Procedure for hitching and unhitching your 5th wheel.

[traveldawg]

I discovered a few months back a fellow who gets his truck's hitch near the king pin, sets the hight of the 5th wheel for latching, then connects the 7 pin connector. Then he gets in the truck, manually activates the 5th wheel's brakes and backs up to make his hitch connection. He reverses the procedure when disconnecting - locking the 5th wheel's brakes then pulling off the hitch.

it made sense to me. Sometimes I would back up too hard and slightly moving the 5th wheel (in spite of chocking). It didn't move far, maybe 1/4" or so, but it would move - you know 'just to be sure' it latched. Now, with the braking procedure things connect and disconnect very smoothy with no trailer movement.

Have I just missed this all these years? Does everyone do this?

[xrated]

For hitching, I rely on the wheel chocks. They are very heavy duty rubber ones and I'm OK with that procedure. I also leave the chocks in place once I'm ready to do my pull test. The pull test I do utilizes both the wheel chocks AND the brake controller manually actuated.

[Ynot4me2]

It might be different for tt but we were told by the dealer when we picked her up not to activate the tt brake as the current that runs through the brake away switch might fry it in the lock position. Is this true or not I don't know but our small brake away box is made of plastic and doesn't look to durable.

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[xrated]

It might be different for tt but we were told by the dealer when we picked her up not to activate the tt brake as the current that runs through the brake away switch might fry it in the lock position. Is this true or not I don't know but our small brake away box is made of plastic and doesn't look to durable.

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I'm not sure I'm following what you are saying there, but what I am talking about is operating the brake controller in the cab of the truck....manually, to apply full braking to the trailer wheels when doing a pull test.

[Ynot4me2]

I'm not sure I'm following what you are saying there, but what I am talking about is operating the brake controller in the cab of the truck....manually, to apply full braking to the trailer wheels when doing a pull test.

Ohhhh now I see. Disregard my post. Lol its been a long week. Lol

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[bertschb]

Have I just missed this all these years? Does everyone do this?

That's not how I do it.

[livinthelife]

That's not how I do it.

Not the way we do it, either. We use the chocks to "hold" it in position for hitching and unhitching.

[Cannon07]

Correct me if I'm wrong but electric brakes do not activate sitting still. I need to be rolling a little to test mine before each trip.

[Steven@147]

Correct me if I'm wrong but electric brakes do not activate sitting still. I need to be rolling a little to test mine before each trip.

yup, but it depends, I think, on whether you have drum or disc brakes. Drums, yes the wheels have to rotate for the brakes to grab.

Personally when latching up I would not do it that way, be my luck I am off too far from the pin to latch up and have to reposition, then forget i had the 7 way plugged in and yank the cord out. That could cause all kinds of problems. I just leave the rig chocked, latch up slowly, I don't need to ram home the pin in the hitch hard enough to move the RV to latch up.

Now for a pull test, yes, I manually activate the brake controller but I also leave the wheels chocked.

[Walaby]

Hitching up, wheels are chocked. Unhitching, wheels are chocked.

I don't need to slam the pin into the hitch, so I don't try to lock wheels with brakes.

Mike