1. The 5th Wheel Hitch The Perfect Connection
A 5th wheel hitch is mandatory if you own and tow a fifth wheel camper. There are two sides
to a fifth wheel hitch assembly. Normally, the male side of the hitch is attached to the 5th
wheel trailer and the female receiving side rests in the bed of a pickup truck. The systems that
are used for towing 5th wheel trailers are really just miniature versions of what you would find
in heavy duty truck/trailer applications. Not that a fifth wheel camper isn’t heavy, it is just not
nearly as heavy as the weight of a fully loaded commercial trailer.
There are a wide array of fifth wheel hitches and there are at least a dozen companies
manufacturing fifth wheel hitches. If you have been a part of the RV community for any length
of time, the names Reese, Curt, B&W, and PullRite are probably not unfamiliar to you. Like
almost everything else in the world, some of these products are manufactured here in the
United States, but many of them are built in China.
There are a couple of factors that influence the design of a 5th wheel hitch. Number one on
the list is the weight of the trailer. Weights of trailers vary by many thousands of pounds so
you have to be sure that you have both a pickup with adequate load capacity and a hitch that
has been specifically designed to meet or exceed the load of the trailer. When looking at
hitches, you must take into consideration not just the weight of the trailer, but the additional
weight of everything that will be carried in the trailer. Water in particular adds a tremendous
amount of weight to the load. If you have a 5th wheel toy hauler, you need to be especially
careful. Not only must you add in the weight of the ATVs or UTVs that you will be hauling,
most modern toy haulers have fueling stations that will be full of fuel when you take off. The
additional fuel adds a lot of weight that needs to be accounted for before you purchase a 5th
wheel hitch.
The length of your pickup bed is also an important issue. Short bed pickups are generally
easier to maneuver and park, but it presents a problem in terms of clearance when making
tight turns. Many pickup truck cabs have been ruined by colliding with the nose of a 5th wheel
camper when trying to make a tight turn when parking at an RV campground. Fortunately,
hitch manufacturers have designed hitches that will slide rearward during these maneuvers
preventing these catastrophic collisions. The most popular of these by far is the SuperGlide
Hitch by PullRite. It moves automatically and owners love these hitches.
Another issue with fifth wheel hitches is the fact that many of these hitches are permanently
mounted to the frame through the bed of the pickup truck. That’s a very secure system, but it
renders the pickup bed a lot less useful when it’s needed for hauling things other than the 5th
wheel trailer. One of the best alternatives is the turnover ball hitch system. With a turnover
ball system, the ball is in the bed of the pickup instead of being attached to the fifth wheel
trailer. A hole is drilled in the bed of the pickup to accommodate the ball assembly. When
setup for towing, the ball sits above the bed of the pickup. When not in use, the ball is turned
