Fifth wheel hitches?

[Montana_2591]

We towed the trailer on Friday. The truck pulled like a dream and the hitch was silent. So far everything works great.

Michael

[Dave e Victoria]

Congratulations Michael. You're going to love it. Good luck in this new chapter to your life.

[sreigle]

My personal opinion is both the Husky and the Reese are fine hitches, as are several other brands. To me, once you decide whether you want 4-way pivot or 2-way, then the rest depends on who cuts you the best deal. Just my nickel. I've had Reese and RBW and a Lil Rocker (forgot who makes those) and was happy with all of them.

[Montana_2591]

Thanks Dave

[Random Line]

[quote]Originally posted by trukdoc

If you have a short bed absolutely do not settle for less than a sliding hitch.
True big trucks do not have side pivots. But there is a huge weight difference that pushes down on the fifthwheel plate and have positive lock air brakes to hold the trailer still while backing under it.
This is in great contrast to hooking up a 5er.
I have a sliding Reese 16K that side pivots and am very pleased with it. No noticeable towing unstability. And my TV is a SRW.
Rick
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Rick,

We have about the same rig hookup that you do.
We have a tough time getting the Reese 16k slider to extend or compress with the thing hooked up to the trailer. Seems like it is hard to get it unlocked to extend or retract. If we were to do this again we would get some other brand of sliding hitch.

[sreigle]

Jim, I used to have that same problem. Really struggled with it. A good friend sprayed it heavily with camco dri-lube slide lubricant, putting it heavily on the rails and down into the rails inside the slider. Now it works very easily, very smoothly. I was doubtful it would help but it made a huge difference. No longer do we get a hard bang when it finally breaks loose and slides against the stop.

[Random Line]

[quote]Originally posted by sreigle

Jim, I used to have that same problem. Really struggled with it. A good friend sprayed it heavily with camco dri-lube slide lubricant, putting it heavily on the rails and down into the rails inside the slider. Now it works very easily, very smoothly. I was doubtful it would help but it made a huge difference. No longer do we get a hard bang when it finally breaks loose and slides against the stop.
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Steve.

Will try to get it siliconed thoroughly before we get back on the road.
Also plan to try to look inside at that rail extension lock system.
Would really like to have this thing working easy.

[sreigle]

Jim, silicone lube didn't help for me. The only thing that helped was the slide dri-lube. If you don't have any of that you might try maybe a dry-drying graphite type lube or something similar. Maybe the silicone will work for you but it didn't. I also tried white grease, wheel bearing grease, and standard auto grease but none of them worked very well at all until using the dri-lube spray. That stuff's not cheap at around ten bucks per can but it sure did work for me.

[mhstevens]

Don't want to start anything, but I'd like some info from people that have used the air-ride type hitches. I've towed for about 10 years using an RBW Li'l Rocker with the straight bar and tilt head. So far, so good (except for that time I dropped the trailer on the truck bed in Myrtle Beach).

I'm looking at going to one of the air-bag hitches. Any preferences? Anything learned? At around $2000-$2500, I'd like to actually get some feedback before dropping that much. Getting a little tired of the "clunk" from the RBW, but I'm curious about "roll" of the airbags as you travel. Usually I have the RBW locked level and only unlock it to hitch up, seems to be less affected by the wind while you're heading down the highway.

Thanks--

[Bill and Ann]

I have a Reese 20K on a short bed and do not have any problems doing a 90 deg. when backing up. I also have a hitch tray and box behind the truck and don't have any problems. Personally I don't know why a sliding hitch is needed.