trying out the new hitch
I now have a hitch between my truck and 5th wheel. This is how it worked out.
I bought the B&W Companion OEM hitch with the base for the late model GM factory pucks.
Numerous measurements of the bed and hitch in the old F250 along with the measured bed rail height in the new Chevy 2500 HD suggested that a good initial position of the B&W hitch receiver in the base would be to set the 2 arms at the middle holes on height and flipped for rearward, farthest from the cab, for-and-aft position. According to the B&W literature this should locate the kingpin 18” above the deck of the bed and 3” behind the axle.
With the hitch installed we set the trailer on it, lifted the front legs and measured 7” gap between the top of the tailgate and the trailer at the middle, just behind the pinbox. Based on plenty of reports in this forum, I have been expecting to have the trailer ride nose high. My storage parking spot is not flat, so I can’t get a look at the levelness of the trailer without moving it. I decided to unhook and shift the hitch receiver down to the lower set of holes (17” above the bed). This would give me a 6” gap. So, after moving the hitch down, this is how it measures out and looks:
Vertical gap, trailer to bed rail top
6” at center
6.25” at corners
Truck “squat” under load, measured at center of fender wells
Front: down 0.5 inch
Rear: down 2.0 inch
Pulled out to a more-or-less flat region of tarmac and took the following photos.
I measured the height of the trailer from the bottom of the frame rail to the ground and found that the front of the trailer (just behind the front legs) is 1.0 inches LOWER than a similar measurement at the rear (near the bumber).
What are your thoughts on this? To me it looks pretty good. But….I could raise the hitch 1 inch. This would yield a 7” bed-rail gap at the cost of putting the trailer nose-high by almost the same 1 inch that it is currently nose-low.