Towing 5th wheel

With the hitch in the towing position, if your hitch is say 2 inches ahead of the axle, you have less than 100 lbs of pin weight on the front axle, probably closer to 25 lbs. But, those are static numbers and moving to the maneuver position is not going to change how the rig feels under normal driving conditions.

However, having the pin weight 9-11 inches behind the axle may impact driving characteristics much more significantly in emergency and/or low traction conditions and this is the danger. Now if we only knew in advance how to avoid those situations.