JIMNLIN wrote:
With a track record like that its amazing its lasted as long as it did. As others have said we have frame cracks in that area with a regular 5th wheel hitch.... myself included.
No doubt there are plenty of frame failures with just a standard hitch, so many fivers clearly have marginal frames. But there is no published list of good vs. bad. So, all we can do is either increase or reduce stress. Maybe drive slower, avoid jackrabbit starts, but we aren't going to pave all the potholes in front of us, so there may be little we can do to reduce stress. Now all the ranchers/farmers that have a GN adapter on their fiver likely don't tow too often or too far each year. Certainly less towing would be helpful, but that kind of goes against owning an RV.
However, it is pretty ez to increase stress on the frame with an adapter and extending the connection point by about 16 inches is significant. It increases leverage on the fiver frame by roughly 50%. But if people don't recognize this fact and that stress is both additive and cumulative, then it is also ez to dismiss the risk. An analogy would be ST tires and blowouts, there are plenty of ST tires that fail at speeds below 65 mph and under 3 yrs of age. But there are also many ST tires that are older than 3 yrs and probably see speeds above 65 mph but are still good. Still doesn't mean we are OK to travel at 75 mph and keep the tires in use for 7 yrs.
