What is the point of a slider? I don't tow a 5ver, but I want to know what the point of a slider 5th wheel hitch is? Also what is the advantage of a 5ver vs a gooseneck? Thanks guys!

 

A slide gives you MUCH more room on the inside. A slide on a camper allows much more living room/walking room. I don't have a 5er but do have a 26' TT with a Qween bed Slide on the rear, when closed it covers the couch and table.

Bill.

***EDIT***

just reread you post. A slider hitch allowes the hitch to move left and right around corners for a short box pickup. Otherwise the front edges of the 5er hit the cab.

 

Each has advantages.

Gooseneck has a lot more articulation than a 5ver, so you see them on farm or offroad trailers more often.

5ver is a lot more stable for on the road pulling.
Semi's are basically 5vers, right?

I think a Gooseneck hitch has a bigger load rating, but don't quote me.
(I think this due to car hauler trailers being goosenecks? mostly)


phox

 

The "Slider" on a 5th wheel hitch gives you the ability to "slide" the pin back in the box thus allowing a tighter turning radius when backing, if you didn't move the pin back in the box you would surely crush the cab of the truck with the trailer overhang. Since you want all the weight over the axle when towing you move(slide) the hitch forward when you tow.
Tom

 

You usually use a slider 5th Wheel hitch on short-bed pickups, where the 5th Wheel trailer is too close to the pickup for sharp turns. This allows the trailer to slide backwards farther from the cab while maneuvering around, and then return to the original position for towing. Long bed pickups usually do not need a slider hitch.

 

Not really true.

As Jerry said, sliding hitches are generally used for shortbed trucks because the kingpin and hitch are much closer to the cab. When you try to really crank a sharp turn, the corner of the trailer can hit the corner of the cab. It is not as big a problem as most people think though - especially with the extended kingpins and round corners on the newer trailers.

Here's a picture of my shortbed truck with my fiver behind it. I have only had the fiver for a few months, but I have already towed in tight places and back into tight spots, and I do not have a sliding hitch. I turned this thing around inside a tight group of Willow trees at Glendo Lake in WY. I have never even come close to hitting the cab.

A sliding hitch is definitely recommended for short bed owners who want to tow a fiver. That said, a conscientious driver can easily get by without one. I would hate to get my trailer anywhere near a 90 degree angle anyway, as this is really hard on the trailer tires.

 

Like others have explained, a slider hitch moves front to rear for cab to trailer clearance while making tight turns....not left/right.

 

I would agree, but even a conscientious driver may have a wife two kids and a dog HELPING them back into a spot and forget about the corners.

I have a bumper pull(for now) and I know first hand how a helpful family can be distracting

 

lol....even one wife can be distracting if she's not really "helping"

 

My wife helps the best, when she just lets me do my job.

 

Absolutely! Sometimes the wife can be a tremendous help, other times, she can be a distraction. She's pretty good at helping now that we've had an RV for a number of years. She knows that her job is mainly to tell me if I have enough clearance.

Having a travel trailer is actually what helped me decide I really didn't need a sliding hitch. Everyone kept telling me that if I got my fiver close to 90 degrees, I would crush my cab. Then I looked at the angle on my TT. I couldn't get that trailer anywhere close to 90 degrees before the hitch and the truck would have hit. Why do I need to get a fiver to a higher angle than my TT? Fact is, from my limited experience, I don't. I can get into some pretty tight places with either trailer and nothing clos to a problem yet.

But the sliding hitch is still the recommended solution. (I just couldn't imagine spending $2,500 for a hitch.) If you don't have a slider, you are definitely taking an added risk.

 

There are many cheaper options, I had mine thrown in for free with the trailer.
I had mine installed when I got my new 5er a month ago. Works well, I tried it for sh*#s and giggles once I got it home as I have to turn 45+degrees to back my trailer down the road 100yds to my house.

 

Yes, but you get what you pay for.

