Me Again wrote:
DesertDogs wrote:
End cap on the Solitude
Likely pin box that will be on the 2020
Does either the front cap or the pin box look likely to present a problem to either the rear window, or to the side rails of the truck in tight turns?
Couple things to remember:
One, the RAM short box is the shortest of the three.
Two, going forward is not a problem, as the truck will not turn tight enough for the trailer to contact the cab. It is backing up where the issue occurs. With a mega cab, the contact will be even farther away from the drivers seat and hard yet to monitor for contact issues.
In the fall of 2015 when we purchased our RAM, I knew I wanted the pucks and installed them myself, as the truck we purchased off the lot had everything else we wanted.
At the time there was not a slider, manual or auto that mounted via the pucks. There is now B&W Slider So I choose the Demco picture frame and the B&W manual slider. Because of the position of the B&W latch handle and the front bed box I had, I had to slide the hitch to uncouple. So I became SOP to slide the hitch back at check in and forward after straighten out of the street to exit a park or campground. So I never had an issue. With an auto slider I would have had a problem releasing the trailer as the handle would not clear the front box.
I used a HF hoist to lift the hitch and picture frame in and out of the truck as a single unit. I ran without the trail gate as I had a V-Box behind the hitch. I modified the front box twice. This box had been in my 1993 and 2001.5 RAMs. The first mod was step in the rear low side to clear the Demco picture frame and when we bought the Big Horn, I had to shorted the box from to back to clear the bigger pin box.
When I went to the picture frame ,and used my existing 18K Reese slider I had the same set up you went too. My concern was when I slid back the slider the pin box would make contact with the tailgate. It cleared okay, and I believe my Reese slides back 10".
His only concern really has to be the configuration of the pin box, where it sits in relationship to his fifth wheel, some stick out further then others. It seemed the older fifth wheels the pin boxes were tucked in closer , not extended out like they are now. Here again I think the combination of the pin boxes sticking a bit further out ,and the rounder corners on the front caps are for the popular short bed trucks .
I too went with that HF hoist, works well, and I still use it with my Reese slider. But its still pretty nice to be able to just pull 4 pins, and lift that Andersen rail mount hitch off the frame adapter, or if at home lift both connected together out with the hoist.
When I bought the Reese frame adapter it was the only one available. Pullrite and Demco were later. I like the Demco for the fact it has four shorter locking handles . The Reese are longer, and pin together . I could not unhook the adapter ,and lift the slider hitch ,and adapter out at the same time connected together like you show in your pictures . The locking handles hit the hitch going one way ,or the side of the bed going the other. Hitch had to come out first ,then the adapter, kind of a hassle. I solved that, I cut down the handles so they would clear the hitch. Drilled new pin holes, and pinned them separately so I could lift hitch ,and adapter out at the same time . My point is that if the OP does go with an adapter the Reese is as good as the other two, but does have the longer handles. Knowing what I know now I would still go the Reese ,its the cheapest of the three, and by no means inferior, and those handles are easily changed.
