New to Fifth Wheels

[hawk7371]

I just purchased my first fifth wheeler today and she's a beaut. We have had a bumper pull for a few years now. I have a question and would appreciate some help or feedback please.

I drive a Ford F-250 with air bags, purchased a Master Hitch Pro Series 16000 and an Open Range 427BHDS. I was told that the fifth wheelers tow smoother and with more control. I agree with the control but it sure seemed rougher that my bumper pull. When I hit a bump at average speed I thought the trailer was coming off the hitch several times. And then it seems to jerk back and forth a lot. Is this behavior normal or am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance for your help.

[ken_burke]

hawk7371 wrote:
I just purchased my first fifth wheeler today and she's a beaut. We have had a bumper pull for a few years now. I have a question and would appreciate some help or feedback please.

I drive a Ford F-250 with air bags, purchased a Master Hitch Pro Series 16000 and an Open Range 427BHDS. I was told that the fifth wheelers tow smoother and with more control. I agree with the control but it sure seemed rougher that my bumper pull. When I hit a bump at average speed I thought the trailer was coming off the hitch several times. And then it seems to jerk back and forth a lot. Is this behavior normal or am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance for your help.

I had real problems with my 5th wheel when I first bought it. The dealer was no help at all. The dealer said that the bucking was common. I fought the battle for a month, and found out that the Reese hitch was slightly defective. Reese found the problem, replaced the hitch, and now, all is fine.
Another place to look is at the trailer suspension. Mine had a Dexter eqaflex (equalizer joint) between the two springs. It was bound up and not working. Cedar Creek put in a new equalizer, and the towing was greatly improved.
You can not count on your trailer dealer to give you an honest deal. Their job is to sell you a trailer with a minimum of their support. You can get a tremendous amount of help on this forum.
ken

[ChuckV1]

Hawk 7371

The truck you have is way to light for the job,
I don't care what other say. The dealer should
have never let you drive off the lot with it,
I'm sure he/she didn't care about your life or
no other that you may have hit if you lost
control.

I don't care if you only drive two miles or
twenty the setup you have is unsafe,I don't care
how much insurance you may have or how good of
driver you are if you loose contol and hit
someone you will regret it the rest of your life.

These others who tell you that adding air bags,
put your weight in the back of your trailer and
other things are not the people that will have to
face the facts or pay thought the nose if you hit
someone if you loose control. They are not the
one who will have to look at your family laying
in a hospital if you loose control an run off the
road into a pole or ditch.

I have seen to many accidents in my over 30 years
and 2 million miles driving over the road when the
trailer was way to much for the Tow Vehicle(TV)

Please do not be one I see upside down or on your
side, enjoy your camping and be safe

[caberto]

As others have said, get your true weights, and with that knowledge you can adjust some things to be able to use your existing truck safely.

First off, I would make sure your tires are capable of supporting the actual Rear Axle weight you get from the scale, if they don't, replace the tires "now" with higher load range tires that will handle the weight with room to spare - that is probably the most important factor. Keep the rear tires aired up to max or very close to it to prevent flex.

Also, new shocks like Bilsteins should make a big difference in the front to back bouncing, and check your air bags for proper inflation.

Good luck.

[bpounds]

hawk7371 wrote:
I just purchased my first fifth wheeler today and she's a beaut. We have had a bumper pull for a few years now. I have a question and would appreciate some help or feedback please.

I drive a Ford F-250 with air bags, purchased a Master Hitch Pro Series 16000 and an Open Range 427BHDS. I was told that the fifth wheelers tow smoother and with more control. I agree with the control but it sure seemed rougher that my bumper pull. When I hit a bump at average speed I thought the trailer was coming off the hitch several times. And then it seems to jerk back and forth a lot. Is this behavior normal or am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance for your help.

I agree you could have used more truck or less trailer. But the sky is not falling, and you can make that combo work. First thing to do is get it on a scale and get all the axle weights recorded, with and without trailer hitched. I think you may be too light on the pin, and that's why you're getting all the rocking and bouncing. Those air bags will be great, but you've got to figure out the proper pressure. It's probably too high, not too low. Get some stuff loaded in the basement especially, to get the pin weight up a big. Water in the tank can either help, or hurt, depending on where the tank is. But don't panic, you can make this work and it can be safe and fun. Just don't let the WP around here put you in panic mode.

