5th wheel basics! Help!
 

Greetings:

I need your help. I've been towing trailers for years, big rigs, car trailers, camping trailers etc, so it's not new to me.

I've never towed a 5th wheel travel trailer, and am looking to buy one. I'm also looking at F250 or F350 diesel to tow it depending on wieghts etc. My question is how does it tow in comparison to a regular trailer of a tractor trailer. Also I was looking at short bed trucks (6ft) and someone told me I could only buy certain trailers because of the lack of overhang. So 8ft is better?

Any advice you have, hitches, trucks, options, towing suggestings, tricks etc, would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks, and Happy Holidays!

Billy

AZ 56 & 03,

Well since you have considerable towing experience, i don't think you will have any problems. The 5th wheel set-up is just a smaller version of the 5th wheel on a semi tractor.

Only difference you will notice with stability is that if you get a SRW they are not quite as stable as a DRW. But other than that it will feel like the semi's you have driven.

Yes a long bed is easier to tow with than a short bed due to the distance between the back of the cab and the hitch. The hitch is always mounted just forward of the center line of the rear axle so on a short be truck, if you turn 90 degrees between the truck and trailer you will smack the cab with the trailer if you are not careful. The trailers are ~ 8 feet wide so from pin to outside edge of the trailer is ~ 4 feet, on a short bed truck the distance from the center of the rear axle to the cab is about 16 inches less than 4 feet.
You can tow a 5th wheel safely with a short bed PU but you will need to invest in a sliding 5th wheel hitch. The sliding hitch slides back toward the tailgate for turning and sharp manuvers. The sliding hitches are either manually or automatically activated, with the automatic sliding hitch costing alot more money, but being more convient to use.

Hope this helps :-X25

BlackHat:
Sounds about right. Is it more stable than a regular hitch set up, what about being top heavy. I'm just trying to figure out the 'feel' if that makes sence. When I drove big trucks, the longer wheel base rode smoother with less bounce, but that was on a truck to trailer ratio that was more one sided. Do you know if there is a noticable differance in ride between the long and short? Other wise the only differance is the sliding 5th wheel for sharp turns? What about quality of hitches, about the same as regular hitches, go with brand names etc. Thanks so much.

I went from a travel trailer to a 5er a couple of years back and will never go back. The 5er will tow much easier, more stable, minimal whip... I dont get the sense of top heavy with mine at all. Mine is almost 11' tall, some guys with taller rigs may feel differently. Get a good name brand hitch like Reese with the slide option if you go with a short box truck. Except for losing truck bed storage IMO the 5er is better in every way. Plus I pull my boat behind the 5er.
Good luck

AZ 56 & 03,

A 5th wheel or Goosneck hitch is always alot more stable than a TT setup, no comparison. Since the 5th wheel or Goosneck hitch sits above the rear axle of the truck, you don't get the sway and tail wagging the dog effect you get with a TT. There is no issue with being top heavy, when the 5th wheel or Gooseneck trailer is properly loaded, 20-25% of the total trailer weight is on the pin, so there is no issue of being top heavy. Yes a longer wheel base always rides smoother than a short wheel base vehicle.

As far as hitch brands, do some research on the internet and talk to your friends about what brands they are using. Stick with a good quality name brand and you can't go wrong ( I tow Gooseneck almost exclusively so am not much help on brands of good 5th wheel hitches). I am sure others will chime in with their favorite brand. Also you can go to:

www.rv.net/
www.rvforum.net/
www.trailerlife.com/cforum/index.cfm

Alot of specific info on towing an RV on these sites.

Hope this helps :-X25

If you haven't noticed short bed trucks usually have smaller fuel tanks.

If your looking to buy a truck I would suggest the long bed over the short bed.

You can haul more with it and don't have to worry about getting in tight turns with a short box.

Reese makes a good fifth wheel hitch and would try etrailer.com . They have everything you will ever need for pulling a fiver.

Spend the extra money and get a bigger hitch than you need. A 20k is what I got and is alot better hitch than the 15k .

If your looking for truck look for the tow package and the tow command system with the intergrated trailer brake system. Makes pulling a trailer alot better.

The hardest thing with hooking up a fiver is making sure the jaws of the hitch are around the pin and the pin not sitting on top of the jaws. Seen it happen to many times and will put a nice dents in the top rail of the bed real quick.

If you thinking of size go bigger than you think . :-X22

I really like my b & d hitch, spendy, but clean bed when it is out and I use a my gooseneck more than my 5th wheel

All great stuff, Thanks!

AZ, also take a look at www.rv.net/forums Good bunch of folk there.

We also recently bought our first 5th wheel.

We too, have had years and years of pulling everything from crawlers to boats to rvs, but never with a 5th wheel.

We bought a 26 foot Wilderness Yukon by Fleetwood.

The tow vehicle is a 1999 F-150 Supercab short bed 4x4, with 5.4, 3.73's. and towing package.

The camper came with the 5th wheel hitch, but we were told because of the short bed, we would need a sliding hitch.

We bought a Reese, and had it installed at the lowest bidding RV place in the area. Total cost was around $1200.

After pulling with it, we have found we can cut the camper at a full 90* and not come close to the back of the cab, WITHOUT sliding the hitch back.

You may want to take that into consideration as it could save you some money.
Im not saying its like that with all setups, as Im not familiar as to whether or not pin positions are different on different RV's, but we certainly could have gotten by with the standard hitch, which we were given along with the purchase of the RV.


As far as the towing rig, my father called around to a few rv shops, and some said the f150 would be OK, while others said get a 3/4 ton for sure.

Well, after a nice long trip thought the rolling hills of the ozarks, my father got out of his truck with a big grin on his face (I was following in a different vehicle).

He said one sentence "Pulls like a dream".


Hope this helps, as I always like to hear from people in similar situations as myself.

To summarize, we were overwhelmed by the size of the 5th wheel for his 1/2 ton truck, and the shortbed issue had us worried.
Truth is, we were more than in good shape.

Thats my other site, great folks! Thanks

BigGreen:

Great stuff, thanks!

My owners manual says no-no 5th wheel. Wonder why.

I will keep you posted on how I do. I'm still stuck between V10 motor home and upgrading to a F250 and biggger trailer...

Happy Holidays!

I never noticed that before, I just thought I got worse MPG!!!

AZ, If you are talking about the F150 Supercrew then 5th wheels are NOT recomended. The bed is only 5 1/2 feet or so and the placement of the 5th hitch needs to be over the axle or a couple inches forward. There just isn't enough space. I think the bed on the 03's is a composite material too so that may have some play also.