Level 5th wheel when towing?

[Tkgolden89]

WOW - I haven't run across that - thank you. That's interesting and just a little concerning. We are new to the fifth wheel towing experience...good to be aware of this. I sort of struggle with the idea that (from this pic at least) there's 9" of clearance when level, but again reference 5th wheel newbie status so there's that, lol.

[Radcolt]

WOW - I haven't run across that - thank you. That's interesting and just a little concerning. We are new to the fifth wheel towing experience...good to be aware of this. I sort of struggle with the idea that (from this pic at least) there's 9" of clearance when level, but again reference 5th wheel newbie status so there's that, lol.

He was boondock camping in Utah and that was a picture from driving down the access road. This is not typical of camping at your local, state, national park or private campsites. But it is still a bit concerning. My old rig was a 2013 F250 and a 42’ Forest River Sabre fifth wheel and I made contact with the undersurface of the fifth wheel and my X-tang Tonneau cover turning out of state park campsite in Indiana. I had to make a sharp turn to exist the site to avoid trees and the pavement was higher than the campsite gravel lot. Sometimes things just happen. On level ground I had over 9” of clearance. It did a little damage to the cover and minor cosmetic damage to the undersurface of the front cap.

[dryfly]

The equalizers used in modern trailer suspensions give you some wiggle room and will redistribute the load equally to both axles when not totally level. Towing level is best overall from load distribution and aerodynamics. If you have to run out of level, you want it to be on the nose high side and not nose low. Given the "range" of the equalizers, that nose high shouldn't be much more than an inch. Nose low is a problem with bed rail clearance and the force transfer when braking (unless you've set your trailer brakes to tug on the TV).

It's pretty difficult to measure plus or minus one inch on trailer height. I try to find a level parking spot and then measure at the frame, front and rear. Even with that I question the accuracy. I would start getting concerned with a difference of 2 inches, especially if eyeballing the trailer hooked up provided a nose high/low situation.

I do not understand why 5th wheel manufacturers do not start raising the height at the axles. As stated trucks are gaining height each year. It is so much easier for owners to adjust the kingpin down to level out the rig. Also would provide more bed clearance. A simple 2" square tube between the spring/equalizer assembly and the frame would be adequate in most situations, unless getting the overall height of the trailer out of legal specs.

I have always had mixed emotions about putting raising blocks between the trailer axles and spring plates. Anyone have experiences with this solution?

[geotex1]

It's pretty difficult to measure plus or minus one inch on trailer height. I try to find a level parking spot and then measure at the frame, front and rear. Even with that I question the accuracy. I would start getting concerned with a difference of 2 inches, especially if eyeballing the trailer hooked up provided a nose high/low situation.

I do not understand why 5th wheel manufacturers do not start raising the height at the axles. As stated trucks are gaining height each year. It is so much easier for owners to adjust the kingpin down to level out the rig. Also would provide more bed clearance. A simple 2" square tube between the spring/equalizer assembly and the frame would be adequate in most situations, unless getting the overall height of the trailer out of legal specs.

I have always had mixed emotions about putting raising blocks between the trailer axles and spring plates. Anyone have experiences with this solution?

Measure while on a CAT scale. The decks are set level. In fact, I ran across a couple new CAT scales that have laser height measuring feature for overall height.

[Overtaxed]

I do not understand why 5th wheel manufacturers do not start raising the height at the axles. As stated trucks are gaining height each year. It is so much easier for owners to adjust the kingpin down to level out the rig. Also would provide more bed clearance. A simple 2" square tube between the spring/equalizer assembly and the frame would be adequate in most situations, unless getting the overall height of the trailer out of legal specs.

At least for my rig, that's exactly the problem. The 351M is 13'5", can't go any higher without getting "overheight".

The better question, IMHO, is why are we making pickups so high that they can't attach to 5er's correctly anymore? That's the real issue here, it's not, IMHO, the RV manufacturers problem, they want to get you the most possible space inside, so they are going to take the height as high as they can. Especially in the nose of a 5er, it really matters, taking 2" out of the rig would make that really tight, especially for someone tall. Taking 2" off my truck would have 0 impact to me. How many people go offroading in duallies?! Or even just bringing the bed rails down a little, if we must build all pickups to be "monster trucks" by some decree, you could keep the height where it is (monster truck) and just take a few in off the bed, allowing you to adjust the hitch downward and level the rig.