[AZ_T_T]

I know I'm getting to this late, but play around with the airbags. They took all of the porpusing out of my ride.

[lynndiwagon]

Interesting, I guess if the salesman asked for all of your truck specs then they are off the hook if you have a problem? If you have a wreck because of overload problems can you really blame the dealer? It's still the purchasers responsibility in the end.

[NJRVer]

nomad297 wrote:

laknox wrote:

lynndiwagon wrote:
I'm not defending salesmen, but I don't think it's their responsibility to advise purchasers on the merits of any particular tow vehicle. When I purchased mine they pulled it out into the parking lot with a fork lift and quickly left the scene. They didn't want to have anything to do with me hitching up, etc. I guess because of liabilities. It's the buyers responsibility to have the proper knowledge and equipment for their purchase. IMO

I would think that they'd be DAMN concerned about what a customer's towing with. I know that if someone hit my DW towing with an inadequate truck, I'd be finding out who the dealer was and what they knew. If they let that customer leave the lot with a severely overloaded TV, =they'd= be getting a court summons, too. Most especially if the RV owner was a newbie. That's just plain irresponsible, if not outright negligent, IMO.

Lyle

When I first started looking for a travel trailer, the first thing the very first salesman asked me for was all of my truck information. You know -- the weights and other information on the driver's door sticker, the rear end ratio engine type and size. He even wanted my VIN so he could check out everything for himself. He didn't yet care about what type of trailer I was looking for. He would worry about that after he checked out all of my truck specifications.

I guess it didn't hurt that the salesman is my cousin who owns one of the largest RV dealerships in Idaho.

Bruce

Same here. First place we ever looked was CW and they wanted all my truck specs and then they showed us what we were qualified to tow.

We ended up buying from another dealer 4 hrs away and a different brand. The whole deal was done over the internet and phone.
The salesman there too wanted all specs on truck and then told us the TT we wanted was ok.

[laknox]

nomad297 wrote:

laknox wrote:

lynndiwagon wrote:
I'm not defending salesmen, but I don't think it's their responsibility to advise purchasers on the merits of any particular tow vehicle. When I purchased mine they pulled it out into the parking lot with a fork lift and quickly left the scene. They didn't want to have anything to do with me hitching up, etc. I guess because of liabilities. It's the buyers responsibility to have the proper knowledge and equipment for their purchase. IMO

I would think that they'd be DAMN concerned about what a customer's towing with. I know that if someone hit my DW towing with an inadequate truck, I'd be finding out who the dealer was and what they knew. If they let that customer leave the lot with a severely overloaded TV, =they'd= be getting a court summons, too. Most especially if the RV owner was a newbie. That's just plain irresponsible, if not outright negligent, IMO.

Lyle

When I first started looking for a travel trailer, the first thing the very first salesman asked me for was all of my truck information. You know -- the weights and other information on the driver's door sticker, the rear end ratio engine type and size. He even wanted my VIN so he could check out everything for himself. He didn't yet care about what type of trailer I was looking for. He would worry about that after he checked out all of my truck specifications.

I guess it didn't hurt that the salesman is my cousin who owns one of the largest RV dealerships in Idaho.

Bruce

Smart man, with, probably, a good attorney. 🙂

Lyle

[hbillsmith]

I would do a 2-pass weigh at the CAT scales. Load everybody and everything for the trip and pullup to the scale for weigh #1. Truck front axle is positioned on the front "steer axle" scale, rear truck on the second "drive" axle scale, lastly the entire 5th wheel is on the third "trailer" scale. Go inside get your ticket number and ask for a re-weigh. Now drop your trailer on the lot where all the 18 wheelers are parked. Then drive the still fully loaded but trailer-less truck onto to the CAT for your re-weigh. With those two tickets you now have the numbers you need. For each ticket,add the steer axle weight to the drive axle weight to get total truck weight. The bigger one is the one where the trailer was connected.Subtract the smaller one and that is your Actual Pin Weight. Look at the truck door jam sticker to find the trucks GVWR (probably 10,000). So if its 10,000 then 10,000 minus the total truck weight with no trailer attached is the Available Pin Weight.

