Sidewinder after market wedge.

Are you able to rotate the sidewinder by hand?
Do you have the edge of the wedge greased, along with the edge of the hitch funnel?
Do you have your pin greased?

when I back up to hook up the pin box would be slightly lower than the hitch plate. The wedge in my opinion does not enter the throat correctly and I have to try realigning, this goes on a couple to three times and nothing seems to help so I have to get a little crappy with it and force it in. I have only hooked up maybe 6 times and had the same problem every time. I am very good at lining up. Been pulling trailers for 30 years (not 5th wheels). I went to the storage yard the other day and took a good look at the wedge. I saw some metal peeled back on one side of the wedge. Hitch throat is pretty smooth.

hmmm...sorry about not reading your comment correctly---and yes to raising it before the lever will move--that's correct at that point.

Are you saying that when you back up the hitch plate to the pin box/king pin, which at this point the hitch plate would be about 1/2 inch ABOVE the level of the pin box plate (to allow the pin box to slide up onto the hitch plate)--that the pin box/king pin does not move up and into the throat of the hitch plate?

Unless I raise it slightly I can't even pull the lever to unhook.

Actually I do but the biggest problem is not unhooking, it's hooking up.

my wedge is right up against the king pin when hooked up, and I have absolutely no problem unhooking as long as I raise the pin box up about 1/8 inch from the hitch plate.

I do not see where the wedge placement would affect unhooking the pin box, as the wedge would be moving out of the throat of the hitch plate as you drive forward in your unhooking process.

So this begs the obvious (and I'm not trying to be funny) question--are you raising the pin box high enough to see daylight between it and the hitch plate?

Larry

The best thing to do is buy a hitch specific wedge. Leave the two bolts loose on the wedge, back into your king pin until you hitch jaw closes. Once this happens, pull the handle on your hitch, and unhook. Once you unhook from it pull up enough so you can torque those two bolts back down, you should have enough slack to make hooking up easier. You will always have a little movement in the area where the wedge goes into the hitch funnel, before the rotation starts at the turret. Don't make a mistake by trying to adjust that little bit of movement out of it, that will make hooking up a nightmare.