Whenever we get to a new campground, we always like to take a walk around just to see different styles and types of campers. I especially like to watch the traffic coming in and out, what people are towing with and such, and I've noticed a trend lately. Maybe it's nothing new and I'm just noticing it now because we are going to FW in the near future, but I see a lot of DRW trucks pulling FW campers where the sides of the bed are very close to the bottom edge of the camper. I wonder how that works when going up or down inclines. Is this just a symptom of truck styles? Seems like in some cases I've seen you would have to always tow perfectly level or something's getting dented up!

When you say close, how close? I would think that things getting dented doesn't happen. The pinbox rides/glides up and down depending on the road. I'm looking at ours right now out the window and from the bottom of the front of the FW to the truck rails, it's probably about 7" and we've never had a problem. We've been towing this way since 2010 on highways to backroads camping on forest service roads.

Not just DRWs. As trucks have gotten higher in the rear, it has become harder to get the 5er to set level. As a result, many are either running nose high, or have a bare minimum clearance between the 5er and the top of the bed rails.

A lot of those folks also may be somewhat new and let their dealer set up the hitch and accepted it as being right. Especially if the hitch came from a different dealer than the fifth wheel came from. In some cases the dealer will just leave the 5th wheel set up as it came from the factory, and if the hitch or the pin box are not raised or lowered to provide the proper clearance, you get the small space you're talking about.

I cannot understand why the spacers or blocks between the axle and spring cannot be reduced to lower the bed????? All new trucks are significantly higher and this turned me away from trading my 05 Ram Cummins.

Typically you want at least 6inches clearance between the bed rails and the trailer overhang to allow for some shifting as you go over rough roads (particularly in campgrounds where sites may not be even and level).Newer trucks sit higher and particularly if you match it to an older trailer, this can cause problems. The most common solution is to "flip the axles". Basically this means rather than mounting the axle above the leaf springs, you re-mount them below the leaf springs. This gains you 4-5 inches of height on the trailer.You may need to adjust the hitch and pin box height but the trailer should still remain level, so it's often not a solution by itself.

Noob question | Good Sam Community

Likes_to_tow
Nomad
Jul 16, 2020
I cannot understand why the spacers or blocks between the axle and spring cannot be reduced to lower the bed????? All new trucks are significantly higher and this turned me away from trading my 05 Ram Cummins.
wanderingaimles
Explorer
Jul 16, 2020
A lot of those folks also may be somewhat new and let their dealer set up the hitch and accepted it as being right. Especially if the hitch came from a different dealer than the fifth wheel came from.
In some cases the dealer will just leave the 5th wheel set up as it came from the factory, and if the hitch or the pin box are not raised or lowered to provide the proper clearance, you get the small space you're talking about.
BB_TX
Nomad
Jul 16, 2020
Not just DRWs. As trucks have gotten higher in the rear, it has become harder to get the 5er to set level. As a result, many are either running nose high, or have a bare minimum clearance between the 5er and the top of the bed rails.
ReneeG
Explorer
Jul 16, 2020
When you say close, how close? I would think that things getting dented doesn't happen. The pinbox rides/glides up and down depending on the road. I'm looking at ours right now out the window and from the bottom of the front of the FW to the truck rails, it's probably about 7" and we've never had a problem. We've been towing this way since 2010 on highways to backroads camping on forest service roads.

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