Basic 5th wheel towing questions.
I have owned a Class A MH for the last 14 years and have been looking at small 5th wheels. I don't know much about them and have been noticing there are different hitches to tow with. Some trucks have...
Forum Discussion
The plate with king pin (looks like a semitractor hitch) is a 5th wheel hitch.
- A 5th wheel hitch should sit over the rear axle but particularly for short bed trucks, this can limit how sharp you can turn when backing up. Some have sliding mechanisms so that you can turn more sharply when backing into a site. (these may be manual or automatic).
Then you have gooseneck (think farm and industrial equipment). There is a ball mounted right at the floor of the bed. This has the advantage of not using up a big chunk of the bed space. The downside is it creates far more leverage on the trailer pin box, many of which are not designed to handle that leverage.
- There is an oddball brand where they raise the ball up on a frame, that looks like a normal 5th wheel hitch only with a ball instead of a plate...but once you have that, may as well do a standard 5th wheel hitch.
- If you look at industrial gooseneck trailers, they usually have huge steel beams connecting the hitch to the trailer to compensate for the leverage.
Most 5th wheels will tow just fine without any special add ons (assuming the truck is suited to the trailer). The big thing to keep in mind, a 5th wheel typically has 20-25% of the trailer weight sitting on the hitch, so you typically need a 3/4 ton or larger truck for all but the smallest 5th wheel trailers.
If you do get into a situation where there is chucking or ride issues, it's pretty easy to bolt on a different pin box but most of the time, it's not needed, so don't worry about getting it ahead of time.
- A 5th wheel hitch should sit over the rear axle but particularly for short bed trucks, this can limit how sharp you can turn when backing up. Some have sliding mechanisms so that you can turn more sharply when backing into a site. (these may be manual or automatic).
Then you have gooseneck (think farm and industrial equipment). There is a ball mounted right at the floor of the bed. This has the advantage of not using up a big chunk of the bed space. The downside is it creates far more leverage on the trailer pin box, many of which are not designed to handle that leverage.
- There is an oddball brand where they raise the ball up on a frame, that looks like a normal 5th wheel hitch only with a ball instead of a plate...but once you have that, may as well do a standard 5th wheel hitch.
- If you look at industrial gooseneck trailers, they usually have huge steel beams connecting the hitch to the trailer to compensate for the leverage.
Most 5th wheels will tow just fine without any special add ons (assuming the truck is suited to the trailer). The big thing to keep in mind, a 5th wheel typically has 20-25% of the trailer weight sitting on the hitch, so you typically need a 3/4 ton or larger truck for all but the smallest 5th wheel trailers.
If you do get into a situation where there is chucking or ride issues, it's pretty easy to bolt on a different pin box but most of the time, it's not needed, so don't worry about getting it ahead of time.
