Anderson Ultimate and aluminum truck bed compatibility

Aluminum 5th wheel: Aluminum heavy duty truck 5th wheel.

Aluminum trailers: East aluminum flatbed trailers

Maybe it isn't the material itself but the cost cutting in design?

Dirty, Rams don't have aluminum beds.

I have been using the Anderson for 3 yrs now, from pavement to oil field roads, no dents or "deflection". Have also used the Curt goose neck fifth wheel adapter plate http://www.curtmfg.com/Category/53/Gooseneck%20%7C%205th%20Wheel%20Adapters as well, when I was transporting RVs, no dents or "deflection" either. This from an actual user of the Anderson Ultimate hitch.

shepstone wrote:
Does the Pullrite Superlite work the same way?

Looking at the video they have on their site I'd say no. They show it connecting to a couple of rails in the bed.

Does the Pullrite Superlite work the same way?

I was the one who originally said that the hitch ball supported the weight. Just looking at a photo of that Anderson hitch you can see that isn't the case. The four diagonal tubes obviously transmit the weight right to the truck bed. The ball mount is off center and probably supports very little of the weight.

I've been sceptical of that hitch and this certainly built that scepticism to a much higher pile. I'll stick to a conventional hitch myself.

Searching_Ut wrote:
As Me-Again pointed out, all of the weight is carried by the bed of the truck when using the Andersen Ultimate hitch. I'd have to look in depth at the truck bed to see if I thought it would hold up to the weight and potential flexing. Personally I probably wouldn't use one with 5er of any size if I had an aluminum bed. That said, I would avoid the aluminum bed if possible as I use my bed for a lot of stuff, much of which would seriously scratch and gouge aluminum.

If towing in the upper limits with the Andersen Ultimate you will have bed deflection. They had to upgrade the hitch because people that BRAKED HARD ACTUALLY BENT THE TUBES. I guess that Circus type "Crush Test" did not reveal that weakness I had pointed out long ago.

My B&W deflected my bed on my 11 HO Dually towing 18K with the old style 18K Companion. They sent me a new base with spacers so it would transfer the force to the bed cross member NOT the bed.

The bed is NOT designed to carry the load On these newer trucks with paper thin beds.

The 20K companion is has a beefed up base to allow for this condition. B&W can only justify 20K, why can Andersen justify so much more?

I think Andersen does make a quality product but the ratings are very unrealistic. IMHO!

rhagfo wrote:

SoCalDesertRider wrote:
On the B&W, the weight is not carried by the bed floor. It is carried by the square bar that inserts into the square gooseneck ball hole. The bar mounts into the gooseneck hitch the same way the ball mounts into it. The bar bottoms out on the bottom of the hole, just as the ball bottoms out in the hole, and is pinned in place by the sliding pin that also locates the ball.

Respectfully disagree!

Hold down bolt tightened to 40 ft. Lbs. pressing the hitch into the bed floor and lifting the square ball insert UP! To make up that lift requires more weight to be placed on the bed floor. So to put any weight on the ball requires over coming the the 40 ft. Lbs. of lift earlier.

I agree with rhagfo too.

SoCalDesertRider wrote:
On the B&W, the weight is not carried by the bed floor. It is carried by the square bar that inserts into the square gooseneck ball hole. The bar mounts into the gooseneck hitch the same way the ball mounts into it. The bar bottoms out on the bottom of the hole, just as the ball bottoms out in the hole, and is pinned in place by the sliding pin that also locates the ball.

Respectfully disagree!

Hold down bolt tightened to 40 ft. Lbs. pressing the hitch into the bed floor and lifting the square ball insert UP! To make up that lift requires more weight to be placed on the bed floor. So to put any weight on the ball requires over coming the the 40 ft. Lbs. of lift earlier.

Again, all of the weight is carried by the truck bed itself. When you install the pin that holds the hitch to the ball, you then torque the bolt on the top of the square portion of Andersen hitch. This pulls the whole hitch down firmly on the bed of the truck. The instructions now have you do this with the weight of the trailer on the hitch so it's actually held down pretty solidly to the truck bed. With 3000 plus pounds of pin weight my normal trailer loading has results in the bed of my truck having completely flat indents in the spray in bedliner of my truck where the hitch lies.