1st 5th wheel hitch questions/advice

[Loomis077]

First tow this weekend with the new 29.5 BHDS and my 2018 Sierra 2500 crew cab standard box. I have a B&W Patriot 18k standard hitch. The hitch has 4 different height adjustments and 3 different forward/aft adjustments. The forward and aft adjustments are labeled 0, +2, and +4”. Dealer set it in the 0 position. Looking at it, it looks like zero is actually 2” in front of axle. Is that normal? I guess I would have thought 0 would have been directly over the axle? Anyway, been doing a lot of reading and contacted B&W and it looks like with both pieces of information are saying those couple inches makes almost no difference in front axle weights.

We camped at a older Michigan state park this weekend. Some spots the ground was fairly uneven. I watched the box side clearance like a hawk! I have a roll up tonneau cover on the truck where the frame sticks up above the bed side. Level I have about 6” of clearance. I have more room to adjust up and was thinking about going an inch higher to get 7”. It appears my trailer is setting level give or take an inch on the back of the HD. I optioned the trailer with the 16” wheels and in ‘21 Jayco started putting a 2” piece of square tube between the I-beam and the spring hangers.

So, since I would need to remove the bolts on the base uprights to make any adjustments at all, I’m considering moving back 2” to be over the axle and adjusting the hitch up 1” to get another inch of rail clearance. Will there be any issues with this?

 

[Lake Huron]

My rig is a 2015 Silverado 3500 dually. Trailer is a 44' Northpoint. I have a B&W Companion. I played with my fore/aft adjustments for a while and found either directly over the rear axle or forward gave the best ride. Anything behind the rear axle gave me more up and down bounce and chucking and seemed BOTH at the same time. Horrible ride. I did have to adjust my height on the B&W. I had like 5.25" clearance on the bed rails and I have a Trifecta tonneau cover. Too many close calls with the cover and one REALLY close call on the bed rails. I didnt think I was going to get the trailer off the site, but a little hillbilly ingenuity, and we barely got it out with no contact. That's when I got home and started to make height adjustments. I thought it was sitting pretty level at the time and made my height adjustment and got it to 6" of bed rail clearance and remeasured my overall height and didnt see much change in measurement but it did look better coupled to the truck. Looked more level.
Since I made my height adjustment, rarely do I have issues with bed rail clearance and sometimes I'll have an issue with my tonneau cover. I still watch things back there pretty close and when I go to put it into a spot, if theres ANY question that my tonneau is going to be an issue, it about 3 minutes and it's off the bed and sitting on the picnic table until after I'm done.

 

[txloser]

I’ve got a GM as well and the B&W Patriot. I run it in the full aft position on two trailers now. As for the hight, whatever gives me 6-7” clearance at the tightest point between the FW and truck bed.

 

[Loomis077]

I’ve got a GM as well and the B&W Patriot. I run it in the full aft position on two trailers now. As for the hight, whatever gives me 6-7” clearance at the tightest point between the FW and truck bed.

I contacted B&W this morning and they said that 0 isn’t necessarily over the rear axle. It completely depends on where the rails were mounted in the truck bed and that is usually dependent on the frame mounts for the rails and where the OEM bolt holes in the frame are. On a GM standard box, the rails appear to be in front of bed center. I ended up all the way aft as well. Once I looked closer and took measurements, I found that the dealer actually had it set in the 2” position which was still 2” in front of rear axle. I moved it to the 4” position and it looks to be right over center of the rear axle. I also measured no increase in the trucks front ride height by doing this.

For bed rail clearance I moved the risers up another inch. Now I have a solid 7” from my tonneau cover frame rails and almost 8” to the truck’s bed rails. I think this will be a little better while negotiating the uneven terrain we often find here in the Michigan State Park campgrounds.

The nice thing I also figure is the bolts for the Patriot risers use 3/4” sockets and wrenches which is the same I need for lug nuts. Either way if I don’t like this setup, I can easy enough take it apart at the campground and put it back if it doesn’t tow well.