Best Way To Lift a 1999 Wilderness 285S 5th Wheel Trailer

Question:

I recently bought a 2005 Dodge Ram 4x4 to replace my 2wd F-350. The Dodge sits quite a bit higher.I still have to install a rail kit so I cant hitch up my 1999 Wilderness 285S 5th wheel trailer yet, but with the trailer level in my driveway, and the truck backed up in front of it, the top of the bed sides are just about even with the bottom of the overhang of the trailer. I think Im going to have to lift the trailer to keep it from being too nose high but my concern is weather or not handling on the road will be adversely affected by raising the trailer. The trailer handled very well with the F-350, I dont want to lose that. Also, I realize the truck will some under the weight of the trailer. How much of a nose high condition is acceptable when hitched?

asked by: Charles

Expert Reply:

To answer your primary question, nose high of 1-2" is ok, and you won't really notice it; anything more and you're really going to start having issues with the distribution of weight and handling- but you won't really know how bad it is until you actually tow the trailer. One thing that I would need to know is if your new truck is lifted or not. If it is lifted you'll want to consider returning the truck to its' stock suspension since you may have trouble getting the rails mounted to the frame of the truck due to the gap between the bed and frame. It's also not recommended to tow with a truck lift- for handling reasons, but that's usually with trucks with extreme lifts over 6".

If the truck is already at its stock height, you can overcome some of the difference by adding an over/under kit similar to the Dexter # K71-384-00 (2-3/8" axle) or # K71-385-00 (3" axle) to your 5th wheel, but the added height may cause some unwanted trailer sway. The other issue is that even if you were able to do this lift, you still may not have the recommended 6-8" of clearance between the bed rails and the 5th wheel overhang after making this change. I would install the bed rails and hitch and see how high up above the bed rails your hitch sits and start from that point. If your hitch sits above the bed rails, that's more height that you're going to have to overcome.

In order to determine if you can use an over/under axle flip kit you'll need to make sure your 5th wheel meets the following requirements:

The trailer leaf spring stack is currently mounted under the axles
The trailer uses double-eye springs
And the trailer has 2-3/8 inch or 3 inch diameter round axles

If you can let me know the following information, we can start to work on a solution that will work for you.

1) Is the truck lifted or stock?
2) What type/size axle is on the 5th Wheel?
3) How much does your hitch stick up above your bed rails when installed?
4) More of a bonus- what are the height of the truck bed from ground, bed rails from ground and bottom of 5th wheel nose from ground?