# 5Th Wheel Hitch - Step 1



## wolfwood (Sep 19, 2005)

The 5'er hitch hasn't arrived yet but the rails have been here for 2 weeks and, now, they're finally installed!! The hitch, itself, should arrive tomorrow. A dear friend, who has been a pro-mechanic for years (w/ 1,000's of $$$ in tools) & who now happens to be owner of "our" dive shop, as well as having been our instructor, offered to assist us. As it ended up - HE absolutely took the lead and Kathy helped HIM. Everything on-line implies that this is a relatively straight-forward, easy DIY project. I suppose that's true IF you happen to have a mechanic's assortment of tools!! We do have LOTS ... but there's simply NO WAY we would have been able to do this in our own driveway with our (broad) assortment of tools. Thank you soooo much, Mike!!! YOU'RE expertise was invaluable...as is knowing that the install was done by someone who cares about us AND our truck!!

So here ya' go....Step 1: 5th Wheel hitch rail installation








* Ladies - there ARE guys who read (AND follow) instructions*







*Cutting the bed liner*















*High powered air compressor was invaluable!!*







*BIG + POWERFUL Bit = FUN for Kathy !!*







*Fitting carriage bolts & washers into holes drilled through bed*









*See those 2 bolt heads? The rails are bolted through the bed to a steel bracket attached to the truck frame. That hitch ain't goin' nowhere!!
*


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## outback loft (Sep 22, 2008)

Looks good, but I have to ask, those two bolts are all that are attaching the rails the frame of the truck? I would think that there are more than that. 
The fifth wheel hitch that I have in my work truck has 6 bolts into the frame along with a 5/16 steel plate that mounts next to the frame and the hitch bolts onto the steel plate. Granted the 5th wheel I have installed is a 20k pound rated, but I would think that you would have more bolted to the frame.


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## wolfwood (Sep 19, 2005)

Yes. The rails are each bolted 4x, have multiple steel plates, monster washers, AND bolt through the frame in multiple places. The photo just shows one


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## Traveling Tek (Oct 15, 2010)

So you're towing with a Tundra? I read truck reviews that if you want to tow a lot fast and stop fast, that's the truck to use. 

(those were it's only high marks sadly. I think the review was paid for by Ford.)


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## outback loft (Sep 22, 2008)

Ok, I was just wondering if there were more attachment points, I was going to be a bit concerned if that was all. I will warn you that I have seen the frame of the Tundra fail while towing a 5th wheel onto the beach, and this was before they hit the rough parts.

And on a side note I have a contract with the county to do the recovery towing on the beaches this year again. When I go out I give the driver a fair chance to get out on his own, but when they are too stubborn to listen then I hook up and pull them out..........at the price of $500. Last years tows alone paid off my Outback.


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## Traveling Tek (Oct 15, 2010)

outback loft said:


> Ok, I was just wondering if there were more attachment points, I was going to be a bit concerned if that was all. I will warn you that I have seen the frame of the Tundra fail while towing a 5th wheel onto the beach, and this was before they hit the rough parts.
> 
> And on a side note I have a contract with the county to do the recovery towing on the beaches this year again. When I go out I give the driver a fair chance to get out on his own, but when they are too stubborn to listen then I hook up and pull them out..........at the price of $500. Last years tows alone paid off my Outback.


Sweet. I want that job.


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## wolfwood (Sep 19, 2005)

outback loft said:


> Ok, I was just wondering if there were more attachment points, I was going to be a bit concerned if that was all. I will warn you that I have seen the frame of the Tundra fail while towing a 5th wheel onto the beach, and this was before they hit the rough parts.
> 
> And on a side note I have a contract with the county to do the recovery towing on the beaches this year again. When I go out I give the driver a fair chance to get out on his own, but when they are too stubborn to listen then I hook up and pull them out..........at the price of $500. Last years tows alone paid off my Outback.


Thanks.....but I assure you that we will NOT be towing on the beach (nor even driving SANS TT) nor do we *tow* into "back country areas" (although I sure do enjoy taking the truck 'back there'!)


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## wolfwood (Sep 19, 2005)

Traveling Tek said:


> So you're towing with a Tundra? I read truck reviews that if you want to tow a lot fast and stop fast, that's the truck to use.
> 
> (those were it's only high marks sadly. I think the review was paid for by Ford.)


Yes - an '07 Tundra (that we absolutely LOVE!!!) That's good news about those truck reviews (we've read them too...) We're not interested in towing 'fast' - - actually, the truck gets the best towing mileage (~11mpg) at ~63 .... so I tend to keep it about there. As for "stopping fast" - we've certainly had to do that a few times ... on excessively gravelly & washboard roads while towing. The rig has performed IMPRESSIVELY well. We'll see how it does w/ the 5'er". The 5'e is well within length & weight limits and we've added the Timbrens for a bit of insurance. We're obviously expecting that all will be fine and this combination will travel just as well as (or better than) the last. The hitch, itself, arrived today







and will be 'installedl' on the rails sometime this week. We'll then take it to the local Park & Ride just down the street before heading to the highway to get the feel "at speed". We HAD a Hensley Arrow for the bumper-pull & traded it in for the Hensley 5'er hitch. Their marketing is that the Arrow makes the TT pull like a 5'er. They were 100% right about there NEVER being any sway so our expectation is that this marketing is correct too and that this towing experience will be the same as the other. We just need to get used to distance between TT nose & TV cab....









