5th Wheel Hitch Advice

Hi all- Looking at the short bed issue another way.

We have a Reese Revolution king pin assembly on our Rockwood fifth wheel. This locks the pivot point about 20 inches back from the hitch and under the trailer. We have no issues with the Revolution and can turn greater than 90 degrees with our short bed Chevy and traditional fixed hitch. Not sure how much it costs compared to a slider hitch as it came with the 5er.

Cdash wrote:

jerem0621 wrote:

mtofell1 wrote:
Love my B/W slider hitch with my 6.5' Ram bed. I'm not in the auto-slider camp for one reason - sometimes you want to slide it back and have it stay there. This would mainly come up when pulling in/out of a driveway or camp spot with a quick and abrupt change in levels that causes the 5th the tilt and clip the back corners of the truck.

Sliding the 5th back changes the angle and gets you the necessary clearance but with an auto-slider you are out of luck. I realize the scenario I describe is rare but it happens to be the case in my driveway. My current truck and 5th have plenty of clearance but with my old setup I couldn't slide a piece of paper between the 5th and truck bed while backing beside my house unless I was slid back.

Even aside from the rare case I give, I'd never own a short box truck and tow a 5th w/o a slider. To me, I'm into my truck and 5th about 75K. I just can see trying to save $700 and having to worry and wonder.

I can't envision the scenario you are describing...the auto sliders are "always" moving back away from the cab while you are turning, forwards or backwards, if you turn the hitch is sliding back. If you can hit your cab going forwards then there are other issues at play.

Thanks,

Jeremiah

I'm envisioning it as break over angle. Imagine holding a hitched truck and fifth wheel. Trailer in left hand, truck in right hand. Twist the truck so that the front of the truck is going down and the rear of the bed will smack the underside of trailer. Having the hitch further back will help that case.

As poster said, I expect that this isn't common for most of us, but sounds like he has a need for it given his specific conditions.

Yep, Cdash has it - basically, it's the rake of the trailer with respect to the back corners of the truck bed. My driveway slopes down from the street. The problem came about as the 5th's wheels are down the slope heading behind my house and my truck's rear wheels hit the peak of the driveway apron. It put the back corners of the truck bed against the underside of the 5th. Sliding the 5th back moved the slope of the underside away from the back corners of the truck. Again, this a somewhat unique situation but I'd sure be frustrated if my slider didn't give me the ability to lock it back if I ever needed to.

jerem0621 wrote:

mtofell1 wrote:
Love my B/W slider hitch with my 6.5' Ram bed. I'm not in the auto-slider camp for one reason - sometimes you want to slide it back and have it stay there. This would mainly come up when pulling in/out of a driveway or camp spot with a quick and abrupt change in levels that causes the 5th the tilt and clip the back corners of the truck.

Sliding the 5th back changes the angle and gets you the necessary clearance but with an auto-slider you are out of luck. I realize the scenario I describe is rare but it happens to be the case in my driveway. My current truck and 5th have plenty of clearance but with my old setup I couldn't slide a piece of paper between the 5th and truck bed while backing beside my house unless I was slid back.

Even aside from the rare case I give, I'd never own a short box truck and tow a 5th w/o a slider. To me, I'm into my truck and 5th about 75K. I just can see trying to save $700 and having to worry and wonder.

I can't envision the scenario you are describing...the auto sliders are "always" moving back away from the cab while you are turning, forwards or backwards, if you turn the hitch is sliding back. If you can hit your cab going forwards then there are other issues at play.

Thanks,

Jeremiah

Yes he needs the extra clearance at the tailgate going strait. I've had that happen with a gooseneck in the field going thru a creek but it can happen. Very rare for a camper but seeing some driveways in hilly country... Possible.

jerem0621 wrote:

mtofell1 wrote:
Love my B/W slider hitch with my 6.5' Ram bed. I'm not in the auto-slider camp for one reason - sometimes you want to slide it back and have it stay there. This would mainly come up when pulling in/out of a driveway or camp spot with a quick and abrupt change in levels that causes the 5th the tilt and clip the back corners of the truck.

