Need advice on a 5th wheel hitch

[MN Blue Skies]

Another new learning curve.

We are in the middle of negotiating with a private seller on a used 2015 Keystone Cougar 303 RLS 5th wheel (35').  The seller has a B & W Companion Hitch - Model RVK 3400.  He is willing to sell us the top portion of the hitch.  As I understand it, the bottom portion of the hitch is of no use to us because he has a Chevy truck and we will be purchasing a Dodge Ram. 

(We plan on buying a 2500 or 3500 Dodge Ram for a tow vehicle and will check in with the weight gurus before we make a decision on the truck.)

We would appreciate any advice you have on 5th wheel hitches.  We have never owned or towed a 5th wheel before.  I hope I explained the situation correctly.  ???

Thanks.

 

[Rene T]

Max & Eric, take a look at the Anderson hitch. I don't have one yet because I'm a little concerned having a 6 1/2' bed. I'm sure someone with one will chime in soon.

 

[MN Blue Skies]

We will also have a 6.5' bed. 

 

[Rvtex]

The companion won't do any good with your bed. I have had the b&w on my last three trucks and wouldn't have anything else. I believe they make a slider. Your options are wide open at this point, but I would take a serious look at b&w

 

[RVRAC]

I have a Curt on my 3500 RAM for three year, 25,000 miles and no problems.

 

[LMTurner74]

We ordered our new Dodge 3500 just a few months ago. Make sure to get the Turbo Diesel, Ansin and the 4.10 axle. You'll never need another truck. We also added the Auto level rear air suspension. We ordered it with the 5th wheel prep and the 25,000 lb. Direct-Mount 5th-Wheel Hitch by Mopar. We love it.

 

[Boonieman]

I have a B&W 30,000 Companion hitch. The bottom portion bolts to the truck frame, so different trucks require different bases to match the frame configuration. I believe the new Dodges can come equipped with a factory configured system similar to the Ford puck system. I had a Reese Elite 25,000 hitch on my 2015 Ford, and that was super nice. My suggestion would be to wait til you get the truck. It might already have that system and you would have to remove that, and then buy one to match the B&W you're thinking of buying and in the long run you might not save any money.  And I believe B&W and other good hitches make them to drop right into the Dodge and Ford systems. It's a real sweet setup.

Boonieman

 

[MN Blue Skies]

My suggestion would be to wait til you get the truck. It might already have that system and you would have to remove that, and then buy one to match the B&W you're thinking of buying and in the long run you might not save any money.  And I believe B&W and other good hitches make them to drop right into the Dodge and Ford systems. It's a real sweet setup.

Boonieman

Good advice.  We will definitely wait until we find the right truck.  In the meantime we trying to educate ourselves and research 5th wheel hitches.  Until this afternoon we didn't realize there are automatic 5th wheel hitches.  Yes they are more expensive but since we had an "oops" incident with our TT's Equalizer hitch we are think an automatic 5th wheel hitch might be nice.  Right now we are researching Demco.

 

[Joezeppy]

Max & Eric, take a look at the Anderson hitch. I don't have one yet because I'm a little concerned having a 6 1/2' bed. I'm sure someone with one will chime in soon.

Another vote here to check out the Anderson. I love mine. It's the only 5th wheel hitch I've ever had so I can't make any direct comparisons to traditional hitches but the ride is as smooth as can be. I have seen videos of 90* turns in 6-1/2' bed trucks but I do have the 8' bed so I can't give any actual advice there.

 

[VallAndMo]

Howdy,

Another vote here to check out the Anderson.

+1. Like ReneT, we don't have one yet (we're still on the planning phase), but in addition to the folks here who have one and love it (like JoeZeppy), our research has shown solid evidence online (in the form of reviews, ratings and etc) that it's a great product, and our current plan is to get one for our truck from day one.

Cheers,
--
  Vall & Mo.

 

[barr0208]

I just got mine will be installing it shortly did my home work ,you cant go wrong with a hitch that frees up payload capacity mine is the rail mount only weighs 37 lbs or get a slider like I have now curt q16  273 lbs that's totally up to you.

 

[Boonieman]

I live in a small town, so I didn't have a lot of options to getting a hitch installed and they offered the B&W hitch, which I mostly heard good about. The hitch goes down into the gooseneck ball socket. One thing I have noticed on some roads, like on I-90 between Albert Lea, MN heading west toward Sioux Falls, SD I do experience some "bucking" feel that I never felt when I pulled the same trailer with the 4-point mounting system of the F-350 I had. That system was rock solid. Only my personal observation, I'm not been an RV'er long enough to recommend one hitch brand or system over another.

Boonieman

 

[grashley]

FW hitches come in three basic "flavors" and two connection systems.

Some hitches attach to the gooseneck ball or to the gooseneck connector.  These include the Andersen Ultimate and the B&W Companion.
Most hitches attach to a pair of rails installed in the truck bed.  While the rail connections to the truck are often model specific, the connection to the rails by the hitch are fairly universal.

Hitches come as the Pyramid style with a ball on top like the Andersen or the new hitch from Pull Rite.  Andersen has the ball on the pyramid; Pull Rite puts the ball on the FW.

The traditional FW hitch comes in many forms from basic to fully cushioned units.  They come in several weight ratings from several manufacturers.  All except the B&W Companion are rail mount hitches.

A third breed is the slider hitch.  They look like traditional hitches and are rail mount, but the hitch point can be moved back to allow more cab clearance when turning.  Many are manual, so you stop the truck, unlock the slide, pull forward, relock the slide, then back up.  Others like the Pull Rite are automatic, and slide the pin back on all turns. Many folks with 6.5 ft beds have these and never have used them.  Others consider them life savers.

There is also a side winder pin box which serves a similar automatic function and attaches to a traditional hitch.

Good Luck on your search!

 

[TwoTiredTeachers]

We have the SuperGlide hitch.  It's more expensive, but it's mistake proof.  For more information, see our video at (link in profile).

 

[TwoTiredTeachers]

This hitch has been a lifesaver for us.  It's basically fool proof  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5fJvo3Ama8

 

[MN Blue Skies]

The negotiations fell apart on the 2015 Keystone Cougar.  (The bedroom slide only worked about 30% of the time and the seller didn't want to fix it so it was a deal breaker.)

In the meantime we have started shopping for a decent one ton RAM.  We also talked to the people who installed the hitch on our TT.  They recommended an automatic slide and we like that idea.  They said the SuperGlide is good but a Demco is also good and less expensive.  So we are continuing to learn and shop for trucks, 5th wheels, and hitches.