this aft. We pulled the pivot box/head off and i left it there. Should be done in morning.

While i was unhooking the trailer, I did a walk around. Front steer tire was separating. So down to West Tire in Chanute, KS for two new steers. Went with Hercules steers. Great service.

Mr. Scrambler man on HDT forum is nephew of the lady at the tire place. They just got back from Moab. Was fun talking with her.

Alie&Jim's Carrilite · July 8, 2019

Awesome!

CHIEFWAHO · July 9, 2019

12 hours ago, lockmup68 said:

Mr. Scrambler man on HDT forum is nephew of the lady at the tire place. They just got back from Moab. Was fun talking with her.

That's funny, my aunt called last night to let me someone was in and said they knew of me.

Might try to slip down to the RV park this morning around 10 and see if I can catch up with you.

lockmup68 · July 10, 2019

On 7/9/2019 at 5:51 AM, CHIEFWAHO said:

That's funny, my aunt called last night to let me someone was in and said they knew of me.

Might try to slip down to the RV park this morning around 10 and see if I can catch up with you.

Sorry I missed ya. Your Moab trip looked awesome. Need to get back.

lockmup68 · July 10, 2019

Update: all fixed up.

Youngs didn’t have any heads out together, so they had to put one together for me. Longest part was waiting for the paint to dry.

this is what it looked like under the head. While it was off I sprayed it down with greased lightning and used a can of rustoleum black to clean it up I also lubed the mounting holes for the head rocker box that are not serviceable. Looked pretty good all painted up and I hope it keeps the rust at bay.

We got the head on and they built it at same height as the old head. As someone mentioned, it rubbed on a couple of areas as it is so much bigger than the Binkley unit. We had to grimd out about 1/2” out of the rear plate of the trailersaver. It is already ground out, just opened it up 1/2” more on each side to allow for full side to side head articulation. Here’s a pic showing where it was hitting on the head (white marks on head .

and here is a pic of where we opened it up on each side

the other problem was the forward to back movement the super Brinkley ET head was way longer and deep, you can see difference here. White mark is where is was first hitting

This is is where they tapered the ends to allow the downward clearance on the back bar shaped it more like the small head was.

now have full articulation side to side and front to back with no interference.

Side by side comparison. The ET head has so much more meat. It weighs over twice as much and is just solid.

i didn’t realize how much the trailer was moving around with the old head. With the ET head on there, everything feels solid. The old head also literally fell apart on the bench when we dropped it on the bench. Both pins popped out and lots of parts fell out. Truly blessed I saw that pin walking out at a pit stop and I put it back in with a retainer bolt. Could have been a disaster.

The only thing I don’t like about the ET Super Binkley Head is the super short handle. I’m 6’5” with long arms and it is hard for me to reach that short handle and pull the release pin at the same time.

Also, I need to know what grinding discs they are using. They ground that head plate, which I believe is 3/8” down in about 30 sec it was crazy how fast they took it down to the right angle

Big shoutout to Young’s for working me in and getting me all fixed up. They mentioned they had sold 16 ETs since Jan already. I think Jack and team at RVHL installed all of them. There was also a new comfort ride on a pallet there that they were going to modify to fit a truck for RVHL.

Spent a few min at RVHL with Jack and Jonah, good dudes and the new Volvo’s are beautiful and the beds are even beautifuler.

Also, big thanks again to West Side tire in Chanute as well.

AND, the city has an RV park about 1/2 mile down the road from Youngs and Kansas RV Center. FREE for two days and $10 a day after that. 50a and water. The sites by the bathrooms are all concrete and longer than the ones on the corner/intersection.

And the “Grain Bin” restaurant downtown is awesome. Breakfast all day. The smothered hash browns were delish. This beauty was parked next to my truck when we came out. Big parking lot across the street.

Edited July 10, 2019 by lockmup68