The problem with the cheaper sliding hitches is that they can be incredibly time consuming and cumbersome to use. According to Reese's own operating instructions, to use their slider you have to stop the truck, get out, chock the trailer tires, lower the landing gear on the trailer to take the pin weight off of the slide mechanism so it can slide, release the slide lock, get back in the truck, pull the truck forward while holding the trailer brakes to move the slider back, get back out of the truck, raise the landing gear, remove the wheel chocks, and then get back in the truck. Now you are ready to turn sharp or back up. Skipping an steps in this procedure can be unsafe or can damage the hitch.

When you get done and you are ready to drive away, you have to repeat the entire process in reverse. There is no way you could use a manual slider quickly, such as in traffic, or in bad weather, etc. and you shouldn't try to do this with your tailgate on the truck. Depending on the exact pin and hitch height, some of the larger extended pin boxes will slide right back into your tailgate. The sliding hitches also sat closer to the cab in the forward position than any of the fixed hitch options I looked at.

A lot of guys who have manual sliders never use them because they are so difficult to use. The only short bed owner I know who ever hit his cab had a sliding hitch in his truck and just didn't use it because it was so cumbersome.

When we shopped around for fivers and hitches, I decided that I would either go with the Superglide PullRite automatic sliding hitch, or I would not buy a sliding hitch at all. It's personal preference, but having made my decision to go with a B&W 5th Wheel Companion fixed mount hitch, and now having already towed over 2K miles on four trips with my fiver, I still agree with my intial assessment. I live straight at the end of a cul-de-sac and have to turn a full U-turn in the circle before I can back into my driveway before every trip. Never a problem.

Don't forget. Nothing is free. Anytime a dealer is willing to "throw something in for free," that should be a red flag that they still have so much profit in the deal that they are willing to lose $1,000 worth of hitch and labor. Your hitch should have cost about $600 plus $100 for a rail kit and another $200 or so for the install - maybe more. If the dealer was willing to throw this in for free, then he must have made a killing on the trailer. I didn't even talk about hitches with my dealer until the trailer price was final. Then I paid cash for my hitch and made him sell it to me at cost if he wanted to finalize the deal. If I add the price of the hitch onto the financing, then I am just paying extra interest payments on hardware. In the long run, the hitch will cost you twice as much if you finance it.

 

No, the dealer did not make a killing off the sale, I paid right at 22k cash for my fully loaded unit in Oregon w/no sales tax OTD (below invoice) for a trailer that msrp'd at 27k w/o all the options. That same exact unit in Riverside Ca and Orange Co. was going for over 31k. SO, I felt I got a very good deal on it. Plus, I am not new to buying big ticket items. I research the crap out of everything before I make my decisions. It was a unit that was on the lot that needed to be moved to bring in new inventory. (The Wanderer line has been replaced with the Fury line) And it had exactly what I was looking for. As for cumberson hitch units, I have nothing but time on my hands when I comes to getting my tow rig set up, enough time as such I don't need to spend $2,400 on a unit that will for the most part sit idle in the bed or my garage. I have to work for a living and I use my trailer less than 2-3 times every 3-6 months. I dont travel the country sitting in camp grounds watching the grass grow. I also understand that nothing is truely free, but I made sure that was part of the deal or there was no deal. Nonetheless, I am happy with my purchase and did'nt go broke trying to buy more than "I" needed.

 

I totally understand. That's why I don't own one either. Just couldn't justify the expense. I also work for a living. But I do use my trailer a lot. We use it on average about 10 or 12 times per year.

Okay, so I am not saying you didn't get a good deal, but usually dealers don't give free extras unless they are making a killing on the deal. I do have a real hard time believing that you paid below invoice and still got a free sliding hitch out of the deal. True invoice price is the dealer's actual cost. (Forget all the little tricks salesman play with their invoice figures to try and get you to think that you are paying invoice price.) If you paid less than the dealer paid for the trailer, and they threw in a free hitch, then the dealer gave you the unit for at least $1,000 less than he paid for it. Not to many dealers can afford to give away trailers at a loss. Nothing personal, but I'm not buying it.

Anyway, my point was that nothing is free, and your previous post specifically said that the hitch was "thrown in for free." It's just not that simple. Dealers don't give anything away for free.