Thinking fiver down the road, may as well ask the first question-slider hitches

[Back2PA]

As it happened, in the little RV park I'm staying for another couple of months the owner was out of the office all day and asked if I would help park a large fifth wheel, the owner of which would be alone and so could use some parking help in fairly cramped quarters. Since I'm pondering eliminating a drivetrain and gaining a little more room, I thought it would be interesting to help him park.

Aaaand 30 minutes after arrival we had him situated, phew!. I gather a fairly new trailer tower (is that a word?); did have another fifth wheel owner as second spotter which was helpful. Sure not like parking a motorhome! Woulda been one and done, leveled, hooked and cool drink in half the time. But I digress.

Question number one from fiver neophyte: when the fellow arrived he told me he had a slider hitch (which I'd heard of but hadn't seen in action) and that with said hitch he could jackknife 90 degrees. Sounds good I think to myself. But when he tried it the hitch scraped the top of his bed sides. I'm curious why this would be. Is there a large variation in bed depth? Wouldn't the hitch manufacturer anticipate wanting to use the jackknife capability and increase the height an inch?

As a result, this fellow could only manage what I'm guessing was a 30-45 degree angle which severely limited his ability to maneuver into a tight spot.

 

[longhaul1]

Question number one from fiver neophyte: when the fellow arrived he told me he had a slider hitch (which I'd heard of but hadn't seen in action) and that with said hitch he could jackknife 90 degrees. Sounds good I think to myself. But when he tried it the hitch scraped the top of his bed sides. I'm curious why this would be. Is there a large variation in bed depth? Wouldn't the hitch manufacturer anticipate wanting to use the jackknife capability and increase the height an inch?

As a result, this fellow could only manage what I'm guessing was a 30-45 degree angle which severely limited his ability to maneuver into a tight spot.

Several things can cause the back of the pin box to scrape the top of the bed sides.
You mentioned one.
Another is extended pin box to long...
.....or back of pin box is squared off instead of cut off at a angle.
Hitch needed to be adjusted higher.

One size don't fit all so depending on equipment one fix may not work on another.

 

[Back2PA]

Several things can cause the back of the pin box to scrape the top of the bed sides.
You mentioned one.
Another is extended pin box to long...
.....or back of pin box is squared off instead of cut off at a angle.
Hitch needed to be adjusted higher.

One size don't fit all so depending on equipment one fix may not work on another.

So does the hitch have to be adjusted for the truck or the trailer? In other words can you get a truck and put in a properly adjusted hitch and know that you can now tow anything without clearance issues?

 

[steveblonde]

You need a min of 6 inches clearance between the box rails of the truck and the underside of the 5th wheel over hang

The hieght of the hitch can be adjusted as can the trailer pin box

In this case my guess is the the hitch was too low and the pin box on the trailer didnt have the clearance nor did the overhang

 

[Back2PA]

So if one already had a truck and hitch, and went to pickup a fiver sight unseen, these types of adjustments can be done on the spot?

 

[cpaulsen]

Yes they can.