Towing a 5th wheel

[patooyee]

My Dad is certified OCD. Literally, clinically diagnosed. He works hard to fight it and does well in most aspects of his life but as he ages he is loosing his ability to discern sometimes. Nothing is he worse than trucks and towing though. The problem is that he is no longer able to deal with some of his old habits alone. He now needs my help installing and removing the hitch in the bed of his truck, which I don't mind doing on occasion when necessary, but in reality he feels the need to do way too often. He barely ever uses his camper, but he will move it around, finding things that need repairing constantly, to and from the camp ground. He'll bring it there, go through the day-long process of leveling and plumbing it and then bring the truck to me at which point I am expected to remove the heavy hitch and reinstall his camper top. Then a few days later he will decide that something on the camper needs to be fixed, upgraded, repaired, or something and that it has to be moved from the camp ground to the repair shop. It is then my responsibility to remove the camper top, re-install the hitch, he'll go de-plumb it, bring it to the shop, leave it there, and bring the truck back to me to remove the hitch, reinstall the camper top. A few days later the process repeats to bring the camper back to the camp ground and it never ends. His OCD mandates that if he is not towing the camper the hitch must be out of the bed and the camper top on. He can not just drop the camper off at the shop and let the hitch stay in the bed for a week knowing that he'll have to tow the camper back to the camp ground. During the few days at the shop the hitch can not be in the bed of the truck and the camper top must be installed or he has a mental breakdown. He does not use the bed of the truck for any purpose other than the hitch except maybe keeping a few things back there that I will admit do need to stay dry. (Hence the camper top.) Not only is this a huge inconvenience for me, but the whole family agrees that by continually helping him I am enabling his mental disorder and making it worse. The entire family agrees that part of his disorder is actually getting people to participate in it, that without people around willing to be enablers he wouldn't actually engage in the behavior.

I am trying to convince him to convert to gooseneck and just put a roll-up tonneau cover on the bed so that the 400 lbs 5th wheel hitch doesn't constantly need to go in and out and so that the stuff he keeps in the bed stays dry without having to constantly move the camper top around. But he has this huge, state of the art 5th wheel hitch that is like $3000 in the bed with multiple moving parts. It swivels as he turns and then when he backs up levers backwards to keep the camper further away from the cab. The hitch literally has bearings in it. The camper itself has a matching component that is also like $3000 and makes it so that it can not be pulled by a conventional 5th wheel hitch. Only his truck can pull his camper as a result. I don't completely understand how it works, never towed a 5th wheel. But I do know that crazy hitches like this didn't always exist and that I have thoroughly enjoyed towing every gooseneck trailer I have ever pulled. He believes that he must have his $6000 hitch setup, that his 27-foot camper is so massive that it is absolutely required when I know that 27-feet really isn't that big in the grand world of 5th wheel towing.

I'm asking if anyone here with experience towing 5th wheel trailers agrees or disagrees with his assessment / need for the crazy hitch. Would a gooseneck be almost as good? I have no experience to say one way or the other. If he could just have a flip-over gooseneck in the bed of his truck with a roll-up bed cover he could obsess over this **** as much as he wanted without bothering me. In reality I don't believe he would though as getting me (and others) to participate in his disorder is part of the addiction to him.

I love my dad and enjoy spending time with him. I hate telling him no when he needs my help. We have rarely lived close to each other and weren't very close growing up. I believe that he subconsciously takes advantage of my desire to spend time with him now that he is retired and living near me to enable his OCD. But I agree with my family that my helping him in this instance is like giving an alcoholic a ride to the liqueur store. I may be helping him with his need for a ride, but I am enabling his habit and making him worse off in the long-run.

 

[smbroady82]

My tow rig has a flip over gooseneck hitch and my trailer is 25ft plus the neck. I don't have any issue at all. Not sure about the fancy hitch setup you are talking about.

I do not know why a gooseneck would not suffice.

OR... if he is dead set on having a camper shell on his truck maybe he needs a bumper pull .. I am sure replacing the camper is out of the question but it is a thought.

I love my father and would do anything in the world for him within reason. .. but if he asked me to take a 5th wheel set up and a camper shell on and off of his truck on a weekly basis it would get old extremely fast

good luck either way

 

[zukimaster]

A 27' camper is tiny in the 5th wheel world! Most campers are bumper pull till they get over 32' or so, but a 5th is easier to pull and get around, but just sucks that you have to have a truck dedicated to pull one.

 

[bbone]

No real experience here...but I thought the main advantage of a 5th wheel was ease of hooking and unhooking a trailer? Wouldn't a gooseneck be harder since you have to climb in the bed to hook everything up? (since he is a little older)

 

[rock mafia]

I'm no camper expert, but I have never seen a gooseneck camper just 5th wheels.

