Standard Hitch in F350 Short Bed

[donwheeler]

This is kind of a follow-up to my last thread.

Again, I have a 2011 36RE that I acquired in a private sale. My new 2014 Ford F350 diesel single rear wheel, super crew cab, short-bed, with the 5th-wheel prep package, has arrived at the dealership in New Hampshire.

If it's practical, I woud prefer purchasing a Reese Elite series standard hitch (not a slider) that plays perfectly with the Ford under-bed prep package; instead of adapting the Curt slider that I own.

Basically, the only time I will be towing the RV is back-and-forth to Florida, from New England, during the cold weather months.

I would like to get a concenus from people on the forum on the Reese hitch approach before I commit to buying it. If the standard Reese hitch is practical, is the 18K hitch suitable in my circumstance?

Thanks in advance for the feedback.
I'm new to 5th-wheel RVing; and have only a few years experience with travel trailers.

Don

[Oriana]

Don - we have the Reese Elite 25K, personally I believe the 18K would have been adequate, but our gov't insurance company requires a rating on the hitch to be at least 20% over the trailer's GVWR.

The hitch works really well with the Ford prep package. Installing and removing is easy. No tools required. Suggest you use a padlock on each side to keep the levers in the installed position to prevent possible theft or tampering.

Hitching up is easy and you'll quickly get a feel for positioning the truck and pin height for a trouble free hitching. While unhitching you need to take the load off the pin to pull the release lever. This sometimes takes a little back & forward with the truck. Unhitching at our dealer, on a slight hill, I have had to put the landing gear down to get the fore & aft weight off the pin to release the hitch. To facilitate visually inspecting that everything is secure when hitching up I painted the end of the lever that holds the King Pin when in the closed position.

Can't comment on the pros-cons of slider/short box as we have the 8' box.

[mhs4771]

Don, many get by with a standard hitch and short bed TVs, BUT you will have to be extra careful if you get into any tight situations, especially if on uneven ground. As long as everything is level you're in pretty good shape because of the Front Cap design, but when things are uneven you can have the RV twisting one way while the TV goes the opposite direction greatly increasing the chance for contact. An additional word of caution: Get to a scale and have everything weighed ready to travel. These Redwood are heavy and several members found they needed to trade their new SRW TV for a Dually to handle the pin weight, no problem pulling, just carrying the weight.
Where in Florida do you head? We travel from Western NY to Florida and are in the Sebring area this winter.

[atom ant]

If you have the trailair triglide pin box on the Redwood (the one with air bag), you definately will be fine without the slider. I had an F350 SB when we bought our redwood, and the slider was the first thing I removed.

If you have the standard trailair pin box, I wouldn't be as sure.

18K should be fine

[donwheeler]

We stay at "The Great Outdoors" in Titusville, Florida.

[Dave&Ginny]

I pulled my RL with a short bed ford without any problems concerning the trailer hitting the truck. I did start out with the standard Pin box.

[RCAircraft]

Originally Posted by donwheeler

This is kind of a follow-up to my last thread.

Again, I have a 2011 36RE that I acquired in a private sale. My new 2014 Ford F350 diesel single rear wheel, super crew cab, short-bed, with the 5th-wheel prep package, has arrived at the dealership in New Hampshire.

If it's practical, I woud prefer purchasing a Reese Elite series standard hitch (not a slider) that plays perfectly with the Ford under-bed prep package; instead of adapting the Curt slider that I own.

Basically, the only time I will be towing the RV is back-and-forth to Florida, from New England, during the cold weather months.

I would like to get a concenus from people on the forum on the Reese hitch approach before I commit to buying it. If the standard Reese hitch is practical, is the 18K hitch suitable in my circumstance?

Thanks in advance for the feedback.
I'm new to 5th-wheel RVing; and have only a few years experience with travel trailers.

Don

I had the Reese Elite 18K (removable and with slider) installed in my 2012 Ford Lariat 6.7 diesel SWD, four door cab with the short bed. The required under bed steel is impressive and was a reminder about the loads and forces related to towing. I had Ford install the hitch at the time I ordered the truck.
I use a low cost winch that slides into the truck's receiver hitch for removing the hitch. Removal takes about five minutes. I chose the slider for future truck owners as it is not required with my RV due to the nose design on the Redwood. The hitch has been trouble free and easy to operate by myself.

[lwg]

Another confirmation that a slider is not needed with the short box if you have the trail air pin box. Can't speak to the standard pin box. My biggest problem is the 4x4 truck is so tall I need to raise the pin box up one notch to help level things out, still haven't done that yet but Redwood said it should be ok to do.