A tornato barrel rolled my camper thursday evening and I am in the market for a new camper. I found an 05 26foot 5th wheel that I am interested in but I have a question about the hitch. My father has a newer sliding 5th wheel hitch he took out of his super duty that I can get from him, but my question is, will it be tall enough for the deep bed on the newer f-150?

 

You should be able to adjust the height of the hitch to fit your truck and trailer combo.

 

Thats good to know, I just havent really looked at the hitch to see how it adjusts.

 

I highly recommend not towing a 5th wheel with a half ton.

 

The 5th wheel he is talking about is only a 26 footer. Why not?

 

How much pin weight do you think a 26' fifth wheel has and how much payload does a half ton have?

 

My 28 footer weighs in at 11k ready to camp but not knowing the exact model he has we are just guessing.

 

It will have from 1200 to 2500 pounds on the pin, plus another 200 for a hitch and then you still need at least a driver. Not half ton territory.

 

The two trailers I was looking at are both sold now. But both of them had a pin weight between 1000 and 1100# so that was not a big fear and both of them were in the 6000# weight class so that didn't scare me. All I was worried about was getting the hitch high enough to clear the bed.
My biggest thing now is waiting on the crazy insurance company to tell me what they are going to give me for my trailer that was totaled.

 

1000-1100 dry pin weight means nothing. Neither does 6000 dry weight. It will weigh 1000 pounds more total and pin weight will be at least a couple hundred more.

5ers have large basement storage. Will it be empty? Axles are placed pretty far back, so anything you put in front of the axle (which is most storage inside and out) contributes to more pin weight. From experiences I have read @ RV.net, 1000-1500 pounds is quite common between trailer options (many of which are mandatory, but not included in dry weights), and stuff need to live with, clothes, dishes, food, campfire chairs, grill, etc.

Stick to bumper pull of similar weight or less and you're truck will be happier. THey have less % of tongue weight than 5er pin weight.

 

Heck my old camper was around 7000 loaded and I don't forsee 1000 to 1500 pin weight being that big of a deal.

I know there is big differences on here about towing a 5er with a half ton but I am not seeing the real problem with it on the smaller trailers. And when I say smaller I am talking 26' and under.

Again I am not going to make this into a big peeing match and tell you how much I have towed with the truck just was interested in the hitch working in my truck.

 

It is a big deal because you are lucky to ave 1500 pounds of payload which gets eaten up by a 200 pounds hitch, yourself, and spouse, and then the RV.

Bumper bull is 10-15% tongue weight. 5th wheel is 15-25%. Take 7000 pounds loaded, 25% on the truck is 1750 pounds, plus you have the 200 pounds of the hitch in the bed and yourself.

 

He is being generous with the numbers. Most 5th wheel hitches are over 200#'s for just the hitch. Add the rails, brackets and hardware are most are in excess of 250#'s. To be well balanced you need a minimum of 20% tongue weight. Most tow between 20-30% of trailer weight on the pin.
Your load on a 7000# trailer could be as high a 2350#'s. Sorry, but that is deep into 1 ton territory. Best case it is 1650#'s at 20% tongue plus the hitch.

This puts you on a new 2010 F150 WITH the Max Tow Package, very close to capacity or over capacity without passengers or gear.
http://www.fordvehicles.com/trucks/f...tions/payload/

That's why it's a big deal.

I'm not saying you can't do it or it can't be done. It gets done. People do it.
Just think liability lawsuit if something bad happened and hope you don't kill anyone.