'18 F150 with 5.5 box tow a 5th wheel ?

F150 and 5th wheel is not a good match regardless of bed length

Short/Short bed just adds to the not a good match

Travel Trailer is better suited.

A person who has been rv'ing for nearly 20 years and has been on this forum for almost as long...seriously?

Think Pay load capacity! Not towing capacity! If you do, you will see a half ton pickup has no business being mentioned in a fifth wheel discussion. Hey, but everyone else thinks they can tow monster 5'ers with a 3/4 ton.....so what the heck??

They are now making light fivers. Certainly you wouldn't get anything large, but I would look at the smallest one you could find then go from there. Certainly you are limited by capacity. That's why in our entire rv life I have always waited until I had enough pesos to buy at least a 3/4 ton. (Im not ragging on you its experience) We started with a 3/4 k2500 Suburban and towed 2 tt's for 14 years, now we upgraded to a 3/4 ton cc f250 short bed with the 6.2 l gas and tow a lite 37 foot fifth wheel. It works great and is a perfect match. As we only tow around a 1 month a year I wasn't going to waste $ on getting a diesel and we do fine on the hills. This model has a 6 speed. Perhaps consider trading in your TV if you cannot find something that you like and can safetly tow. BTW we have the Pullrite Sliding Hitch and it works perfectly with the short bed.

Happy Trails

E-trailer Fifth Wheel Hitch

You can get a hitch, so it can be done without too much trouble. A sidewinder pin box or something similar would also be helpful.

People do it… Depends on the trailer as to whether or not it’s a good idea. Not everyone wants to go out and buy a bigger truck, but sometimes compromises have to be made (5th wheel with bigger truck, TT with current truck).

As some posters have said, that type of truck is not the best choice for carrying the pin weight of most FWs. To answer your question, they make a Sidewinder pinbox to work with those short beds. You can see how it works at etrailer.com.

A smaller FW may work, if the hitch/pin weight does not put you over the RAWR.

Jerry

The badge on the side does not determine if you can tow a fifth wheel or not. I guarantee I can easily tow a 8000 lbs fifth wheel with my half ton and still be within all its ratings.



Vin Position 5,6,&7 (W1E) = F150 4X4 Supercrew
Vin Guide

trailernovice wrote:
A person who has been rv'ing for nearly 20 years and has been on this forum for almost as long...seriously?

Maybe this Rver has no experience with fifth wheels. We are not all experts.

Dan

Crabbypatty wrote:
They are now making light fivers.

If anything, they are getting heavier. You do see more marketing labels implying light weight but very few actually light weight.

Something small like a scamp...sure.

But a small 8000lb 5er is going to have a pin weight on the order of 1600-2000lb, unless you are at the ultimate top end of the 1/2 ton payload options, that's a tall order for the truck.

Keep in mind, you have to add hitch weight, passengers and anything else in the truck (very common to have 600-1000lb added to the truck.

My first 5er was when I had a 1/2t SB and that was even a 96. It was within all the ratings and the 25' length, 7' width made it the most fun we ever had for Boondocking. I was also in a Midwest storm that was blowing trucks over and it was still a one finger on the steering wheel drive for me. There's NO reason the right combo won't work fine.
Or just get a TT and he won't have a thing to worry about... like the F350 that was hanging over the bridge or this F150 I saw last October 11th...