Crushed Rails

[WMJourney]

Camping World destroys everything they touch. I had installed a brand new Andersen Ultimate 5th Wheel Hitch in my truck and attached the red funnel coupler to the king pin. I dropped off the 3931 to have the hydraulic lines fixed and they said to leave the king pin adapter in place. The forklift driver decided to attempt to move it without removing the adapter and crushed the plastic funnel. Needless to say, I got a new adapter out of it (even though the old one had only been used once). Still shaking my head over that one.

[saber707]

Originally Posted by JABURKHOLDER

Unfortunately, for anyone towing a fifth wheel, this is not a matter of if, it’s when.

That is the gospel truth.....

[CaptnJohn]

Originally Posted by saber707

That is the gospel truth.....

Actually, it can happen to anyone. It is very unlikely to happen to anyone taking their time and concentrating on what they are doing.

[Bob and Jeannette]

Originally Posted by JABURKHOLDER

Unfortunately, for anyone towing a fifth wheel, this is not a matter of if, it’s when.

I bought and installed a Highway Products 5th wheel box for two reasons and catching my pin before it damages my truck is one of them.

[saber707]

Unfortunately, distraction is how it happens. It happens when one becomes distracted as in spouse hollers "come here quick" and you had not extended the jacks yet. When you return in a huff 20 min later, frustrated at whatever problem was bugging the spouse, you get in and pull away only to hear a very loud thud. That's just one scenario. I know that from experience.

[Traveltimers2]

Have super glide hitch on my 2016 short bed gmc denali. We always do double check when we hook up. wife checks all hookups and I double check. she then puts up front stabilizers about two inches. I use trailer brake and wheel chocks and do a pull test. we then know we are fully and very well hooked up. Never ever since we started do a pull test when we first went to 5th wheel have we had an issue. thing is, should it not hook up and lock in, when I pull the 5er can drop more than an inch and we would know immediately we wer not hooked up. Easy to do with each hookup. No problems with any of our 5th wheels in 10 years doing this.

[vipermanden]

Probably hitched up over a couple hundred times by now, and still do a push pull test with the jacks 2-3" off the ground every time!I also put arrows on my B&W 25k jaws, so I can see in the shadows that the arrows are touching, and make sure the flange of the king pin is below the jaws! I just had a buddy drop his Montana 5th wheel on his nice truck, because he hitched up too high, and was only holding onto the kingpin flange and the 5th wheel fell on his truck when he pulled away!

[Traveltimers2]

VIPERMANDAN - that's why without fail....push pull with jacks only slightly off ground so rig could not fall all the way onto truck bed rails. My wife is a fanatic about push pull. So, be it that we do it. LOL...cant fault her on this one.

[richfaa]

Bedsaver.

[Moondragon]

Brand new 2014 RAM 2500, landing gear collapsed just as the pin touched the hitch. Finally got it fixed this year, $1000 per side (looked just like the pic above). Great local body shop, was able to straighten them instead of replacing them. And the RAM quarters can be replaced without doing the whole bed.

[Margie]

Just happened to us about 10 days ago 😢😢😢 didn’t make sure jaws were locked! Lessons learned.

[firestation12]

Originally Posted by MaxwellD

I may be missing something here so help me understand. You hook up to your fiver, secure the latching jaws with safety pin, plug in your pigtail, close tailgate on truck and complete your walkaround. Jacks are up. Tug test with trailer brakes before leaving site. How does this happen with jaws on hitched closed and double checked?

I can tell you how...Start with a Pullrite slider hitch, secure it as you have explained, then at a fuel station stop, someone parks their minivan in front of the most convenient diesel pump and goes inside to eat, use bathroom, get a drink, ad finte nauseam, so you decide to do a 180 degree turn in the parking lot to use another pump. In the process of the turn, the emergency breakaway cable gets caught on something in the bed, pulls out the emergency breakaway pin and voila, the trailer brakes engage. As the turn is completed, the 40' trailer leverages the slider hitch and tears the jaws out of the hitch. What happens next you already know. Please don't ask how I know all of this. Today's diesel trucks develop so much torque, the resistance was barely noticeable and was mistaken for the drag of the slider hitch doing it's thing.

[Donjamin]

The distraction comes when your significant other or children want something done immediately inside the trailer or house. That’s my excuse. LOL

[TBW Ventures]

I cant find a bed saver for my Curt A20 Hitch with slider.

[Jester]

Someone got fired.

[Montana Man]

Short of a mechanical failure, with a B&W hitch, as long as the arm moves to the tow position and is pinned in place, it will not separate.

I have heard of vandals turning the quick disconnect levers on hitches with the factory fifth wheel quick release pucks. The trailer and hitch are connected but the hitch separates from the truck when you move forward. One good reason to lock the puck handles and the disconnect lever.

[goodellj]

Hooking up is a tedious process that must be done right to avoid disaster. My Reese hitch snaps shut when I hook up, but I still perform these redundant steps to make sure:
1. Pull test.
2. visual inspection. Are the jaws closed? Is the hitch plate in contact with the trailer and sitting evenly? On cloudy days I often use a flashlight to get a good look.
3. Safety pin: It won't go in unless the jaws are fully closed.

I have hooked and unhooked hundreds of times and I am paranoid that I am going to someday drop the trailer off the hitch and damage my truck. These redundant steps are unappreciated, tedious, and absolutely necessary. So far, so good.

However, I do have some scuff marks on the top of the tailgate!

[CADman_KS]

Originally Posted by firestation12

I can tell you how...Start with a Pullrite slider hitch, secure it as you have explained,... In the process of the turn, the emergency breakaway cable gets caught on something in the bed, pulls out the emergency breakaway pin and voila, the trailer brakes engage. As the turn is completed, the 40' trailer leverages the slider hitch and tears the jaws out of the hitch. ...

I've only had PullRite hitches with all of the 5ers that we've had, and I'm very intimate with how the jaws work on those hitches.

I would really like to understand how the jaws could have separated or bent or moved or ripped away. I can't see how the action of locking up the brakes would cause the jaws to fail. That could happen at anytime, even driving straight, and potentially make the jaws fail. That concerns me a little bit, still having a PullRite hitch.

On a side note, I never pulled my breakaway cable off, but it did get caught in the slider, and got mangled. There is an easy fix for this for anyone that has a PullRite slider. Shorten your breakaway cable so that it attaches to the head unit of the hitch, and when attached, doesn't have enough slack to touch the sliding mechanism. The trailer and the head unit turn at the same rate, so it will never get in anything as you're turning...

[twindman]

I have a pullrite slider also. I have twice caught the brake cable on something when turning. Each time the trailer STOPPED almost completely. The second time, I recognized it immediately and stopped, jumped out, and replaced the breakaway plug - all in about 30 seconds.

The first time I was doing a U turn on a lightly used 5 or 6 lane wide street/highway (4 lanes marked). I made it far enough so I blocked the center turn lane and the 2 drivable lanes. Some guy in a pickup gave an angry honk as he passed by!!!

[Renegade1LI]

Unfortunately I have had a hitch break where the emergency cable stayed with the trailer & did not activate the brakes. Now I attach the cable to the truck bed next to the electrical cord keeping slack to a minimum.