texasvet wrote:
bpounds wrote:
It is the design of the fiver that causes this. Not a truck issue. My Cougar is the same way. It got annoying, and I thought even a little dangerous, to have to get out and close the tailgate in the middle of hitching and unhitching. I solved the issue by going with a Vee gate.
The axle should be the same distance from the rear in a short bed and long bed truck in the Ford. The extra length is forward of the wheel well. But can't say how your hitch was installed in the old truck.
That is what confused me as well. I never used a slider in the SB 2012 silverado and was able to hitch up with no issues at all and had tons of clearance. I always thought that a LB truck is only longer from the cab to the axle. According to the rv dealer, where I purchased the reese hitch from, said that a LB is also longer from the axle to the tailgate; mistified me as well.
I think what you're seeing is the difference between a GM and Ford. Not a long versus short bed issue.
A Vee gate is the solution you're looking for I think.
Without it, I had to backup to the fiver so that the pinbox was inside the bed area, but not so far as to hit the front compartment door on the fiver, then get out and close the tailgate, then get back in the cab and set the pin in the hitch. And all that in reverse to unhitch. If you were on a site with a good slope to it, it got pretty touchy to set the parking brake, and the truck would still roll a little bit when you released the service brakes. Get it wrong by a couple of inches and you could hit something. It isn't a good situation to deal with. I think this is usually a design limitation on the shorter fifthwheels like mine. I like the extra basement storage area, but they stole that from the overhang area. So it is a tradeoff.