F150, I get it, very few tow 5'ers, go on and make that a baja tearing monster truck. An F450 though?! Who on earth buys a 450 to go serious offroading where the additional clearance is necessary?!? More people than tow 5ers or gooseneck with a 450? I'd bet a lot of money, that's a "no, not even close".

[dryfly]

At least for my rig, that's exactly the problem. The 351M is 13'5", can't go any higher without getting "overheight".

The better question, IMHO, is why are we making pickups so high that they can't attach to 5er's correctly anymore? That's the real issue here, it's not, IMHO, the RV manufacturers problem, they want to get you the most possible space inside, so they are going to take the height as high as they can. Especially in the nose of a 5er, it really matters, taking 2" out of the rig would make that really tight, especially for someone tall. Taking 2" off my truck would have 0 impact to me. How many people go offroading in duallies?! Or even just bringing the bed rails down a little, if we must build all pickups to be "monster trucks" by some decree, you could keep the height where it is (monster truck) and just take a few in off the bed, allowing you to adjust the hitch downward and level the rig.

F150, I get it, very few tow 5'ers, go on and make that a baja tearing monster truck. An F450 though?! Who on earth buys a 450 to go serious offroading where the additional clearance is necessary?!? More people than tow 5ers or gooseneck with a 450? I'd bet a lot of money, that's a "no, not even close".

Yes, I suppose you are right. The trend has been to "monster" truck appearance. Wouldn't it be nice to have a flat bed on the back of your truck, so bed rail clearance would not be a issue? But, then there is still the issue of not being able to get the hitch low enough. I envy those who pull travel trailers!

[Scott'n'Wendy]

With my old trailer I was a touch nose high. Just enough to notice if you really looked at it. Last year I had a tire come apart on the passenger rear side of the trailer. The tires were 5 years old and about 1/16" from the wear bars. When I got home I examined the other rear tire and the two front tires. The two fronts looked fine. No cracks anywhere. The remaining rear tire looked good from the side. No sidewall cracks at all. But closer inspection showed substantial cracking in between the tread blocks. I suspect the nose high attitude of our trailer loaded the rear tires more and caused the failure.
So, IMO, you need to be as level as possible to evenly load your trailer tires.

[Malco1]

It's pretty difficult to measure plus or minus one inch on trailer height. I try to find a level parking spot and then measure at the frame, front and rear. Even with that I question the accuracy. I would start getting concerned with a difference of 2 inches, especially if eyeballing the trailer hooked up provided a nose high/low situation.

I do not understand why 5th wheel manufacturers do not start raising the height at the axles. As stated trucks are gaining height each year. It is so much easier for owners to adjust the kingpin down to level out the rig. Also would provide more bed clearance. A simple 2" square tube between the spring/equalizer assembly and the frame would be adequate in most situations, unless getting the overall height of the trailer out of legal specs.

I have always had mixed emotions about putting raising blocks between the trailer axles and spring plates. Anyone have experiences with this solution?

I haven't taken any measurments, but I am wondering if this looks level?

[geotex1]

I haven't taken any measurments, but I am wondering if this looks level?

Always hard to tell from a perspective shot. Better from a distance and perpendicular to the rig. However, appears pretty good.

The rake of pickups always throws people too. My RAM has quite a rake. Even aired down, and I also put the longer Bilsteins up front to give it a more level appearance. So even sitting on the dead flat scale deck, your eye wants to say I'm at least 2.75" nose high because of more clear space between overhang and pickup bed rail in the front versus the tailgate. However, put a stick level on the 5er frame and it's within bubble. I put a laser level on it after my recent suspension overhaul while on the scale deck and I'm running just under 1-3/16" nose high with empty black and grey tanks and without the generators in the front compartment and with the Goosebox air bag aired up..

[Spartacus]

@Overtaxed that's so strange that you can only get 5" of rail clearance with your 450. On my 2019 F350 dually I have 6" easily with the B&W set on the highest setting, 18.5 inches I think it is. On the '20 F450 I had the exact same clearance, same hitch same trailer different truck. What made a nice improvement in clearance was switching to the MorRyde pin box. That moved me up to over 7 inches of clearance and the trailer tows level. What hitch and pin box are you using? Attachment 29900 You can see the rail clearance in this pic.

This is a nice clean setup, I had one for my dodge ram but they are a little heavier so I sold it, if the one I had for my ram if it was like your I would have still have it but I wanted something a little lighter.