5th-Wheel Hitches

Putting together a fifth-wheel hitch setup

A fifth-wheel hitch is a system, not a single part, and the pieces have to match both your truck and your trailer. The bed rails or brackets bolt to the frame, the head clamps the trailer's kingpin, and on short-bed trucks a sliding or capture-plate design keeps the trailer clear of the cab in tight turns. Buy them as a matched set for your specific truck and you avoid a lot of grief.

• Truck-specific brackets and rails. Mounting kits are cut for a fitment. A Demco Hijacker Premier-Series bracket kit for a 1999-2004 Ford Super Duty won't fit a Chevy, and Reese 10-bolt rails bolt to the frame in set locations. Confirm year, make, and bed length before ordering.
• Short bed vs long bed. A standard 8-foot bed clears a trailer in a tight turn; a 6.5-foot short bed usually doesn't. That's where a PullRite SuperGlide, which slides the pivot point rearward automatically during turns, earns its keep.
• Head and jaw type. The head is what actually grips the kingpin. A Free Ride head assembly fits a range of trailers, while capture-plate systems like the PullRite QuickConnect need a plate matched to your kingpin, including specific fits for Lippert pin boxes.
• Capacity. Match the hitch's rated capacity to your trailer's gross weight and pin weight with headroom to spare. The pin weight on a loaded fifth wheel is a big number, so don't run a hitch at its limit.

Once the hitch is in, the trailer still needs to latch and lock, so grab a kingpin lock from couplers and locks. If you also tow a gooseneck trailer, the goosenecks page covers adapters that bridge the two systems, and the rest of the towing hardware sits under hitches and couplers.