FIFTH WHEEL HITCH FAILURE
I RECENTED BOUGHT A USED 5TH WHEEL 32FT RV AND A USED REESE 16K HITCH. I AM A CDL DRIVER WITH MANY YRS EXP. PULLING MANY TRACTOR TRAILERS AND MANY OTHER TYPES OF TRAILERS. I HOOKED UP THE TRAILER PROP...
Forum Discussion
MrD wrote:
Not sure about this, but anyone see a problem with using a 16K hitch for a trailer that is 32 ft, it would seem that the trailer could have been too heavy for the hitch?
Mike
Not at all. Trailer length has little to do with a trailers actual weight. Very few if any 5th wheel RV trailers will weigh 16000 lbs and only 32' long.
My 28 RK 5th wheel trailer with a bed room slide and a 13' super slide is 32' long and weighs 11200 lb with a 2200 lb pin weight.
I'm a victim of a broken part on a sliding bar type jaw set up on a brand new 5th wheel hitch that allowed my trailer to drop on the bed. Insurance fixed the truck and camper and the broken part in the hitch was replaced. That was in 1984 and I can still feel and hear 2000 lb of trailer slamming down in the bed of a 3 week old truck and on out the back landing in the gas station gravel drive way.
Its rare a 5th wheel hitch has a part break..... but it does happen.
Hope fully the brand cheer leaders won't show up with their usual bash the other brand nonsense.
