Will this be strong enough?

[handirifle]

Something seems off. The weight on mine I believe was 130lbs. That say 99. I would get something in writing from them to insure it. I see it on the list. Maybe check here Reese and see what the listed weight for your model is. I did that with them and they gave me a complete list of what I needed for a complete install.

 

[JJZ 109]

Something seems off. The weight on mine I believe was 130lbs. That say 99. I would get something in writing from them to insure it. I see it on the list. Maybe check here Reese and see what the listed weight for your model is. I did that with them and they gave me a complete list of what I needed for a complete install.

I'm thinking you're right. Looks like the combo from Reese is 143 pounds. Reese - Fifth Wheel Coupler (click on Technical Specs)
One of the guys from Etrailer has answered every question and gone back & forth with me. He looked at the description I posted earlier and said that looks complete, but there's no way to be sure. Jet.com isn't much help in the question department. So I gave Jason from Etrailer the weight from Reese and asked him to compare to their shipping weight and the 99 pounds that Jet.com shows.
got-chrome shows the complete kit for $848 with free shipping. Etrailer will price match and give you 110% of the price difference for a discount. I've sent them the link so we'll see how it goes.

 

[handirifle]

Wow that's a good deal. Wish I had known about that one. I will keep that in mind if and when I upgrade the truck hitch. Right now using one a neighbor gave me, a Reese Pro series 15K. Had some play I had to shim out of it. Will see how it holds up. At least the price was right. He gave me the hitch and rails.

 

[JJZ 109]

Wow that's a good deal. Wish I had known about that one. I will keep that in mind if and when I upgrade the truck hitch. Right now using one a neighbor gave me, a Reese Pro series 15K. Had some play I had to shim out of it. Will see how it holds up. At least the price was right. He gave me the hitch and rails.

I wound up buying from Etrailer for $896 with free shipping. I've emailed 4 links to them so they can determine if any of them are the exact same model for the 110% price match thing. All 4 were the same ST400-SW16k, but had different Reese part numbers. I could not locate a Reese part number on the Etrailer unit, so we'll see how this goes.

 

[JJZ 109]

Here's the result from the 4 comparison links sent to etrailer.com for them to compare others' prices to theirs for their price match guarantee. This morning they informed me that they've gone ahead and refunded my credit card $128.65.
So it appears that they do honor the 110% price difference guarantee. Will keep this in mind when future trailer needs arise. My $896 item just became $770.

 

[handirifle]

Sweet! Man I wished I had seen that. Good for you. On my little bit of head play I mentioned, I emailed Reese about it and they highly recommended getting the custom wedge for that hitch, so I ordered one off Ebay. Might save yourself some concern and order it ahead of time. Mine was about $50 shipped.

Post your towing results and opinion.

 

[handirifle]

One note about etrailer. I had a set of rails already and called on the phone to etrailer about the custom brackets to mount the rails on my truck. I couldn't tell from the pictures so I asked if the brackets also included the bolt hardware to mount the rails to the brackets. After checking for a moment, the girl said yes, so I ordered the brackets. I had seen separate kits for the rail hardware but saw no need to get that too.

Well they were not included. I ended up going into town and buying hardware I needed at almost the same cost as the hardware kits they sold. I emailed them about it and they did a review. They came back and said indeed, they had told me it was included. Their offer was to pay the shipping for the hardware kit if I ordered one. I said too late I already bought what I needed local. Wasn't much of an offer in my opinion.

Going to the hardware store is no small deal here. It's 20 miles one way, to town.

 

[JJZ 109]

Sweet! Man I wished I had seen that. Good for you. On my little bit of head play I mentioned, I emailed Reese about it and they highly recommended getting the custom wedge for that hitch, so I ordered one off Ebay. Might save yourself some concern and order it ahead of time. Mine was about $50 shipped.

Post your towing results and opinion.

Thanks for that heads up. It's not due here until 4/19. I'll hook it up and scoot down to the local fire department's parking lot and see just how it's going to turn. Will keep any eye out for any slop or play.

 

[handirifle]

Make sure you get the wedge driven as far back as it will go, on initial setup. It took me twice to figure it out.

 

[JJZ 109]

Make sure you get the wedge driven as far back as it will go, on initial setup. It took me twice to figure it out.

Thanks again for all of the advice. Today I ordered an SWW-03 wedge for my Reese 30047 hitch, along with a couple of lube discs.
Figured it'd be better to get the one specified for my hitch instead of fussing with the universal wedge that comes with the combo. "Universal" usually is not.

 

[handirifle]

The B&W goose neck consists of three main parts, the two rails and the center section that holds the ball. Today I got the rear rail in there and the center section. I ran into one small hiccup, where the center bolt on the front rail prevents the center section from coming flush. According to the rail instructions, I mounted the bolt in the rear center, but after doing some research it does not seem to matter, so I will move it to the front center.

I have it held in place by two 3/8" carriage bolts. Those plus the center section is bolted to the rear rail. Currently the rear 1"x2" rail, is just sitting on top of the frame, but the carriage bolts hold it in place so I can see how I need to mount the front rail.

