crushing bed rails

[jbeliera]

As a new 5er owner but with 25 years of driving big rig trucks, and 10 year experience pulling TTS. I never had trouble being careful with bed rails as most of you know that can be a problem with 5ers in some situations. I have such a situation at my mountain home in Boise Idaho. I drag my Keystone 5er 29RL up to about the 4500 foot elevation and the roads are dirt but wide enough to negotiate all the turns, but there are some that are pretty tight, Because of my truck driving experience, I have no problem bringing Mustang Sally up the mountain. Well to make this thread short let me say that when I back my 5er I have to back it down a pretty good slope to Mustang Sally's parking spot. I do have the luxury of backing it using the driver's side advantage for backing her into the spot. The bed rail situation comes into play when I start to cut the trailer into the spot. As my 2500HD GMC starts to turn it has to dip down to the side angle slope of this driveway and that causes one side of the truck to dip and thus causing the clearance of the opposite side of the truck bed rail to diminish. Because the 5er axles and wheels are in a different plain (level) the truck bed dips up to the one side of the 5ers nose. Having said all of that the bottom line is when the truck dips to one side or the other then the bed rail becomes an issue. Just be careful when backing or turning forward when the rear axle of your truck dips to either side. Your truck axle can only be at a certain angle before the bed rails become a problem. The wife watches my bed rails when I make this backing maneuver and I know about how much dip my truck bed can make before the nose of Mustang Sally gets dangerously close to my bed rails Go slow when in this scenario and have some one spot the bed rail distance to be sure you maintain a safe clearance. May be this a good time to tell you that I have an Anderson Ultimate hitch that works on a ball and socket system instead of the fifth wheel plate connection that many of you may have There is more lateral swivel with the ball system verses the fifth wheel hitch plate. I don't think the standard fifth wheel hitch has that much lateral movement as I do with the Anderson system but the ball system does tilt from side to side more

[packnrat]

sounds like a reason to do a cut and fill project.
and/or custon bed sides on the truck, adjust then to be six inches lower.

[gkainz]

Since you have the Andersen (as do I), if it were me, I would consider raising up the ball to the next higher setting before backing into your off-camber driveway if bed rail clearance was tight enough to be a concern. Unless your post was just a "heads up - precaution" kind of post?

[Wild_Card]

jbeliera wrote:
I am not sure in inches but as a first time 5er I was told by my experienced (5er camper himself) dealer that the clearance is more than adequate. He warned me about the bed rail scenario and I heeded his advice and was acutely aware of that possibility when it came up at my home parking scenario I think my clearance is between 10 to 12 inches. But I haven't measured it to be honest with you. All I know is that even if your clearance is adequate, there is always the chance that your truck bed will reach critical distance with an angle of bed dip no matter how much bed rail distance you have. My point is to make people aware that it is not just 5er cap corner distance to the back of the truck bed that we should be aware of but also the angle of dip that our tow vehicle makes as we turn,which now makes the bed rail an issue.

I am not buying that you can hit the bed rails with 10-12"

[Bob_Shaw]

There is or was a campground at the intersection of the Blue Ridge Parkway and I-77, that has a steep downslope in a section of their campground where my 5'er contacted the bed rails on my GMC 2500. And since the road was gravel, there wasn't an option to back-up. You've really got to be careful before yo get into that kind of situation.

[jbeliera]

As a first time 5er I am coming to find out some of the issues that you have to be mindful of when pulling a 5er. My 2015 2500 GMC, 6.0 Liter V8 and the 6.5foot bed is I believe adequate for pulling Mustang Sally's aluminum frame MT weight of 7975,and my shorter bed has a little advantage over a long bed with the bed rail scenario

[azrving]

It's a great point and everyone can make a better judgement/comparison of our own situation if you can post the actual clearance some time. Thanks

[Twomed]

Bobcat time... 🙂

[jbeliera]

TTs is the number travel trailers that I have owned pull trailers and Mustang Sally is the name we have given our Keystone Laredo 5er 29RL

[jbeliera]

I am not sure in inches but as a first time 5er I was told by my experienced (5er camper himself) dealer that the clearance is more than adequate. He warned me about the bed rail scenario and I heeded his advice and was acutely aware of that possibility when it came up at my home parking scenario I think my clearance is between 10 to 12 inches. But I haven't measured it to be honest with you. All I know is that even if your clearance is adequate, there is always the chance that your truck bed will reach critical distance with an angle of bed dip no matter how much bed rail distance you have. My point is to make people aware that it is not just 5er cap corner distance to the back of the truck bed that we should be aware of but also the angle of dip that our tow vehicle makes as we turn,which now makes the bed rail an issue.

[JIMNLIN]

Good points.
I've found this is a issue more so with my long bed trucks vs my short bed truck especially with the aft corners of the trucks bed rails.

What is TTS and Mustang Sally ??

[jbeliera]

I am sorry to hear that Todd. Even though most of us have no problems for may good trailering experiences, there always seems to be something unexpected cropping up. I think all of us at some point have those moments when we get caught in a bad situation and we have one of those OH **** moments.

[azrving]

How much clearance do you have?

[memtb]

Very good advice! We mostly boondock, and have about as much clearance as we can get. But, just this summer, made “contact”. Haven’t done that in over 20 years....it sucks! Wish I’d had the DW “spotting” for me!