Which 5th Wheel Hitch?

My!! Just as I suspected when I originally posted this inquiry. I thank each and every one of you who replied to my post for sharing your opinions. My take on this is that whatever you have in the bed of your truck is PROBABLY the best hitch on the market. I suspect that when I ultimately buy a hitch (based largely on all of your input), it will be the very best available (whether it is in fact). I didn't mean to kick a hornets nest, but I have enjoyed the animated discussion it has generated. I'll repost after the fact, and share my thoughts then.

Thanks again!!!

bpounds wrote:

Dave H M wrote:
I had to read through this thread just knowing that the dirty word Reese would come up and generate a big smack down. :B

I am going to continue to run my Reese. I think it is practical and serves the purpose well.

Same here. Zero reason to change my hitch. And I have no love for B&W either. It is possibly the poorest, from an engineering design standpoint, of all the brands out there. I see very few of them around campgrounds out here in the west.

All these hitch wars are just silly. Some personalities seem to think they have found gods gift to fifth wheels and that anything different has to be dissed. And some times I think a lot of folks deep down just don't trust fifth wheel hitches (that pin looks sketchy, doesn't it?). Truth is that accidents of any kind, and especially hitch related accidents, are very rare and the fifth wheel hitch is a very reliable design in all of its flavors.

I agree with you.

Dave H M wrote:
I had to read through this thread just knowing that the dirty word Reese would come up and generate a big smack down. :B

I am going to continue to run my Reese. I think it is practical and serves the purpose well.

Same here. Zero reason to change my hitch. And I have no love for B&W either. It is possibly the poorest, from an engineering design standpoint, of all the brands out there. I see very few of them around campgrounds out here in the west.

All these hitch wars are just silly. Some personalities seem to think they have found gods gift to fifth wheels and that anything different has to be dissed. And some times I think a lot of folks deep down just don't trust fifth wheel hitches (that pin looks sketchy, doesn't it?). Truth is that accidents of any kind, and especially hitch related accidents, are very rare and the fifth wheel hitch is a very reliable design in all of its flavors.

ralphnjoann wrote:
I'll bet this guy's glad his hitch didn't have B&W's "Break-a-Way" safety feature:

Truck Accident

Not a rollover, but a jackknife. Apples and oranges...

Lyle

I had to read through this thread just knowing that the dirty word Reese would come up and generate a big smack down. :B

I am going to continue to run my Reese. I think it is practical and serves the purpose well.

We have moved from our B&W Companion slider to the Reese Goose Box, and really loving it! We now get our entire bed back when we're not towing.

The B&W Companion and the Andersen were my finalists. I went with the Andersen due to ease of moving and have been very happy with it.

Since it didn't tip over, the B&W hitch would have been hooked up just fine. Straight up and holding tight.

I'll bet this guy's glad his hitch didn't have B&W's "Break-a-Way" safety feature:

Truck Accident

WTP-GC wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:

WTP-GC wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:

The B&W hitch "failed" when the truck and 5th wheel rolled over. Kind of like your radiator fails when you hit that tree head-on.

I don't have the time or interest to go back and find the story, but I believe the truck stayed upright and the 5er rolled because the hitch head disconnected.

Partially correct: the trailer rolled, the truck started to roll but the hitch head disconnected and the truck came back upright.

If you're going to quote "facts" you really need to get them straight. Regardless of your own bias.

I had to read this a few different times and pick myself up off the floor in order to respond.

Your statement was dead wrong. The truck did not roll over. I simply corrected it to the best of my memory. Then you state that the truck did not roll over and accuse me of not having my "facts" straight due to my own bias?????????? You were wrong, I was right, you admitted it and accused me of being wrong all in the same breath :S

Dude, I have a B & W hitch. What bias am I presenting??????

Sorry, I mistook you for an earlier poster who talked about a B&W hitch failing. My apologies about referring to your bias, I was referring to the bias of the other poster, which has been pretty well shown in previous threads. I was totally in the wrong, and can only plead guilty, and blame myself.

I really did make an error when I stated that the truck and trailer rolled over. I was thinking one thing, but typed something else. The trailer rolled, the truck started to roll, but came back upright when the trailer disconnected. According to the people on the scene, the truck would have gone on over suffering severe damage if the hitch had not disconnected.

I don't know if the hitch is actually designed to separate, but it certainly is a feature that seems to work very well.

Quote: "If the truck had rolled over too, Mark and Doran could have easily been very badly injured or even killed. However, because the truck stayed upright, they walked away unscathed."

A quote from the wrecker driver: "As the wrecker driver noted, usually both the truck and the trailer roll over together because once the trailer starts to go over the hitch forces the truck over too."