Who tows FW with a lifted truck

4" lift is about max I would go with pulling a 5er. 6" is pushing it

check out our toy hauler forum as some of those guys use lifted trucks.
You may already know but some suspension lifts for a working truck are for big tires and for show and aren't up to the task you need for carrying heavy loads. Do your home work .

last pickup I used to pull my 5th wheel was lightly lifted (3"); it didn't really matter

The hdt I use to pull my current 5er and the last one is quite a bit taller then a regular pickup; between not having side walls on the bed and lowering the 5th wheel hitch within the bed of the hdt I was able to make a pile of room.

I also had a jeep xj with 9.5" of lift on tracks which I used to pull a 5500lb fish house around on ski's. Between the lift and the suspension articulation it was pretty fluid. Ended up doing another build and extended the wheelbase to cut down on the lift need, worked out hyper well.


6" of lift will get you very close between the 5th wheel overhang and the pickup bed rails; you'd want to keep that in mind depending upon the 5er you end up with

Don't forget that, if your FW is already 13'4", you'd be over-height and run risks of taking the roof off at worst or knocking stuff off, at best. Not to mention the possibility of getting a ticket for unpermitted over-height. Just sayin'...

Lyle

I don't tow with lift kit but have read on here for years not to tow with lift kits. not tow friendly .

I have seen it done with spring over axle conversion and lift blocks, aside from the problems mentioned it will be downright scary in a cross wind. If you really need a lifted truck, best to stick with a tt.

Lifted trucks are, generally speaking, not friendly with 5th wheels. The two areas that you will negatively affect are:

1. Insufficient fifth wheel front overhang to truck bed rail clearance. I've been towing 5th wheels since 1996, and the rule of thumb I've gone by is 6" minimum clearance with 8" preferred.

2. Inability for the 5th wheel to be level front-to-rear when hitched to the truck. Aside from potential problems with unequal axle loading and unhappy absorption refrigerators, this can lead to chucking, surging and other undesirable towing manners.

You could lift the 5th wheel with a 6" subframe between the suspension and frame, but then you'd have to deal with the higher center of gravity and the 6" greater distance between the bottom step and ground level, in addition to potential vertical clearance problems due to the additional 6" added to the height.

Rusty