OK, say you have to tow a trailer and you have the choice of 5'th wheel or Tag-a-long/tow hitch style. What is better for the truck?

We've been having this argument at work (landscape Construction biz) and I think convenience aside the 5'th wheel is far superior as far as vehicle life....One of the guys says no....no reason, just "no" LOL...

Anyone?

TIA,

RJ

 

Fith wheel puts the weight directly over the axle. Thereby allowing a greater load capacity with less bounce up front in the cab. Additionally, a 5th wheel can take a lot more than a hitch at the rear. Lastly, you have a better turning radius with the same length trailer and it is easier to back up. Oh yeah! a lot easier to hook up with the hitch in plain site.

 

Only bad thing I can think of related to the 5th wheel is if your not using a dual rear wheel setup... if you only have the single rear wheels and your pulling a 5th wheel and one of your rear tires blows out while going down the freeway, all that extra weight will fall onto the rim and the axle itself possibly causing you to loose control more so than with the dually since it likely would still have one tire left to run on. This happened to my G-pa and aunt 2 years ago coming back from Arizona. It ended up causing them to flip 3 times totally destroying their truck and travel trailer(5th wheel) when the rear wheel dug intot he pavment from all the weight. I think that you could have a similar problem with a tow-behind but there are sway-absorbsion systems that keep the trailer straight which might help prevent such a thing from happening. Plus the center of gravity for the pivot point is raised higher on the 5th wheel also contributing to such an accident occuring.

 

Assuming that both trailers weigh the same you would be holding up the same weight with your suspension either way. I always thought the purpose of a 5th wheel was to have better control of the weight you are hauling.

 

this is not true, for with a 5th wheel you can load the "tongue" of the trailer to whatever the load capacity of the bed of your truck is, but with a tow-behind its usually only about 500 lbs or so depending on the class of hitch(III,IV,V). So in each case the trailer is geometrically different in its fulcrum or center of gravity... a tow behind needs to be weighted more evenly over its axle(s) to acheive to lower "ball-weight" whereas a 5th wheel usually takes the load to the axle(s) of truck and/or tractor. If the 2 were loaded the same there would be no need to have a 3/4 or 1 ton or 1/2 ton, all trucks would need to be equal in weighted capacity.

The purpose of a 5th wheel is to allow the trailer and/or load of the trailer to be of a greater weight than the tow-behind. A 32 ft. 5th wheel is usually heavier than a 32 foot tow-behind and the 2 are definitely load-balanced differently.

Either way, if you plan on pulling a 5th wheel you should opt for the dual wheel setup for both safety and the stability of a wider track/wheelbase.

 

I'd opt for a 5th sheel, however, If I were to tow the trailer every so often, I'd opt for the hitch type with seay bars.