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Originally Posted by Toterman2
mwturner. I am by no means an expert on this but I can put forth some of my thoughts and experiences having bought and installed about six fifth wheel hitches. First off, you did not state how large a fiver you are pulling but no matter what it is buy the biggest rated hitch your truck will handle. It only cost a few more dollars to go first class and not have to worry about upgrading down the road when you will want to up size. I recommend you purchase a double rocker type hitch, forward and backward as well as side to side. I started before the side to side hitches were even on the market and found it very difficult to unhitch if the truck and fiver were not on level ground. The new style hitches eliminates the need for this and will save a lot of foul language. There are a lot of different hitch Mfg out there and they all do a pretty respectful job of providing you with a very safe and usable product but some do shine a little better than others. I have settled on the newer Reese products for my last few hitches and find them to be very well engineered. I am sure you will hear from a lot of other folks about their experiences but I am just relating what I have found. There are some other thoughts about the hitch in the form of a cushioned ride. I am towing with a class 7 tractor and required a little more cushioning to preserve my fiver frame. I have chosen to go with an air ride pin box, this adds a pivoting action to the pin and is controlled with an air bag which can be inflated to different pressures for different amounts of smoothness. I like the results and would not go back to a straight pin box. There is also air ride hitches on the market which will in effect do the same thing. These hitches will cost a lot more than a standard hitch and a lot more than the air ride pin box. I might add that many people have towed many miles with the old style hitch and pin and have never had any problems.
I hope this gives you a start on your research and I am sure there will be many more posts on the topic but I wanted to get things going.
My statements represent my opinion and I am sure there will be many more.
Thanks David
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Thanks Dave,
Your the first to take the time to write back something that's understandable for a Newbee! I think we may try to start out with a 5er in the 30 to 35 foot range. We like to camp in the Texas State Parks and many of those just don't have allot of choices that fit larger rigs. We've looked at some in the 37, 39 and 40 ft ranges and those would be great when me and the Mrs. retire but I've got about 15 more years with the City of Houston PW&E and she could have retired last December from them. I started my career a little late. We've wonder also about the up and coming grandkid issue's that we'll hopefully be blessed with in the next few year's. We've got four kids , one young man in college (already talking about marriage after school) , one young man who's shipping out for the navy this August ( boy is he in for an eye opener), one junior in High School (couch potato) and a 14 year old ,
hormonal, teenage girl. So I'll bet that grandkids are in the not so distant future. That's why we've looked at those larger 5er's because of the bunkbed options and the extra space inside. Let's face it, on those "all day" rain-outs at the campgrounds it's either go outside away from everybody and sit under the awning or pinic bench covering or go inside and get caught up in the termoil of folks being cooped up for hours together.
Someone give us some idea's or stories about your RVing adventures with your newly married kids and their young children and what you've done to accomodate those folks.
God bless you Dave and keep you safe for your next RV adventure.