My truck has a 4" lift, which is 2" actually in the rear. and im running 35's. does it sit low enough to pull a 5th wheel toy hauler? is there like an industry standard on how high the hutch is on a 5th wheel? reason i ask is i have been looking at TT toyhaulers but have come accross some pretty good deals on 5th wheel toyhaulers aslo. comments are welcome

thanks guys

 

I would say you won't be able to find a 5th that will hitch directly to your truck without doing some changes to the trailer. eg axle flip, bigger tires, frame box. Best thing is measure your truck box at tail gate, then when looking at 5th wheels measure from ground to bottom of over hang with the trailer sitting level front to back. That will give you an idea of what needs to be done. Different brands will have different heights.

 

thanks fo the info

 

NP forgot to add, you want as a rule of thumb min 6" or more between truck and overhang of trailer.

 

Mine has about a 2" lift on it and it's pushing it. I'm pulling a little nose high to keep from banging the bed.

 

I pull an 02 Jayco 305 BHS 5er which has the Jake Plate adjustable axle hanger plates. They are in the lowest holes which make the trailer the highest. I have stock size tires and from the ground to the top of the tailgate is 59". I have 6" of clearance between bed rails and underside of trailer and am 2" to 3" nose high when towing. I have only test pulled on the interstate part of the way up Sam's Gap which is between here and Asheville, NC and it seems to pull very well. We take our first trip with the new to us truck March 6th and I am comfortable that everything will work fine. Hope some of this information will help.

 

just a few notes. Highway overpasses standard is 14'1" , there are exceptions when off the interstate especially the old railroad overpasses. Alwalys look before going under an overpass for anything hanging down that could catch the A/C.

Most recommend more than 6" of bed rail to 5er clearance. If you only have 6" inches be very careful around dips and in driveways.

Try to tow as close to level as you can.

good luck

 

Ok but no one addressed the question. A fifth wheel is supposed to be a standart height above ground. A class eight big truck can successfully back under an rv that a pickup just dropped off. Done it many times.

 

Also, older 5th wheels I think were often designed for the lower bedrails of earlier trucks.

With the 30' Patio Hauler I had, it would be riding slightly nose up with a bit less clearance above the bed than I would like. I ended up doing the axle relocate to under the spring pack thing, and now have a few inches of spare clearance.

I think it might work on a truck with 2" lift and maybe 315's.

If you do that to a 5th wheel, I'd suggest buying the prefabbed spring perches, as opposed to cutting off and relocating the factory ones. That way you can use the factory ones as a reference to get the new ones on right, and a future owner could drop it back down easier.

 

I guess that there could be a standard height, however, fifth wheel campers have adjustable pin boxes and most of the hitches can be adjusted up and down also. This along with being able to flip axles or in the case with Jayco adjustable suspensions allow for the trailer to be fitted to the truck. I would guess that class eight trucks have a more standard fifth wheel height than light duty pickups.

For instance, my 97 2WD is 47" from the ground to the top of the tailgate and my 04 4X4 is 59" so that is a big difference. When hooked to my 5er, they both will squat about 2" from the unloaded height. The hitch in my 97 is adjusted higher and I have approximately 9" of clearance between the bed rails and underside of the 5er and the trailer is level when pulled with the 97. I also dropped the pin box 3" to accomplish this since I did not want to lower the suspension on the camper since I was thinking about buying a 4X4. My hitch in the 04 is adjusted as low as it will go and that gives me the 6" of clearance I need but the trailer is now 2" to 3" nose high. I could go to the extent of flipping the axles to get it level, but don't think it would be worth it.

I guess I should have been more specific with why I was giving the OP the 59" dimension. I would think that if the top of his tailgate/bed rails is much more than that, it could be difficult to pull a 5er. As another poster mentioned, the overall height of the camper will have to be considered also since you could only raise the suspension so far before creating a problem with the overall height being a problem.

Sorry for the rambling. I am sure there are others much more knowledgeable about all of this than me. This is just my .02 worth.

 

Two different issues. Fifth wheel height should be at a norm and then the pin box adjusted for rail clearance.

 

I had rail clearance issues with my truck and my older model 5th wheel. Like what was said earlier ^^, the older 5th wheel models have less clearance than the newer ones. I have a leveling kit so no real change, but the 35's did make a height change.

I actually added a piece of 6" channel to my 5th wheel frame and also moved the axles from over the springs to under the springs to get the needed clearance. It was a lot of work, not hard, just time consuming.

After I did the height change I decided to adapt from the 5th to a GN, better off-road articulation/clearances, glad I made the change over, now I only have one type of hitch on all my trailers instead of having to switch hitches over all the time depending on what I'm pulling.

CD

 

Thats one of the problems with the rv industry no standards. King pins are anywhere from 39" - 50" high. pin boxes of different styles and lenghts. Different designs/manufactures make the overhang different in height also( grd to underside). Walking through a rv lot you can see the difference. It would be nice if they were all the same, then we would be able to have packages ready made for different trucks ready to install for height differences.

 

I have at least 6 inches bedrail clearance on my dualie but I still have to be very careful pulling out of a gas station or down any short steep grade I have seen the top rear edge of my bed rail as close as 1 inch that is the main thig to watch.

 

I pull a 34 ft Challenger with mine, same total lift as yours, I also have a Truxedo on my box, so the frame work for that sticks up about an inch over stock hieght of the box sides. I have about 5 inches clearence and it does come close, but Ive only had a couple close incidents when backing into a few sights that were lower than the road.

I guess I should state that the camper is stock height, It does run a bit uphill down the road, and it sometimes seems as thought the Jacks wont go high enough to get the Goose neck ball adapter over the tail gate, as I run a Mumby Removable Ball in my truck. That is my only concern is having the jacks extended that far, even when the pads are sitting on 6 inch blocks.