Sliding the 5th back changes the angle and gets you the necessary clearance but with an auto-slider you are out of luck. I realize the scenario I describe is rare but it happens to be the case in my driveway. My current truck and 5th have plenty of clearance but with my old setup I couldn't slide a piece of paper between the 5th and truck bed while backing beside my house unless I was slid back.

Even aside from the rare case I give, I'd never own a short box truck and tow a 5th w/o a slider. To me, I'm into my truck and 5th about 75K. I just can see trying to save $700 and having to worry and wonder.

I can't envision the scenario you are describing...the auto sliders are "always" moving back away from the cab while you are turning, forwards or backwards, if you turn the hitch is sliding back. If you can hit your cab going forwards then there are other issues at play.

Thanks,

Jeremiah

I'm envisioning it as break over angle. Imagine holding a hitched truck and fifth wheel. Trailer in left hand, truck in right hand. Twist the truck so that the front of the truck is going down and the rear of the bed will smack the underside of trailer. Having the hitch further back will help that case.

As poster said, I expect that this isn't common for most of us, but sounds like he has a need for it given his specific conditions.

B&W RVK3270 manual slider on Demco 6099 picture frame in 2015 RAM 3500 Short Bed. The nice thing about the Demco 6099, is that it can be release from the pucks without first removing the hitch, so I pick the whole hitch out of the truck as a single unit with a HF 880 electric hoist.

The hitch can not be uncoupled in the front position with the large box I have ahead of it, which more or less forces me to slide it back, which I do at the check in area.

Hitch is rated to 18K and truck is rated for up to 17,050 5th wheel.

Chris

mtofell1 wrote:
Love my B/W slider hitch with my 6.5' Ram bed. I'm not in the auto-slider camp for one reason - sometimes you want to slide it back and have it stay there. This would mainly come up when pulling in/out of a driveway or camp spot with a quick and abrupt change in levels that causes the 5th the tilt and clip the back corners of the truck.

Sliding the 5th back changes the angle and gets you the necessary clearance but with an auto-slider you are out of luck. I realize the scenario I describe is rare but it happens to be the case in my driveway. My current truck and 5th have plenty of clearance but with my old setup I couldn't slide a piece of paper between the 5th and truck bed while backing beside my house unless I was slid back.

Even aside from the rare case I give, I'd never own a short box truck and tow a 5th w/o a slider. To me, I'm into my truck and 5th about 75K. I just can see trying to save $700 and having to worry and wonder.

I can't envision the scenario you are describing...the auto sliders are "always" moving back away from the cab while you are turning, forwards or backwards, if you turn the hitch is sliding back. If you can hit your cab going forwards then there are other issues at play.

Thanks,

Jeremiah

Nicholsfamily05 wrote:
We have been using the Reese 16K hitch slider.
Our original truck was a Dodge Mega Cab so it had a even shorter short bed.
We pull a 40' fifth wheel and never have used the slider. Even in some camp grounds where they said we were going to need it made it fine with plenty of room. Just have to take your time and watch ur corners.
We have upgraded our truck and it's not a Mega Cab this time so it gives us the full 6'5" bed. I can't comment on this truck yet as we haven't towed with it yet. Hopefully another week or two and we will try it out.

But again we had the super short bed and never used the slider function and Mega Cabs are a long truck.

The Megacab, and the crew cab short bed Ram have the same length bed.

Love my B/W slider hitch with my 6.5' Ram bed. I'm not in the auto-slider camp for one reason - sometimes you want to slide it back and have it stay there. This would mainly come up when pulling in/out of a driveway or camp spot with a quick and abrupt change in levels that causes the 5th the tilt and clip the back corners of the truck.

Sliding the 5th back changes the angle and gets you the necessary clearance but with an auto-slider you are out of luck. I realize the scenario I describe is rare but it happens to be the case in my driveway. My current truck and 5th have plenty of clearance but with my old setup I couldn't slide a piece of paper between the 5th and truck bed while backing beside my house unless I was slid back.

Even aside from the rare case I give, I'd never own a short box truck and tow a 5th w/o a slider. To me, I'm into my truck and 5th about 75K. I just can see trying to save $700 and having to worry and wonder.

love my pullrite 16k

3500 Ram SB CC Pullrite Superglide. Old style flat front 8.6 wide FW and it wont hit the cab.