Which 5th wheel hitch

Searching_Ut wrote:

N-Trouble wrote:

sin cal hd wrote:
Been around the .net for sometime the weight police like to poke their noses in where they weren't asked. But, its all good.

Thanks guys. B&W's are heavy units to move around. I know some disassemble I see a lot of trucks with them and they are expensive. I do like their campanion slider with the factory puck turn and twist.

I do like auto slides. Not much of a fan of super glide do to the capture plate. Thats why Im leaning toward a demco.

Never heard of Anderson. The goose neck attachments I never understood why people use them. There seems to be a lot of torque from the fwd and back motion from stopping and accelerating.

I didnt look at the front cap if it has radius corners or not. Something to look at during pdi.
Edit: there is some radius to the cap.

Curt is another slider Im looking at.

Reese on their site shows an auto slide but no info.

Do some research on the Andersen. Its not a GN in the typical sense. It does NOT put additional stresses on the trailer like your speaking of with a traditional GN

Its been one of the most popular/fastest growing hitch the last couple years.

Actually, the Andersen can damage your pin box, as I learned the hard way. Seems Andersen knows about it as they've built shims to prevent it but they play dumb, blame the pin box, and develop communication issues if you do have problems. I really wish I had gone with the B&W in the first place. Much better hitch, albeit a real pain in the back to move around.

Do tell more.

I had a Reese Elite in my 2012 Ram partially because it had the puck system in the picture frame and I could use their gooseneck hitch in the puck system also.
Since neither would work in my 2015 Ram puck system I opted for the B&W hitch. Not much difference really that I have noticed other than maybe the B&W latching may be a little tighter on the 5ver pin, but I do like the way the B&W/Ram spreads out their mounting points in the bed and really couldn't use the Reese in my 15 Ram anyway.

Wild Card wrote:

Searching_Ut wrote:

N-Trouble wrote:

sin cal hd wrote:
Been around the .net for sometime the weight police like to poke their noses in where they weren't asked. But, its all good.

Thanks guys. B&W's are heavy units to move around. I know some disassemble I see a lot of trucks with them and they are expensive. I do like their campanion slider with the factory puck turn and twist.

I do like auto slides. Not much of a fan of super glide do to the capture plate. Thats why Im leaning toward a demco.

Never heard of Anderson. The goose neck attachments I never understood why people use them. There seems to be a lot of torque from the fwd and back motion from stopping and accelerating.

I didnt look at the front cap if it has radius corners or not. Something to look at during pdi.
Edit: there is some radius to the cap.

Curt is another slider Im looking at.

Reese on their site shows an auto slide but no info.

Do some research on the Andersen. Its not a GN in the typical sense. It does NOT put additional stresses on the trailer like your speaking of with a traditional GN

Its been one of the most popular/fastest growing hitch the last couple years.

Actually, the Andersen can damage your pin box, as I learned the hard way. Seems Andersen knows about it as they've built shims to prevent it but they play dumb, blame the pin box, and develop communication issues if you do have problems. I really wish I had gone with the B&W in the first place. Much better hitch, albeit a real pain in the back to move around.

Do tell more.

Some of the cheaper pinboxes are made with extremely thin metal where the set screws on the Andersen coupler make contact. Some have reported bending. Its a pretty small population of owners that have experienced this. Many have not. Ive used on two different pinboxes without any issue.

Regarding the weight of the BW.
I asked lots of questions here before buying my BW 3300 for my F350 with factory puck system. Sometimes you even get great responses that stay on task!!!!
Weight of hitch was important as I had spine fusion 2 years ago and my Curt 16k slider and adapter was about 250 pounds!!! Too heavy for me!

The Companion made for my truck comes out in 2 pieces and each weigh about 55-60 pounds. Really manageable IMO. My toyhauler loaded runs about 15-15.5 k but my hitch has a 20k rating.

Another thing to consider . When I did use the adapter with my Curt 16 k on a different fiver, I had more loose movement as there was now more points of contact. The BW grabs the pin and zero movement!

