New 295RL

[GaryS57]

Hello All,

I am new to a fifth wheel, trading up from a bumper pull toyhauler to the GD 295 RL. And I am trying to figure out what I need as far as a hitch for this RV. I have a Chev 2500 Gas with a 6.5 bed. At first I ordered the Curt A16 non slide to have it installed. But today I did a orientation at the dealer for this RV and he tells me not to pull this with a short bed without the slider. So I called up my hitch installer and advised them to order me a PullRite slider but I think I just read some thread that says you can't even use a slider with the Lippert 90 degree turn pin.

So I'm looking for responses from 295RL owners with some "real world" advice on what your using for a hitch and what I need to order (my hitch guy is going to go crazy if I have to call him back and say "nope - I can't use a slider for this RV". It sounds to me like I should have stuck with the non slide Curt A16 and there is some "wedge" that you use???

Just getting confused with the whole process.

Thanks.

[Mr. Goodwrench]

Hello All,

I am new to a fifth wheel, trading up from a bumper pull toyhauler to the GD 295 RL. And I am trying to figure out what I need as far as a hitch for this RV. I have a Chev 2500 Gas with a 6.5 bed. At first I ordered the Curt A16 non slide to have it installed. But today I did a orientation at the dealer for this RV and he tells me not to pull this with a short bed without the slider. So I called up my hitch installer and advised them to order me a PullRite slider but I think I just read some thread that says you can't even use a slider with the Lippert 90 degree turn pin.

So I'm looking for responses from 295RL owners with some "real world" advice on what your using for a hitch and what I need to order (my hitch guy is going to go crazy if I have to call him back and say "nope - I can't use a slider for this RV". It sounds to me like I should have stuck with the non slide Curt A16 and there is some "wedge" that you use???

Just getting confused with the whole process.

Thanks.

Hi Gary, welcome to the forum. I'll try and explain our situation as we also have a new 295RL. I pull it with a '05 Ford F250 which has the 7' bed. I have a B&W Patriot convential hitch and installed it with the pin jaws in the rearward location. Before towing the new 295RL, I had a 29RS with the conventional pin box. My truck pulled it fine and I always had clearance but I watched carefully if making a sharp turn. When we got the 295RL, the Turning Point pin box was one of the sellling points for my peace of mind. Before purchase, I found that there are different wedges made for the different brands of hitches. I had the dealer supply the one made for the B&W hitch. There is a difference in wedges and I can see where the one made for the B&W is a much better fit then the universal one supplied with the Turning Point pin box. Allthough the present Covid situation has kept us from using our new trailer, I did use the turning point feature with the B&W wedge to tow the trailer home. I did some turn tests at my place and feel confident that the turning point hitch will work better for my truck/trailer combo. Good luck and keep asking questions on this forum. Lots of good people here and a ton of experience.

[Saxles]

Hi Gary, welcome to the forum. I'll try and explain our situation as we also have a new 295RL. I pull it with a '05 Ford F250 which has the 7' bed. I have a B&W Patriot convential hitch and installed it with the pin jaws in the rearward location. Before towing the new 295RL, I had a 29RS with the conventional pin box. My truck pulled it fine and I always had clearance but I watched carefully if making a sharp turn. When we got the 295RL, the Turning Point pin box was one of the sellling points for my peace of mind. Before purchase, I found that there are different wedges made for the different brands of hitches. I had the dealer supply the one made for the B&W hitch. There is a difference in wedges and I can see where the one made for the B&W is a much better fit then the universal one supplied with the Turning Point pin box. Allthough the present Covid situation has kept us from using our new trailer, I did use the turning point feature with the B&W wedge to tow the trailer home. I did some turn tests at my place and feel confident that the turning point hitch will work better for my truck/trailer combo. Good luck and keep asking questions on this forum. Lots of good people here and a ton of experience.

Hi Gary, I have exactly the same setup as you. I use the B & W Patriot also and I agree with John; get the wedge intended for use with B & W. It is a much more robust wedge. I like this setup and have had no problems.

[GaryS57]

Thanks for the responses - so you are saying the B&W Patriot (non-slide) will work? My hitch dealer won’t be happy but that would save me a ton of money. Once I get the hitch ordered I will get the RV dealer to get the correct wedge.
Again - thanks.

[Mr. Goodwrench]

Thanks for the responses - so you are saying the B&W Patriot (non-slide) will work? My hitch dealer won’t be happy but that would save me a ton of money. Once I get the hitch ordered I will get the RV dealer to get the correct wedge.
Again - thanks.

Hi Gary, probably any non slider hitch should work. I chose the Patriot because of it's versitility of adjustment and because of it's reputation. It is very well made and can be adjusted to different heights and forward/backward positions. The different wedges are from Reese not B&W. Look on the Reese website and you will find pictures of the different wedges. Note that their brand of pin box is the Sidewinder (Turning Point is made by Lippert). Also, somewhere out there is a chart that actually lists all of the wedge part numbers for the different brands of hitches. If you go with the B&W Patriot, the part number of the wedge you want is SWW-06. They are available on Amazon for about $50 but I had my dealer buy and install mine at day of pickup. Sounds confusing but it's not really. Good luck.

[GaryS57]

Thanks for that - I will give the Patriot a try - sounds like just what I want. Happy trails!

[Mr. Goodwrench]

If you want a little bit more info, do a search on this forum for Turning Point Wedge Blocks Update Information. This should take you to the first post posted 10-18-2019. In the first post is a picture of the wedge and how it is mounted and also the chart that I referenced in my previous post. Good luck again.

[GaryS57]

I can't thank you enough - be safe.

[MarkRizRV]

I can't thank you enough - be safe.

Gary,
One more thing, if you are using the wedge, have the rv dealer unlock your pin box so it swivels, if they don’t something will break, and it won’t be pretty. We have then using the turning point hitch for 3 years and it works great.
Mark

[GaryS57]

That is a good point, thanks for that. I will ensure that the dealer explains all this to me at setup.

At some point I will start another thread on how you "gas" fifth wheeler s deal with the limited number of gas stations to get in. I was a toy hauler guy before this and it was a challenge but with this rig I'm thinking I haven't seen nothing yet.

Thanks.