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[woollybuggerfred]

Hi all
We are new to the forum and looking for some help. We just put our deposit down on the 21ft 5.0TA and looking for help on what type of hitch to use. We have a new Chevy crew cab 4x4 and just looking for some pointers. We're excited about our new trailer.

Thanks
Fred & Ann

[padlin]

Welcome Fred & Ann

You can go with a Turnoverball if you want the bed flat when the hitch is removed, this is a gooseneck type setup. Or go with rails that stick up an inch or so and are permanently mounted in the truck bed, this would be a conventional type of mount. The Turnoverball is of course more expensive.

To either of these you install the in bed hitch. Many use the Anderson Ultimate as it is light weight. Other use conventional type of hitches like the Reese http://www.reeseprod.com/products/fi...BrcL0rnn49Fhcz There are pros and cons to both but they all do the job.

What's your payload limit? it's on the door post of the truck, yellow sticker. Also what's the truck bed length?

Many let Trademasters https://www.vehiclesolutions.ca/ in Chilliwack BC do their hitch installs. They can do it the day before you pick up your trailer if you are doing so. They do a lot of setups for Escape and may be the best option if you have a real short bed. Need to insure the trailer can't hit the back of the truck cab on turns.

[Brian B-P]

Just as there are several brands of fifth-wheel hitches, there are several brands of ball-in-bed-floor (or "gooseneck") hitches, if you want one of those as the anchor point (instead of rails or a brand-specific mounting system). B&W's Turnoverball is one, but Curt, Reese, and others have them as well. They vary in the details of how the ball is retracted or removed, and in details of mounting to the truck frame... but whatever you get, it should come with brackets specifically for mounting to the frame of your make, model, and year of truck. In the case of a 2019 Chevy Silverado, for anything mounted to the frame it's important to pick the right version of the truck: the "All-New" style 1500, or the style which is like a 2018, and sometimes identified as the 1500 LD. It oftens takes towing equipment companies a year or two to adapt their products to new vehicle versions.

Once you know the key terms to search for, there's a huge amount of discussion in this forum of specific equipment and configuration decisions for towing Escape's fifth-wheel trailers.

I'm not suggesting a specific source to buy from, but I find that eTrailer's website has very comprehensive listings to show what is available, including "gooseneck" hitches, and gooseneck hitches for the 2019 Silverado 1500 LD.

[Bobbito]

Welcome to the forum, Fred and Ann,
I don't have any advice on your hitch, just a greeting to another fly fisher on the forum. Regarding your handle, I still use wooly buggers, but of the microleech variety and often balanced leeches. We had one modification made to our trailer to assist in fly tying, 2 LED captains lights at the dinette on the driver's side where I tie flies. They shine on the tying vice from 2 sides and over my shoulder. If you are a tier you might want to invest in this.
Regardless, you can look forward to enjoying camping in sun, rain, and storm in your cosy camper with much more space than your teardrop camper. Also you can enjoy confidence that your trailer will go the distance and not be destroyed by leaks, as is fairly common with stick built trailers in rainy climates.

Bob K

[Hilola]

Tacking on to this thread, are their any videos that show how these retractable hitch balls operate? I’m having trouble visualizing it.

[arniesea]

Originally Posted by Hilola

Tacking on to this thread, are their any videos that show how these retractable hitch balls operate? I’m having trouble visualizing it.

They don't retract per se. There is a "Receiver" if you will, that is part of a bracket just under the bed of the truck. The bracket is attached to the frame. The "Ball" consists of a shaft portion that goes down into the receiver hole and the ball portion sticks up into the bed about 6" - 8" depending on the make. The shaft portion has a hole in it that a pin goes through to secure it in the receiver. They are called "Turn over" balls because when not in use, the whole shaft/ball is removed, turned over and reinserted in the receiver. Now the bottom of the shaft is flush with the bed of the truck and the ball portion is projecting below the bed.

(Unless you have a Tundra like I have. In this case one just removes the shaft/ball because there are brake lines in the way under the receiver hole that prevent the shaft/ball from inserting all the way when turned over.)

Here is a video that shows how this all works. https://images.etrailer.com/static/i...465-36_web.mp4

Edit: I actually installed the B&W unit, not the Draw Tite unit in the video. But the concept is the same.

[Kent]

These two videos will help better understand what is being discussed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDm40ZWg4Q0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7hezEK_i2E

Picture of my Anderson hitch using rails for mounting and picture of under bed mount for turnover ball style.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Hilola

Tacking on to this thread, are their any videos that show how these retractable hitch balls operate? I’m having trouble visualizing it.

While the removable bed-mounted balls (including the B&W Turnoverball, Curt Double Lock, and Reese Remov-A-Ball) which are normally inverted and stored back in the socket upside-down - or just removed - are most common, there are two retracting styles:

• folding (such as the Buyers Flip Ball, Curt folding ball, and Reese fold-down products under various names such as Draw-Tite and Towpower)
• lowering (such as Curt Quick Goose II and PopUp)

Sorry, no video, but the multiple images in the Princess Auto page for the Buyers flip ball hitch should make the operation of that particular model reasonably clear.

The folding designs typically involve a large plate installed on top of the bed floor (but not sticking up like mounting rails), through a substantial hole to provide enough room to fold, so they're probably more typically used for flatbed trucks than for pickup trucks.

The lowering/pop-up designs are handy for gooseneck trailers, because they don't require climbing into the pickup bed to flip or insert the ball. For people just using this sort of hitch to anchor a fifth-wheel or Andersen Ultimate this doesn't matter, because you have to climb into install the hitch anyway.

[Brian B-P]

Most Escape owners with a "gooseneck" hitch are using it to anchor a hitch (most commonly the Andersen Ultimate) to the bed-mounted ball. For the occasional person who uses a B&W Companion hitch, that one anchors to the Turnoverball hitch, but doesn't actually use the ball... the ball is removed and a "stinger" of the Companion is inserted into the socket where the ball usually goes.

[emers382]

Am I missing something here? The second video in post number 7 shows the Andersen Ultimate hitch in use however there are no safety chains. I thought they were required.

[woollybuggerfred]

Thanks everyone for help! I learned a lot form all of you post. I personly like the Anderson hitch. With a bad back I can't see my self trying to move the heavy hitch.We are looking forward to getting our trailer in July.

Thanks F&A

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by emers382

Am I missing something here? The second video in post number 7 shows the Andersen Ultimate hitch in use however there are no safety chains. I thought they were required.

Safety chain requirements vary by jurisdiction. Although most places do require them (with any ball hitch), Andersen prefers to say they're not needed, but to offer a chain hardware kit as an option if you want it. The people in the video apparently chose not to use chains.

[woollybuggerfred]

Thanks for the info! I believe in safety chains .

Thanks