Fifth Wheel Hitching Guide
If you want a spacious and home-like camper, a fifth wheel is a great choice. These well-appointed towable RVs are excellent for weekend trips or full-time living, depending on how you prefer to use your RV. However, their unique two-part hitching style can take some time to master, and it’s important that you focus on this task to prevent your trailer from becoming unhitched while you’re driving.
Park on a Level Surface
Your fifth wheel needs to be on a level and even surface before you try to hitch it up to your truck. Chock the trailer’s wheels before you begin and make sure that your hitch is raised high enough to be able to latch into the truck’s coupling.
Open Up the Wheel Jaws
Next, you should open up the jaws or retract the locking bar by pulling the handle on the side and setting it in the open position. You may want to apply some high-pressure grease to make coupling easier.
Reverse Your Truck
Lower your truck’s tailgate. Get in your truck and reverse it slowly and carefully towards the fifth wheel hitch. Having someone standing at a safe distance to guide you can help you accurately park underneath the hitch. Stop a bit sooner than you think you should since your truck will probably shift a bit after it’s parked. Put your brakes on and get out.
Adjust Jacks & Engage Coupler
When the hitch and kingpin are aligned, adjust your jacks so that the fifth wheel hitch plate is higher than the kingpin box in order to get them locked together. The kingpin box should be a half-inch below the top of the fifth wheel head.
You’ll need to back up again so that you can get the kingpin fully connected to the fifth wheel head. When it’s connected (your spotter can help you determine when this happens), you can park and put on the emergency brake. Make sure that the connection is fully engaged and locked in place. You may need to manually adjust the lock bar or wheel jaws yourself if your fifth wheel coupling doesn’t automatically engage.
Test Your Coupling & Inspect Everything
Disengage your truck’s emergency brake, activate the trailer brakes, and put your truck in drive. As you drive forward slowly, the truck should pull at the trailer and there should be some resistance. Now you can get out and check that your tailgate is shut, the chains and safety pin are in place, your wheel chocks are removed, and your jacks are lifted.
Visit our dealership in Tiffin, IA, to check out our wide stock of new and used fifth wheels for sale. Sun & Fun RVs serves our customers in Iowa City and Davenport, IA.