5th wheel bed saver

Bob Vaughn wrote:
I am contemplating purchasing a 5th wheel bed saver. Blue Ox is the only brand I can find. Surely there are other mfg. that make them or is the risk of not having one not that great.......

Some RV newbys think the only way a 5er gets dropped is by the owner making a mistake. There are and have been drops reported for different reasons just on RV.net alone.

I've been on this web for over 10 years. At first it was the Hijacker crowd that thought their hitch was drop proof.

Then the Husky crowd pounded their chest for a drop proof hitch.

Then the sliding bar type hitch head crowd said that design was drop proof.

Then it was the SuperGlide hitch crowd that had a drop proof hitch.

Some claim their wrap around jaw type can't be dropped.

Time and use has proven all was myth

Now its the B&W crowd on RV.net makes their brag its a drop proof hitch.... LOL

Others have claimed....... the list could go on and on but you get the idea.

No hitch brand/jaw type is drop proof.

Not even a SAF-Holland big rig hitch or a Binkley-Holland the pros use is drop proof as there are several reasons a trailer can land on a pickup trucks bed rails.

Only you can decide if you need a safety devise. We can't make that decision for you.

I use a Bedsaver because my new RV type hitch had a mechanical malfunction under warranty. That was years ago.
I also heard and saw a Bedsaver in action when some moron in a parking lot pulled the latch open on someones rig. As the rigs owner started forward the trailer side off the hitch plate and bam...the Bedsaver caught the pin. I was amazed as he backed up under the pin box and the hitch latch slammed home. That sold me.

Bob Vaughn wrote:
I am contemplating purchasing a 5th wheel bed saver. Blue Ox is the only brand I can find. Surely there are other mfg. that make them or is the risk of not having one not that great.......

There are 2 types of bed savers:

One is the Blue Ox Bed Saver. This is "always activated" and nothing needs to be done for it to be prepared to catch the king pin. It's also about 4x to 5x more expensive than the next option.

The other one is Butch's Latch Kit. This requires you to slide a pin across the base of the hitch head in order for it to be ready to catch a pin. You can't just leave it and you can't hitch/unhitch with it in place. But, it's like 1/4 or 1/5 of the price of the Blue Ox.

Two entirely different levels of protection. IMO, if you're going to invest in this- the Blue Ox is the only way to go.

fj12ryder wrote:

Bob Vaughn wrote:

goducks10 wrote:
B&W makes a nice one:)

I went to their web site and did not see anything....

That's a bit of an inside joke, as B&W owners consider their(our) hitches to be drop proof. And they are.

Except for the guy with a B&W who dropped his. It wasn't a fault of the hitch- he latched it in the *open* position when he last unhitched (per the unhitching instructions from B&W). But, all hitches are fallible because people are stupid. :D (This coming from a B&W owner and fanboy!)

All the same could be said for safety chains. When done properly they aren't needed. But for that .999995% chance they are needed. I have never seen a trailer come off a ball either, but it does happen! Well worth the money for safety!

If I went with a fifth wheel, I'd go with the Blue Ox bed saver. I have seen/heard too many incidents about someone flipping latches (especially here in Austin where vandalism is rampant.) That and using a good padlock.

After too many incidents where I live about tow hitches mysteriously coming undone, I always padlock my TT's latch. If it does come off the ball, both the safety chains and the spring bars will help mitigate any damage that does result.