Here is a drawing of the end view of the frame, with the Reese frame bracket for the rail. The black line is the bracket and it shows a bolt coming down through the bed (sort of) through the bracket. This bracket is 1/4" steel. That is the left drawing. The right drawing is the front and rear rails (heavy black) seen on a side view. The front rail (the 2x2x3/8" angle) will be set on edge, with a hole drilled through the top. This will allow me to remove that bolt, install the rail, and reuse that bolt to hold the front rail to the frame bracket. This will be stronger than my previous designs because there will be no drilling, and the bracket will prevent the rail from lifting. The dashed line represents the center sections of the goose neck hitch.

This drawing shows how the rear rail sits on the frame of the truck. This is exactly as it did with factory mounting. The round circles on the rail, are where the 1/2" grade 8 bolts go.

Sometime soon after Easter I will take some actual pictures and post them. I still will need to make an adapter to bolt the rear rail to the frame bracket, but this will be stronger too, since the 2 grade 8 bolts that will hold it to the frame bracket, will only hold the rear rail.

Hope this makes sense. Looking forward to completing this, since this was one of those things they said could not be done.

 

[Btown]

Since I was dumb enough to buy a short bed truck, when I bought my diesel, I have had to go through some changes finding the ideal hitch to tow with and avoid damage to the truck. I started with a Curt slider, and hated it because it felt and sounded like it was going to come inside the truck at every stop and start. It was, admittedly, their low end model.

It seems almost all trucks have the shorter 6.75 foot bed. Finding an 8 foot bed on a truck is rare today. But you can still hit the cab with the trailer with an 8 foot bed. Don't ask me how I know.

 

[handirifle]

Well after a lot of "guess" before, I got back under the truck and did some actual measuring. What I discovered is this is not going to go quite as smoothly as I hoped. First off, the angle will actually fit right between the two rail bolts, and not under one as I had hoped.

Here is a REAL picture of a piece of 1.25x1.25 angle I stuck up there just to test.

It does align with the center hole in the bracket, but I am seriously not knowing a way to get a bolt in there from the top. The hump in the rail sits right over that hole and I would have to unbolt the entire hitch rails to get a bolt in there.

By the way I also discovered with the goose neck center section in there it will be darn near impossible to reach the bolts above the fuel tank. They were incredibly hard before, but the goose neck REALLY blocks the access I used to have.

This is a shot without the test angle, and this is the wide open side.

Also a shot of the center section in position. The 1x2" rear rails is on the RH side of it.

And the bed with the center section in place. At least it LOOKS like it will function. (edit, forgot to mention, you can see the center bolt that I moved from the rear hole to the forward hole)

This shot of the outside shows nearly everything. To the right is the 1x2" rear rail, and center are the 3 factory holes I will be using. The left and right holes will be for mount bolts and the center hole (driver side only) will be for the release rod for the turnover ball. My thumb is pointing where the farthest rail bolt is positioned on the other side of the bracket.

It looks like I will be back to the "Z" bar idea, unless someone here has a better idea (other than forgetting the whole idea).

 

[handirifle]

In case anyone thinks of this, I tried reversing the angle to face the opposite direction, and it will not work because then it will not fit between the center section and the truck bed.

 

[handirifle]

For reference, in the first picture, the center section is to the right of the angle. So the vertical part is up against the center section.

I am also exploring the possibility of notching the angle, at the ends to basically close off the angle, and welding that end closed. I would make the length so the end "caps" would butt against the inside of the bracket, and drill a hole through the bracket and angle and use a grade 8 bolt and nut to hold it in position.

Another REAL challenge is going to be getting the angle up in place, period. I can no longer unbolt the bed to lift one side, so I will need to think this out and get creative.

Suggestions appreciated here.

Btown
That sucks. I could still hit mine, if I go too far past 90. Hopefully I don't get THAT forgetful, or preoccupied.

 

[JJZ 109]

It seems almost all trucks have the shorter 6.75 foot bed. Finding an 8 foot bed on a truck is rare today. But you can still hit the cab with the trailer with an 8 foot bed. Don't ask me how I know.

Mine measured 6'10" from front of bed to tailgate, so I'm cautiously optimistic that the Sidewinder will work for me.

 

[Btown]

Yes and my 8 foot bed measures 8'3".

 

[handirifle]

Jjz109
When you move the pivot point back 22" like the sidewinder does, you will have to try real hard to hit the cab. I have 6-8" from the rear window now and my 5th wheel is 8'4" wide.

 

[JJZ 109]

Jjz109
When ypu move the pivot point back 22" like the sidewinder does, you will hace to try real hard to hit the cab. I have 6-8" from the rear window now and my 5th wheel is 8'4" wide.

Great to know! After adding a 10 inch RV5 pin extender and it wasn't enough, I can live with a little overkill. My camper is an even 8 feet wide. I'm awaiting arrival of the Sidewinder. Even though Etrailer says it will work fine and Reese recommends against it, I'm giving it a shot. It's a 16k unit. My camper is 11,400 gross so I think I have plenty of wiggle room on that issue.

 

[handirifle]

Just noticed my typo's. Fat fingers and skinny phone.