What do I need to know about purchasing a hitch?

Shortbed.......depending on which 5th wheel you may need a 'slider' hitch

Always buy a hitch that is rated higher than the GVWR of trailer

(14K GVWR trailer=====16K rated hitch)

Will you be leaving hitch in bed ALL the time or will be wanting to remove it until towing?

Anderson has light weight hitch that is easy to remove
B&W has a removal hitch..heavier/more initial installation

I have a standard hitch with 4 way pivot head .....pull four pins and it is free of rails.
Pulled many 5th wheels with just a standard rail hitch.

Highly recommend the Andersen Ultimate Aluminum

geometro wrote:
My lovely wife has finally convinced me to trade our wonderful pickup camper for a 5th wheel so we can take the grandchildren camping. We've camped from Alaska to Jalisco to Nova Scotia and I'll miss it, but it is time to move on.

What do I need to know about purchasing a hitch? We've got the short bed 3/4 ton diesel and we will get as small a trailer as possible, but besides weight ratings are there other things that we should know, or are all normal hitches for sale (B&W, Reese, Curt etc) basically the same?

My first recommendation is always B&W. Great products and a great company to stand behind them.

Lyle

The first things you need to decide is how much you are willing to spend and whether you want to install it yourself or hire someone to do it. You can spend $700 for a hitch that would do the job or go all the way up to $2,500 for a really fancy one. Lots of them in between. You need to add installation cost to it if you are not going to do it yourself.