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***Disclaimer*** I am not an engineer for Reese, this mod while well researched is taken at my own risk. If you want to follow in my footsteps you are more than welcome to, at your own risk.
I have a second generation Goose Box, which I love (mainly for having a mostly empty bed when disconnected) with one exception. There is a main pivot pin that runs through the hitch. It is a metal on metal surface with no way to easily grease or maintain. Actually the manual does not mention any kind of maintenance on this location at all. A few years ago I noticed very loud grinding noises coming from the hitch when it would bounce, at first leading me to think I had an issue with my air bag, but that pressure was fine. I eventually discovered the main pin and after some encouragement from Google pushed it partway out and discovered it was covered in surface rust and pitting. I was able to polish it up and apply grease, and then push it halfway out the other way and polish and grease that side as well, but this problem reappeared every year or so. I found reference on Facebook to someone who had removed the allen bolts and replaced them with hex bolts. They drilled and tapped those bolts for a zerk, and then drilled and cross drilled the pin to give the grease a path from the zerk to the pin surface in the two places where the hitch pivots on the pin. I pulled out my pin and sent it to a friend of mine who is a machinist and had him do the work (got lucky there), and reinstalled the pin today. It went together perfectly and by rotating the pin while pumping in grease covered the surface. Now it should be a simple matter to keep the pin greased and working for a long time.
This is the original pin, it had two allen bolts with washers in the end. These do not have any pulling force on them, they are there solely to keep the pin in the hitch.
Here are the hex bolts to replace the allens, drilled through to allow grease to flow.
I have a second generation Goose Box, which I love (mainly for having a mostly empty bed when disconnected) with one exception. There is a main pivot pin that runs through the hitch. It is a metal on metal surface with no way to easily grease or maintain. Actually the manual does not mention any kind of maintenance on this location at all. A few years ago I noticed very loud grinding noises coming from the hitch when it would bounce, at first leading me to think I had an issue with my air bag, but that pressure was fine. I eventually discovered the main pin and after some encouragement from Google pushed it partway out and discovered it was covered in surface rust and pitting. I was able to polish it up and apply grease, and then push it halfway out the other way and polish and grease that side as well, but this problem reappeared every year or so. I found reference on Facebook to someone who had removed the allen bolts and replaced them with hex bolts. They drilled and tapped those bolts for a zerk, and then drilled and cross drilled the pin to give the grease a path from the zerk to the pin surface in the two places where the hitch pivots on the pin. I pulled out my pin and sent it to a friend of mine who is a machinist and had him do the work (got lucky there), and reinstalled the pin today. It went together perfectly and by rotating the pin while pumping in grease covered the surface. Now it should be a simple matter to keep the pin greased and working for a long time.
This is the original pin, it had two allen bolts with washers in the end. These do not have any pulling force on them, they are there solely to keep the pin in the hitch.
Here are the hex bolts to replace the allens, drilled through to allow grease to flow.
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