tailgate hits camper

colliehauler wrote:
You could go with a 5er tailgate or remove yours.

Stromberg Carlson "V" gate from Northern Tool about $200.

TG stays "up" during hitching, also.....

Money ahead after you dent yours - or it's stolen..:W

.

What I do is not lower my tailgate all the way down. I take the cable that keeps the tailgate from falling down and loop it around the latch pin, that way the tailgate is part way up and part way down. It is low enough for me to back under my pin hitch but not low enough to hit the trailer.

But you could also do your hitching/unhitching with the slider in the rearward position.

I thought he already had the slide to the rear and was still hitting the 5er.

IF not then move the slide to the rear (maneuver position on mine) and leave it there until you finish hook-up, and are ready to close the tail gate.

Since you have a Slider, how about locking it in the rearward position, hookup, raise the tail gate, then lock the hitch into the travel position.

RustyJC wrote:
Years ago I had a Jayco Designer XL 3610RLTS with a vertical pin box - the truck's tailgate would hit the trailer if I tried to hitch with the tailgate down. The simple fix is to make hitching up a 2 step process:

1. Back toward the trailer far enough to connect the trailer umbilical (I've always had a 2nd 7-pin Pollak-style receptacle in the bed) and close the tailgate.

2. After connecting the electricals and closing the tailgate, continue backing until the kingpin seats in the 5th wheel hitch.

If your trailer manufacturer will allow it due to trailer frame strength considerations in the pin box area, an option you might consider if the above is not acceptable to you is a longer extended pin box on the trailer. In my case, Jayco would not approve an extended pin box on that particular 5th wheel.

Rusty

X2, This our procedure also, works just fine.

Travelon

Mine does too. They are designing more of them that way these days. It does increase basement capacity.

I went with a fiver tailgate. Solved the issue in a very convenient way.

But you could also do your hitching/unhitching with the slider in the rearward position. That should solve it. Some guys use a slider in their longbed trucks for that very reason.

Our tailgate hits as well unless I am dead on straight to the 5ver, and then there is only about a 1/2" clearance. Our 5ver already has an extended pin box so that didn't make any difference. So we have to use Rusty's two step process to hook up and unhook. DW has become pretty good at opening, catching, and closing the tailgate as we hitch or unhitch.

I think I would go with the 5ver tailgate before just removing mine and leaving the back of the bed unsupported.

You could go with a 5er tailgate or remove yours.

Will a non slider fix my problem.

No, if anything it will make it worse. The slider should move your hitch head to the rear of the bed. A non-slider, correctly installed, would put the hitch head over your axle, in the same place your slider has it when it is in the travel position.

I think removing the tail gate is your best option, but if you need it to keep stuff in the bed, then maybe a non rigid tailgate.

If you can turn sharply w/o the 5er smacking the cab, I'd rather take the tailgate off or get a V 5er gate rather than put on a longer pin box. I buy LBs and I always go the other way around. I do surgery and turn the long pin boxes into short ones. The 5er frame flexing goes way down! Craig