Quote:
Originally Posted by Fox hunt
I have a 250 truck set up to tow a gooseneck trailer but are the RV set ups different ? My truck just has a ball in the center of the bed the one in the picture looks much larger?
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The ball-in-the-bed arrangement is popular in agricultural and appears in light commercial use, but is rarely used in RVs... although adapters are routinely available to convert common RV fifth-wheels to this setup.
The Escape 5.0 (classic and new TA) follows the common RV practice, using a pin-and-plate coupling (just like the big rigs, but with small plates) with the mating surface about four feet off the ground, high in the pickup box (a foot higher than a typical bed-mounted ball). Since this fifth-wheel hitch system is the same size as used in much larger trailers (2" diameter pin), the hitch seems oversize for the trailer. The lightest common fifth-wheel hitches have three times the capacity needed for the Escape 5.0; fortunately, following this standard makes hitches readily available.
You may have notice a recent discussion (
5th wheel hitch) in which the Andersen "
Ultimate 5th Wheel Connection" was discussed. This isn't a fifth-wheel at all, but a 2-5/16" ball used just like the ones mounted to the truck bed floor, but sitting up at the height of a typical real fifth-wheel. This is not a common setup, although Scamp uses a similar configuration (but with a 2" ball) on their 19' trailer. I have not heard of anyone converting an Escape to this system.