Wild Card wrote:

Searching_Ut wrote:

N-Trouble wrote:

sin cal hd wrote:
Been around the .net for sometime the weight police like to poke their noses in where they weren't asked. But, its all good.

Thanks guys. B&W's are heavy units to move around. I know some disassemble I see a lot of trucks with them and they are expensive. I do like their campanion slider with the factory puck turn and twist.

I do like auto slides. Not much of a fan of super glide do to the capture plate. Thats why Im leaning toward a demco.

Never heard of Anderson. The goose neck attachments I never understood why people use them. There seems to be a lot of torque from the fwd and back motion from stopping and accelerating.

I didnt look at the front cap if it has radius corners or not. Something to look at during pdi.
Edit: there is some radius to the cap.

Curt is another slider Im looking at.

Reese on their site shows an auto slide but no info.

Do some research on the Andersen. Its not a GN in the typical sense. It does NOT put additional stresses on the trailer like your speaking of with a traditional GN

Its been one of the most popular/fastest growing hitch the last couple years.

Actually, the Andersen can damage your pin box, as I learned the hard way. Seems Andersen knows about it as they've built shims to prevent it but they play dumb, blame the pin box, and develop communication issues if you do have problems. I really wish I had gone with the B&W in the first place. Much better hitch, albeit a real pain in the back to move around.

Do tell more.

Initial Hitch issue Post

Follow up posting

Again, the Pin Box was a Lippert 1621HD. Like all Lippert products, leaves a lot to be desired but it is one of the most used pin boxes on medium sized 5ers in the 16K GVWR group. I've seen several that had similar issues since I've started looking. Having only talked to one of the owners I saw with dimpled pin boxes only thing I saw we had in common was Weight, and lots steep mountain roads. Not the gentle gentle freeway sort of mountain, but hwy type with switchbacks

In the end, the failure has resulted in my upgrading to an Air Suspension pin box and much better hitch which should be a considerably better match to the higher road use I intend to start putting on the rig upon my retirement in a couple months.

Some hitches adjust from 13-17 in. while others adjust from 17-21 in. Have you determined what range of adjustment will best level your rig?

The "best" hitch is not the best hitch if your hitch doesn't have the proper range of adjustment to level your rig.

Also, depending on how low your king pin assembly sits in the bed (relative to the bed rails), it's possible to have the rear of the king pin assembly hit the tail-gate or bed rail when some sliders are activated.

Not sure how rounded the corners on your front cap is on the Wolfpack but my uncle has a B&W non slider companion that goes into the puck mount on his 2015 mega cab short bed. He tows a 2008 Montana and likes the hitch a lot.

Another buddy has the Anderson with his short bed GMC 2500 towing a Voltage. He likes his Anderson a lot.

I have the B&W companion that fits in where the gooseneck ball goes on a 2015 Ram dually longbed. I like this hitch a lot.

My buddies Anderson is definitely lighter and easier to take out of the bed then my companion, but the companion is easy to take out also by one person if you take the head off the base when removing which is pretty easy. I like the companion better because it looked a lot more heavy duty then the Anderson. It was going to be between the Anderson or companion as I did not want rails in my bed anymore.

I've had slider hitches in the past and don't miss having to get someone to help take it out or break out my engine hoist to get it out of the bed.

otrfun wrote:
Some hitches adjust from 13-17 in. while others adjust from 17-21 in. Have you determined what range of adjustment will best level your rig?

The "best" hitch is not the best hitch if your hitch doesn't have the proper range of adjustment to level your rig.

Also, depending on how low your king pin assembly sits in the bed (relative to the bed rails), it's possible to have the rear of the king pin assembly hit the tail-gate or bed rail when some sliders are activated.

Pulling my parents trailer, I've noticed i dont need much more clearance turning. Ive leveled the front of the truck lowering the rear slightly. I wont know the bedbrail clearance to the bunk house until we hook up. I like to have minimum a fist and a half clearance between the two.