You need Actual to be less than Available. By the way Total ticket weight #1 minus Total ticket weight#2 is your Actual loaded trailer weight. That shouldn't be more than the 5ers GVWR.

[hawk7371]

stickdog wrote:
If this is a bone stock trailer and you were just bringing it home you are good on the weights, although the pin is on the light side. 2305Lbs or 18.36% Loading up you will increase this to over 20%
You have a F250 but which configuration other than 4x4 LB, CC, SB, diesel, gas?
The length of the trailer and distance to the trailer axles and the weight behind the axles can also have a bearing so just adding air may not help and may cause more bounce.
Your stuck with your present truck, and yes their are many hauling as much trailer with the same 250 series and despite the weight police do it safely.
For now I would load your normal camping gear adjust your air bags so your truck trailer are level and enjoy.

Thanks for the replies. I called Master Hitch and they knew exactly what FW I was getting so all is well. First then we decided to do is adjust the air bags. I know they were low. Second is that doesn't work to my satisfaction is to eliminate my slider and just put in a fixed hitch. I will never be in tight turns that requires a slider. And last we may go with a fifth airborne air ride. I haven't researched this yet so we will see how it goes. Master Hitch and you guys were very helpful, thank you.

[Golden_HVAC]

If it is riding rough, then the air bags might have a little to much pressure in them.

Also you might want to check your front and rear axle weights. If you are under on the rear axle, say the loaded weight is 5,000 pounds, adjusting the tire pressure to only 70 PSI will give it some additional softness, and absorb the bumps some.

Normally the front tires only have about 4,200 pounds on them, offering some better road handling if dropped to about 65 PSI.

Fred.

[stickdog]

If this is a bone stock trailer and you were just bringing it home you are good on the weights, although the pin is on the light side. 2305Lbs or 18.36% Loading up you will increase this to over 20%
You have a F250 but which configuration other than 4x4 LB, CC, SB, diesel, gas?
The length of the trailer and distance to the trailer axles and the weight behind the axles can also have a bearing so just adding air may not help and may cause more bounce.
Your stuck with your present truck, and yes their are many hauling as much trailer with the same 250 series and despite the weight police do it safely.
For now I would load your normal camping gear adjust your air bags so your truck trailer are level and enjoy.

[nomad297]

laknox wrote:

lynndiwagon wrote:
I'm not defending salesmen, but I don't think it's their responsibility to advise purchasers on the merits of any particular tow vehicle. When I purchased mine they pulled it out into the parking lot with a fork lift and quickly left the scene. They didn't want to have anything to do with me hitching up, etc. I guess because of liabilities. It's the buyers responsibility to have the proper knowledge and equipment for their purchase. IMO

I would think that they'd be DAMN concerned about what a customer's towing with. I know that if someone hit my DW towing with an inadequate truck, I'd be finding out who the dealer was and what they knew. If they let that customer leave the lot with a severely overloaded TV, =they'd= be getting a court summons, too. Most especially if the RV owner was a newbie. That's just plain irresponsible, if not outright negligent, IMO.

Lyle

When I first started looking for a travel trailer, the first thing the very first salesman asked me for was all of my truck information. You know -- the weights and other information on the driver's door sticker, the rear end ratio engine type and size. He even wanted my VIN so he could check out everything for himself. He didn't yet care about what type of trailer I was looking for. He would worry about that after he checked out all of my truck specifications.

I guess it didn't hurt that the salesman is my cousin who owns one of the largest RV dealerships in Idaho.

Bruce

[laknox]

lynndiwagon wrote:
I'm not defending salesmen, but I don't think it's their responsibility to advise purchasers on the merits of any particular tow vehicle. When I purchased mine they pulled it out into the parking lot with a fork lift and quickly left the scene. They didn't want to have anything to do with me hitching up, etc. I guess because of liabilities. It's the buyers responsibility to have the proper knowledge and equipment for their purchase. IMO

I would think that they'd be DAMN concerned about what a customer's towing with. I know that if someone hit my DW towing with an inadequate truck, I'd be finding out who the dealer was and what they knew. If they let that customer leave the lot with a severely overloaded TV, =they'd= be getting a court summons, too. Most especially if the RV owner was a newbie. That's just plain irresponsible, if not outright negligent, IMO.

Lyle