texasgiddyup wrote:
By the way, the highly rated B&W Companion 5th wheel hitch also places all weight and any movement directly on the truck bed steel, and not on any under lying support structure. It attaches to the truck gooseneck opening with its own shank in the hole, and is torqued pulling up on the gooseneck platform to seat the frame tightly to the truck bed. Same basic logic as the Andersen. The B&W is what I used on my 2011 chevy long bed dually and I never noticed any chucking or bed deformation.
The 18K did sit on the bed and it was designed when the beds actually were strong. My 18K DID deflect my 11 Dually bed. B&W replaced the base as it has bent a bit and supplied hard plastic strips to transfer load directly to the bed cross members that sit directly on the frame. The result is B&W re designed the Companion to be a 20K unit with adjustable strips that DO transfer the load to the bed cross rails then to the frame.
The Andersen Ultimate transfers the weight to the bed NOT the cross rails. They DO deflect the newer beds when towing in the upper weight ranges.
