New guy here with questions.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Fox hunt

Doesn't the hitch for a fifth wheel just stay in the truck bed ?

It can, and many people just leave it there, but for many people it needs to come out to make the truck bed more useful for whatever they use it for between trips with the trailer.

Although some are permanently mounted, I think that's now pretty rare in pickup trucks. Most fifth-wheel hitch manufacturers don't even sell mounting kits that are just bolted in without any readily removable component.

I have seen people leave the hitch hanging from the trailer's pin when set up in a site for a long period (a season), presumably just for somewhere to put it to leave the truck bed free (although they may have lifted it from the truck by leaving it coupled, releasing the pins to the mounting rails, and jacking up the trailer).

Originally Posted by Fox hunt

With my goose neck I have to climb into the truck bed to hitch up do you need to do that with a 5th wheel?

No, that's an advantage of the fifth-wheel design: avoiding the need for safety chains and reducing reaching due to the higher placement.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by padlin

...you certainly do not have to remove the hitch, but you can.
...
Won't be too many years before it's no longer an option. Suppose if I had a garage a hoist could be rigged, but I don't.

Even without a garage, you could use an engine crane. If lifting cargo in and out of the truck also becomes an issue, a truck-mounted crane could handle both the cargo and the hitch.

Nothing like fixing a problem with equipment by adding more equipment...

[Fox hunt]

Thanks for all the info