Pulling A Fifth Wheel vs. Bumper Pull

fulltimedaniel wrote:

Goostoff wrote:
If a bumper hitch was more stable I would think the trucking industry would have adapted to it decades ago. I mean a 53 foot van trailer that is 13 feet tall has just got to be crazy unstable right?

The reason the 5th wheel was adapted is WEIGHT not stability. You cant put 30k on any bumper pull type system. ( this weight is in todays terms of course) As for space you get more space with a step down trailer such as a furniture van than with a flat floor higher trailer.

And if I am correct it predates the bumper pull system we have known for a very long time.

The problem I see is that some seem to feel a bit invincible with their 5th wheels because of mistaken notions like this. This only adds to the problems when the unexpected happens and they find out there are alot of things that can go wrong in a big hurry.

And a final word on stability a 5th wheel has a tremendous amount of weight much higher off the ground than the typical BP trlr. This raises the center of gravity and THAT is not good for stability.

Either type if loaded and balance and DRIVEN correctly are just fine. There is no hard evidence to say one is more or less stable than the other.