UPDATE - Andersen Ultimate Redesign
As it has been discussed on here, Andersen recently redesigned their Ultimate 5th Wheel hitch. There's been wide speculation regarding why they did this, or if that was an indication that the origina...
Forum Discussion
Cummins12V98 wrote:
B&W's was NOT a design failure as I made clear earlier as Andersen's clearly is.
B&W's design did it's job with the 18K Companion when used in a truck that it was originally designed to be used in. My 11 and my Dad's 12 had much weaker beds and the ribs did not align under the strongest part of the base. All that was NOT B&W's design problem but they did see that the newer trucks are built different and they re designed the Companion to work with the newer trucks and is now rated to 20K.
So B & W was not at fault...it was someone else? Hmmmmm....
Did B & W clearly identify the spec requirements for truck beds and frames that their hitch was compatible with? Did they tell customers what truck(s) could be used? Why would they have redesigned their product if they didn't have an issue? Could it be that the hitch was over-rated (even if the truck was the determining factor)? Did truck bed/frame makers change overnight and left the fifth wheel hitch market hanging, or were hitch makers continuing on with their product design even though there were problems?
All of the above is basically the same "type" of questioning that's been brought up over the Andersen UH. But rather, it looks like B & W and Andersen chose the same route: PRODUCT AND DESIGN IMPROVEMENT. They both observed issues and made the necessary improvements to their product line. Good work by both groups.