btw - there are MANY other areas that the Tundra gets VERY high marks in when it's a non-biased party doing the marking







Have you seen the YouTube videos of the Toyota engine tear-downs AFTER the truck was given to a "non-believing" rancher out West. He had it for a year, used it HARD, hauled his horses all over the place and had NO idea how much weight he was putting on the truck nor what kind of hitch he had. (*BUT* - the video shows 8 - 10 horses being loaded....and saddle horses are generally ~1200-1500lbs per). After 1 year of this kind of use - the engine components were still in 'like new' condition. We figured the engineers were drooling to give the truck back to the rancher to see what it actually took to kill the thing over what kind of time....


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## Traveling Tek (Oct 15, 2010)

Everything I read gave it high marks on towing and all the stuff the commercials said, but they said the handled like a pig compared to the ford or dodge. My friend has a Tundra and works it hard towing his race car and motorcycles. I personally have never ridden in it or driven any of the ones in the motortrend truck shoot out. So I have no idea how they stack in my own opinion. I do know my Chevy van handles better then the Ford van of the same year.  However, it's a Chevy. :-(

When we goto a 5er, we will need a Topkick or M2. We are going bigger.

Oh and keep good oil in the engine and you can work it as hard as you want no matter what it is. Most of these new vehicles won't really let you blow themselves up. I tried to "redline" our van and it just won't let me. We run Amsoil full synthetic in oil, tranny, diffs, and lube. Stuff is amazing. 50k miles between oil changes and the oil looks like new. My friend has put over 400k on his own truck using the stuff. Never a rebuild. SO far I am at 97k on my 2008 and last oil change, my mechanic asked why I had him change it, he said it looked like new oil. I told him it had over 25K hard miles and I wanted to be sure. He said he was going to strain it and put it in his golf cart. HAHA!


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## outback loft (Sep 22, 2008)

wolfwood said:


> So you're towing with a Tundra? I read truck reviews that if you want to tow a lot fast and stop fast, that's the truck to use.
> 
> (those were it's only high marks sadly. I think the review was paid for by Ford.)


Yes - an '07 Tundra (that we absolutely LOVE!!!) That's good news about those truck reviews (we've read them too...) We're not interested in towing 'fast' - - actually, the truck gets the best towing mileage (~11mpg) at ~63 .... so I tend to keep it about there. As for "stopping fast" - we've certainly had to do that a few times ... on excessively gravelly & washboard roads while towing. The rig has performed IMPRESSIVELY well. We'll see how it does w/ the 5'er". The 5'e is well within length & weight limits and we've added the Timbrens for a bit of insurance. We're obviously expecting that all will be fine and this combination will travel just as well as (or better than) the last. The hitch, itself, arrived today







and will be 'installedl' on the rails sometime this week. We'll then take it to the local Park & Ride just down the street before heading to the highway to get the feel "at speed". We HAD a Hensley Arrow for the bumper-pull & traded it in for the Hensley 5'er hitch. Their marketing is that the Arrow makes the TT pull like a 5'er. They were 100% right about there NEVER being any sway so our expectation is that this marketing is correct too and that this towing experience will be the same as the other. We just need to get used to distance between TT nose & TV cab....









btw - there are MANY other areas that the Tundra gets VERY high marks in when it's a non-biased party doing the marking







Have you seen the YouTube videos of the Toyota engine tear-downs AFTER the truck was given to a "non-believing" rancher out West. He had it for a year, used it HARD, hauled his horses all over the place and had NO idea how much weight he was putting on the truck nor what kind of hitch he had. (*BUT* - the video shows 8 - 10 horses being loaded....and saddle horses are generally ~1200-1500lbs per). After 1 year of this kind of use - the engine components were still in 'like new' condition. We figured the engineers were drooling to give the truck back to the rancher to see what it actually took to kill the thing over what kind of time....








[/quote]

Well I know a few people who have the Tundra and swear by it, but when we had the local dealer going around to jobs sites with it trying to make a sale, I told him I wanted to hook up my cargo trailer (that I tow every day with a the same truck as the one I tow the Outback with.) The cargo trailer is a 34' triple axle trailer and is definitely over my trucks weight limit by about 3500 pounds when I load it up with cabinets and furniture, I am at 112,750 miles and have never had to do anything besides oil changes, brakes and replace my a/c compressor.

I backed the Tundra up to it, pulled out the driveway to an uphill road made it about a 1/4 mile up the hill and the truck died. I don't know if I killed the tranny or the rear end, but there was a bang, some grinding and then nothing other than the engine revving. At that point I told the salesman that I would be sticking with my truck and would call him a tow truck. He then called me about a week later and asked if I would give the truck another chance, I told him I didn't have the time to do it and that my next truck purchase was going to be a diesel anyway.


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