Short bed or long bed?
I'm looking at a 2014 Dodge Ram 3500 non dully with a 6.4 ft bed to tow a 2013 5th wheel Keystone cougar 327 RES. Do I need the long bed? What do I loose if I have the short bed? My previous exp...
Forum Discussion
I didnt want that long of a truck so I bought a short bed Ram 3500 crew. The trailer is 101 inch wide flat front. Hitch is a Pull rite 18,000 auto slider. It has about 8 inches of clearance at 90 degrees. It slides back 14 inches. I'm about 2 inches behind axle center and I have room for a Honda 3000 with a box built over it and will probably get a cross bed rear opening storage box.
More room would be nice but I dont like that long of a truck and I just like the look of a shorter bed truck. If you want more storage room and not concerned with the length while parking the truck when not towing get the long bed.
If you get a long bed, in theory you could probably buy a used hitch on Craigslist for a couple hundred bucks. My auto slider was $1,300 plus the picture frame, low profile feet, Capture plate and Dodge through bed puck kit. Everything was almost $2,700.
Then you get into the height of the trailer vs the truck. The pull Rite auto slider is just below the top of my bed. So an 8 ft with a regular hitch would drop your hitch height 2 or 3 inches, maybe 4 but I'm not sure but it may also drop your clearance from bed rails to 5er. I raised my trailer 7 inches with an axle flip and 16 inch tire upgrade but I'm sure I also have at least 8 inch of bed rail to 5er clearance.
I was concerned with the height but it doesn't matter if its 12 ft 3 in or 12 ft 10 in. What it did do is get me a lot of clearance for not dragging tail or hitting stuff when offroad.
They dont make it easy on us, always having to decide on how to blow money.
More room would be nice but I dont like that long of a truck and I just like the look of a shorter bed truck. If you want more storage room and not concerned with the length while parking the truck when not towing get the long bed.
If you get a long bed, in theory you could probably buy a used hitch on Craigslist for a couple hundred bucks. My auto slider was $1,300 plus the picture frame, low profile feet, Capture plate and Dodge through bed puck kit. Everything was almost $2,700.
Then you get into the height of the trailer vs the truck. The pull Rite auto slider is just below the top of my bed. So an 8 ft with a regular hitch would drop your hitch height 2 or 3 inches, maybe 4 but I'm not sure but it may also drop your clearance from bed rails to 5er. I raised my trailer 7 inches with an axle flip and 16 inch tire upgrade but I'm sure I also have at least 8 inch of bed rail to 5er clearance.
I was concerned with the height but it doesn't matter if its 12 ft 3 in or 12 ft 10 in. What it did do is get me a lot of clearance for not dragging tail or hitting stuff when offroad.
They dont make it easy on us, always having to decide on how to blow money.
