5th wheel hitches for Ram with prep group

Hannibal wrote:
I can't imagine needing a winch to get my hitch in and out of my truck. One of the reasons I prefer the Reese. We occasionally take the hitch out to use the truck bed for other purposes while we're out on vacation.

Why not. The Harbor Freight hoist cost 85 bucks or something like that. Garage has 9' ceiling, so I can use the load the yard waste container which my DW tends to load heavy also.

Works well for me! Chris

I can't imagine needing a winch to get my hitch in and out of my truck. One of the reasons I prefer the Reese. We occasionally take the hitch out to use the truck bed for other purposes while we're out on vacation.

dup post

Just for the record, the brackets on the frame from the pucks are installed on all RAM 2500/3500 trucks. These are two plates factory welded to the frame for each puck. I installed and drilled the four holes myself, including the in bed wiring in about 4 hours. Each puck is held in place by two high grade bolts, You lift each side on the bed a few inches, drop in the puck and secure with the two bolts. This is a VERY robust system. I used the Demco 6099 picture frame that is rated to 25K and the B&W RVK3270 manual slider. The Demco 6099 has a much better locking system vs the Reese picture frame. And you can unlock and remove the hitch as a complete unit if you want.



This picture was taken before the latches were bolted in place. 270 lbs in and out with one thumb. Chris

mtofell1 wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:

A receiver hitch is NOT a 5th wheel hitch, very clever wording on their part.

I followed the link and read this earlier and thought, "No way, they couldn't be that deceptive." Wow, is all I can say if the 5th hitches are actually made out of the country. It's amazing the lengths companies will go to these days to deceive and mislead consumers.

It really is sad!

I first noticed looking at a friends Curt hitch about 3 years ago it said Made In China right on it. The Curt/RAM I posted a pic of is less money than the B&W but I think anyone can see why.

The scary part of the Curt to me is the 4 bolts that attach the head to the base. I am not sure if they are even grade 8. I don't know what a Chinese made equivalent grade bolt should look like.

I would bet the reason the Ford puck B&W is lower rated because of the puck spacing, the head is the same as on the RAM application. Personally I would tow my 23K MobileSuites with the Ford puck B&W before any other "HIGHER RATED" Ford puck hitches. B&W is VERY conservative with their ratings, per B&W.

When B&W first introduced their Companion 3600 hitch for the Ram prep kit, I called the company and asked them why they rated the hitch so much higher, some 4,000 to 8,000 lbs higher, model dependent, than some of their other hitches, including the puck mounted B&W hitch for the Ford prep kit.

Their answer was not necessarily because of the wider base of the Ram in the fore and aft direction. Their answer was because they build the Ram 3600 model with high strength steel, a different grade of steel than they build their other hitch platforms with.

So there's yet another reason to go with B&W if you already have the Ram prep kit... and I'm not a B&W fan per say. And, I drive a Ford, and own mostly Reese products. But looking over the fence, the grass IS greener with that Ram hitch prep and B&W high strength, high rated hitch set up. If I had a Ram, that would be the direction I'd go.

davidaf wrote:
The Mopar branded one (rebranded Reese I believe).

The Mopar built in 5th wheel prep is NOT a "rebranded Reese".

The Ford 5th wheel hitches are the ones that are rebranded Reese, and the Reese puck mounted 5th wheel hitches from their Elite Series, and older Signature Series (with a puck cam conversion kit that has longer cams) will all click right into the Ford factory prep package. These Reese hitches, however, will NOT click into the Ram/Dodge/Mopar prep kit.

The Ram design has an advantage over the Ford and Reese design, with a wider foundation fore and aft where the hitch load is transferred to the frame. Every time the rig is stopped, and every time the rig takes off from a stop, the load is transferred forward or aft, as the case may be.

The pucks in the Reese design that Ford uses are only 13" apart on center in the fore and aft direction. That's it. By contrast, industry standard above the bed rails are 22" apart on center in the fore and aft direction. The Ram pucks top them all, and are about 30" apart on center in the fore and aft direction.

Below is the Ram factory 5th wheel prep, with more fifth wheel foundational footprint fore and aft than any other type of underbed puck style hitching system available in a pickup:




And for comparison's sake, below is the Reese design, as seen in this OEM installation of the Ford factory 5th wheel hitch prep kit:



Which foundation would you rather have under your 5th wheel hitch?

(The small picture is not intended to make the Ford prep kit appear smaller. The original photo was H-U-G-E and distorted the forum format in violation of forum policy. I was unable to link to the "just right" size of this photo, and I spent time trying to find another, but was not successful. There really is a big difference between 13" and 30", and no photo trickery is needed to illustrate it)


This sort of reminds me of those photos comparing connecting rods 20 years ago. Remember those? Just like the connecting rods size difference doesn't really have a direct bearing (ha ha, puns are on a roll tonight) on the performance of a V8 vs an I6, it must be said that the observed appreciable difference in distance fore and aft between the Ford/Reese prep kit vs the Ram prep kit should not be construed as any condemnation of the rated capacities of the Ford / Reese kit. They have performed well, even on their narrow 13" base.

LOL
with the Curt ad, that's how I took it also. Just like a drug ad on television

We just had some Chinese food for dinner tonight. Dang the cookies were made in Seattle and just to top it off the message was in English :W The nerve of them telling me .... you get the point:B

Cummins12V98 wrote:

A receiver hitch is NOT a 5th wheel hitch, very clever wording on their part.

I followed the link and read this earlier and thought, "No way, they couldn't be that deceptive." Wow, is all I can say if the 5th hitches are actually made out of the country. It's amazing the lengths companies will go to these days to deceive and mislead consumers.