Storing hitch on kingpin?

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skeeter_ca

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Having a problem finding a good place to store my hitch when it is not in the truck bed. It is a Curt A16. Can I latch it onto the kingpin of my 5th wheel and leave it hanging there? Does anyone do that? Would it damage anything over time?

skeeter
 
skeeter_ca said:
Having a problem finding a good place to store my hitch when it is not in the truck bed. It is a Curt A16. Can I latch it onto the kingpin of my 5th wheel and leave it hanging there? Does anyone do that? Would it damage anything over time?

skeeter
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I've seen that once I believe. It wouldn't hurt anything but I wouldn't want to do it. I'm always going back and forth under the front to get something out of the compartment and I know I would walk right into it. Then there's the issue of reinstalling it in the bed. You'd have to be dead nuts on in order to get it aligned with the bed rails.
 
I wasn't considering trying to reinstall it still attached to the kingpin. I imagine I would just get it close in the bed and disconnect it then line it up manually then back it back into the trailer to connect it. The head bump thing, with me that's a given.  :p

skeeter
 
How much does a 5th wheel hitch weigh on average? I realize there are different classes of hitches. I am thinking trying to pull the hitch off the king pin and the nose of the 5th while standing in the bed of the pickup and trying to open the jaws on a lose hitch. I would have to see someone test the waters before I stick my toe in.

I am thinking about getting a hitch hoist contraption to load and off load heavy items, such as, generators, 5th wheel hitch, blue boy, deer, etc. We are plan on boon-docking and will need the bed for 60 gallon water bladder. 
 
I do it. When I am ready to remove the hitch I lift the pins and back under hooking up as normal. I then slowly pull away leaving the hitch hanging on the pin. When I need the hitch I raise the nose of the trailer to ensure the hitch clears the box floor. I then back under and lower the trailer so the weight of the hitch is off the pin, release the latch and push the hitch ahead. I then pull the truck ahead, jockey the hitch into position and lower the pins. It is a bit time consuming but saves my tired back.
 
I have done it many times.

Works great if I am at a campsite for a week or so and want use of the truck bed.

When ready to put hitch back in truck found lining up is not much more difficult than lining up a ball hitch on a large heavy trailer.
 
I've never owned a 5th Wheel, but if I did I'd be curious about how the kingpin mount and the trailer structure it attaches to is engineered. Obviously it's designed to handle a sizable compression load. That's the normal use case. But you'd be putting it in tension for a prolonged period.
As I recall, most modern 5th wheel kingpins are out on a lever arm, not directly below the mounting point, so weight hanging from the kingpin would be exerting a torsion load on the mount opposite to that it is designed to carry.
Just askin'.
 
PopPop51 said:
I've never owned a 5th Wheel, but if I did I'd be curious about how the kingpin mount and the trailer structure it attaches to is engineered. Obviously it's designed to handle a sizable compression load. That's the normal use case. But you'd be putting it in tension for a prolonged period.
As I recall, most modern 5th wheel kingpins are out on a lever arm, not directly below the mounting point, so weight hanging from the kingpin would be exerting a torsion load on the mount opposite to that it is designed to carry.
Just askin'.
Click to expand...

My hitch weighs around 175#. I weigh about 200# give or take. I would not see any problem if I rigged up some type of support and I hung by the king pin. It's all welded heavy gage steel and not sheet metal. 
 
I would think that the front frame of a fiver would not only be designed for compressive load, but also a tension load. Think chucking while going down a concrete highway. I doubt that 200# hanging there would hurt a thing. If it weren't designed for a tension load,  why is the pin designed to not ride out of the hitch?
 
Having used the same hitch for three years before I traded my FW, I would not do it.  Not because of the weight but because of the construction of the Curt 16 hitch.  Curt 16 uses a bar instead of jaws.  I think the bar is not built for the hitch to be hung.  My 2 cents.
 
The Curt A16 hitch uses jaws not a bar. The hitch was originally the Q16 hitch but they renamed it for some stupid reason but kept it all the same design as the Q series. The E16 does use the sliding bar though.

I went ahead and hung it and seems to be working good there. and yes i already bumped my back into it. Ouch!

skeeter
 
I have done it with my Pullrite superslide and the picture frame. I also padlock the handle. Some people build a cart and lower it onto that and wheel it into a garage etc.
 
I swapped out my traditional 5th wheel hitch for the Pull-Rite Superlite hitch. It weighs all of 52 lbs. Takes a minute to pop it in and out of the truck. Could store it in the camper if I wanted to. Pop it out and store it under the camper when at camp if you want to. It's that light and and portable.
 
BobX2 said:
I swapped out my traditional 5th wheel hitch for the Pull-Rite Superlite hitch. It weighs all of 52 lbs. Takes a minute to pop it in and out of the truck. Could store it in the camper if I wanted to. Pop it out and store it under the camper when at camp if you want to. It's that light and and portable.
Click to expand...

Seriously thinking about the superlite, how is the towing and hooking process?
 
rickeoni said:
Seriously thinking about the superlite, how is the towing and hooking process?
Click to expand...

I would recommend you start your own post to get better exposure. Many people who may have an answer for you may not read this post because they're not interested in this title.
 
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