Wow, came across this gizmo and sure enough, you can pull a 5th wheel with an Excursion or Van.

Its kind of pricey at 5k, but opens up some interesting possibilites.

If I ever come across a used one for sale I'll be all over it.

Another application would be to use this with a pickup, since all the pin weight is on the tow buddy -not on the truck- you can still load up the bed of your truck with heavy payload.

http://www.hitch-buddy.com/5th_wheel_app.aspx

 

sweetest looking gizmo I've seen in ages , a fifth wheel on th ex Hmmm??

 

It may work but I wouldn't even think of putting my fiver on that.

That looks like an accident waiting to happen.

 

It must be impossible to back into a spot with that thing.

 

I've never seen one in action, but their web site says backing up is no different than a truckbed mounted hitch. The towbuddy is 'fixed' it does not move from left to right.

Southpark, why do you think it looks like an accident? I've seen 18 wheelers with similiar devices.

 

Texan, that thing looks spooky to me. I think I'll stick with the normal 5ver. Has anyone else used the B&W hitch with the Companion to match? I just got finished assembling the Buddy hitch and it won't wrap around the king pin. I'm going to try and do some adjusting tomorrow with a torque wrench and then try again. Just wondering if I done messed something up.

 

If that thing is fixed, that must be pretty hard on tires going around corners...can you say, "scrub"?

Jason

 

It looks like kind of an interesting device, but.... Why would anyone want one. If you looking for a truck and trailer combo, then you would buy something that matches. ie fifth wheel hitch = pickup & Excursion = conventional. If you already own a fifth wheel and needed a truck, then you wouldn't consider an Excursion. If you already own an Excursion, then you wouldnt shop for a fifth wheel. I think I'd put the five grand to a better use.

 

Ive seen these before and I think it can work. Like conger said, most people wont need one but I could see that there would be some rare cases where it would come in handy (if you had the 5 grand handy)

 

$5000 will by quite the nice clean used truck. Or at least cover the difference in getting loaded quad cab pickup in exchange for the Excursion.

 

You know, that is a really good point. 5k will buy a nice truck. It's easy to forget in this day of 40k new trucks, that bargains can be found if you don't mind an older model.

 

I would think this might come in handy if you had a towing service and had to tow a lot of 5ers.

 

We use to use dollies to pull double goosnecks horse trailers, but they were empty. Pulled fine. I never thought about it, but wouldnt it look odd if you pulled double 5ers.

 

Another stupid question - and I'm sure the answer is somewhere in the Tow Buddy website.

If it is rated to pull 23,000 lbs and if it ways 1,000 lbs, how is it that it is safe to pull all that with my 15,000 receiver hitch?

 

What i want to know, is what would happen when some idiot makes you go into a full panic brake. Did they test that aspect? If they did, why is it not on their web site? I suspect they have not. If they have, they are hiding it!