Mountain Master Air Ride Hitches were for many years supplied with the Holland Binkley Hitch Head. This head was considered by many to be the industry standard on medium duty and heavy duty trucks. This Holland head boasted huge ratings 32000 gross and 8000 pin. and D.O.T. approval. Recently we have seen some instances and heard reports of excessive play in the horizontal pins that allow the pivot affect from front to rear. Many customers reported this to be linked to insufficient bearing surfaces and the inability to easily lubricate. We have recently seen a more severe case where the passenger side pin is actually working itself out of the hole and the roller pin is no longer retaining the pin behind the hole. We urge all owners of the Holland Binkley Head to do a inspection of these pins to be assured that the roll pins are in place and that there is not excessive play in the pins bearing surface that will allow the pivot pin to work itself out.
Please review the pictures below and compare to your hitch head, should you require any assistance bring or ship your head to our shop for an inspection.
Note: Due to this type of failure Mountain Master has began to manufacture our own hitch head that corrects this type of failure. All future Mountain Master Products will feature our own head so we may better serve our customers.
Please contact Mountain Master to order a new head to fit your existing hitch base or air ride base.
Image:
Notice the last two pictures are typical of how the Holland hitch head pivot pin should look. In the last two pictures the roll pin is secured by the retaining plate. In the case of the last two pictures it looks secure however the play in the bearing was enough to justify replacing.
We believe a lack of adequate bearing surfaces and a lack of lubrication caused this failure in only 57000 miles. When inspecting your head check for excessive vertical play. Once the surface is worn down it creates enough play for the pin to drop down and allow the roll pin to get caught as seen above!