 

[patooyee]

No real experience here...but I thought the main advantage of a 5th wheel was ease of hooking and unhooking a trailer? Wouldn't a gooseneck be harder since you have to climb in the bed to hook everything up? (since he is a little older)

I don't know. I know he has to climb in the bed to UNhook it. I've never been around to see him hook it up.

The front of a camper is square, the corners have more of a tendency to hit the cab on a sharp turn or when backing up sharply. My understanding of his hitch is that during those scenarios it moves the pivot point out and away from center to allow the camper not to hit the cab and then when you move straight forward again it re-centers itself. But I wonder if this is just a luxury or a necessity.

He was in between trucks for a few months and I didn't have to worry about this much then. But back when he had his last truck I was removing and installing the hitch and topper about once or twice a week. He just got a new truck again and is in the process of outfitting it so its my one chance to try and prevent him from duplicating the last truck.

 

[onepieceatatime]

Re: Re: Towing a 5th wheel

Could you build some sort of shelf over the hitch that easily removes so you at least don't have to pull it out? You'll still have to take the topper off but this would give him usable dry bed space.

 

[patooyee]

I'm no camper expert, but I have never seen a gooseneck camper just 5th wheels.

I have but they're pretty few and far between I will admit.

 

[patooyee]

Re: Re: Towing a 5th wheel

Could you build some sort of shelf over the hitch that easily removes so you at least don't have to pull it out? You'll still have to take the topper off but this would give him usable dry bed space.

Yes, but then we're back to enabling even more.

 

[crawlin85cj]

5th wheels are such a pain in the ass. I'm sure there has to be some advantage but from my perspective I've never seen it.

There are remote access gooseneck hitches that are cable activated to eliminate getting into the bed of the truck.


2010 Jim's Garage 4429
2012 Jim's Garage YJ
2013 Wide Open Design WFO

 

[patooyee]

Getting into the bed of the truck is the least of my worries at this point. He handles that. If he has to have that insane hitch he can crawl in and out of the bed 100 times a day for all I care. Its removing and re-installing the topper and hitch 2x/wk that I have to put an end to.

 

[Bigrocks4x4]

A goose neck adapter will work fine for that camper. I have pulled a 42 foot toy hauler with a goose neck hookup, and it worked fine.

 

[patooyee]

Welp, too late. I just found out that he already dropped his camper top off at the paint shop yesterday and just ordered up his $3000 hitch. Sigh.

 

[Eddyj]

The fifth wheel you're talking about was basically made popular because of the mega cab Dodge Dooley's. If the fifth wheel doesn't stick out in front of the camper some will have a tendency to hit the rear of the truck cab on a sharp turn. Have found even with most six-foot bed if you mount the fifth wheel 3 inches behind rear axle centerline they are not required. Most recommend you mount a fifth wheel hitch 3 inches in front of rear axle centerline. Or you simply measure from the king pin on the camper to the side of the trailer then give yourself 6 inches of clearance and then mount a normal fifth wheel. I have a fifth wheel to gooseneck adapter with built-in shock absorbers that I keep for emergency purposes in my truck. It is highly recommended not to use the adapters because they put so much stress on fifth wheel of the camper. With a 27 footer I believe it be fine

 

[onepieceatatime]

Re:

Could you talk him into buying a little S10 or Ranger to drive everyday and save the truck for hauling the camper?

 

[grcthird]

Go light camper on fire, talk him into a bumper pull replacement.

Can you build some sort of a hoist system at his home to pick up the camper shell and drop in the hitch?

 

[patooyee]

Can you build some sort of a hoist system at his home to pick up the camper shell and drop in the hitch?

I did years ago! It works good, too! But like I said, part of the disorder requires my participation and he always guilt-trips me into storing it in the yard at my shop while it is off instead of indoors in his garage where I built the pulley setup. Its like its not even worth doing to him unless he can force or guilt-trip someone else into sharing in the misery.

I'm not helping him with it any more though. He can use the pulleys in his garage and I'm going to build an attachment for the forklift at my shop that will allow him to get the hitch in and out on his own. After that he can install and de-install that crap over and over again on his own until his fingers wear down to little nubs if he wants.

 

[Toddy]

Build a kit pin adapter for your fork truck. Drive it in, make him crawl in bed and unhook it. Pick it up and drop it in yard. He could prob even handle that him self.

 

[patooyee]

Build a kit pin adapter for your fork truck. Drive it in, make him crawl in bed and unhook it. Pick it up and drop it in yard. He could prob even handle that him self.

Basically what I had planned. My shop is 30 mins from his house though. First I'm going to try and convince him to let me build another smaller pulley system in his garage that will lift the hitch up, then he can pull out from under it and lower it onto a wheeled cart to store wherever he wants. That way in theory he could do everything without leaving the comfort of his home.

 

[TheViking]

Guessing medicine isn't a option on this one....


I would just be straight up with him tell him it's not easy on you and that he needs to figure it out or just have a dedicated truck hooked up to the camper at all time.