Video Transcript for Fifth Wheel Towing Made Simple with Daniel

Hi, I'm Dan with etrailer, and today we're gonna take a look at some of the products that might make towing with your fifth wheel trailer a little safer, easier, and all around more enjoyable. Now there is a ton of products and things to consider when towing with the fifth wheel, and we've just grabbed some of our favorite that we have on our website, 'cause we do have a ton. But whether you've towed with your fifth wheel a lot or you're just trying to get into it, this video should help you think of things to consider, 'cause there is a lot to consider. Now we will break it down by vehicle and RV side, and we'll start with our truck here. First off, you wanna determine what kind of truck you have to tow your fifth wheel. Now most fifth wheels are very heavy.

So today we have a three quarter ton GMC Sierra, and I would recommend getting a three quarter ton or more truck to tow your fifth wheel just because they are so heavy. There are half ton trucks that are capable of towing, maybe the lighter weight fifth wheel trailers. But those trucks are more suitable for lightweight towing. So you're gonna notice that a lot more on your suspension and might have to do repairs a lot sooner. But let's go ahead and get into how you're gonna hook up your truck to your fifth wheel.

There's a couple different ways that you can attach your fifth wheel hitch to your bed. You can get a rail kit, and those rails will just attach on top. And then there's going to be some brackets that'll attach to your frame. Or you can get a underbed gooseneck hitch that our neighbor has today. And the Demco Recon actually will just slip over that gooseneck ball and tighten down.

Now if you are haven't got a truck already, the best thing to do is get a OEM prep package. So how you check that is just look in your bed, see if you have those pucks in there, and then you should be good to go. Now there is a ton of videos on our website if you don't already have the OEM package. So definitely put your fit guide in and see what is available. Once you determined how you're gonna connect your fifth wheel hitch to your bed, the next step is getting the fifth wheel hitch itself.

The one that us in the shop tend to lean towards is the B&W. It has a really nice fit and finish. Things to consider is, whether it's any of the brands we have, most of the fifth wheel hitches are gonna be fixed or sliding. And that's gonna be something to keep in mind if you have a short bed or a long bed. Usually if you have a shorter bed, you want those sliding rails just so you have that extra turn clearance. Now if you have a rotating pin box on your trailer, then you will need a fixed hitch. Now you can go into our fit guide, like I said before, and it'll prompt you with all those questions and you should be able to figure it out from there. But if you have any further questions, don't hesitate to reach out. We'd love to help you out. Now that we've got that figured out, we can take a look at some of the products we have on the table here. And these are gonna be more quality of life and safety improvements. When towing with a fifth wheel trailer, visibility is really important. So having mirrors that extend a little bit further out is going to allow you to see to the back corner of your trailer, and it'll make it a lot easier to pull into those tight spots or to move around at a crowded campsite. Now most of the time three quarter ton trucks will have your towing mirrors already installed, but sometimes they won't. Or you might be towing with a half ton truck. And if that's the case, then you wanna pick up some towing mirrors. These will slide directly on your existing mirror, and we do recommend the Snap & Zap. These will fit directly on your specific mirror. And they look pretty good as well, so you don't have to sacrifice looks either. Now, like we said before, fifth wheel trailers are really heavy, and that pin weight is going to be 15 to 25% of that total weight. So there's a lot of weight going down on your bed, and it's going to put some rear end sag on your truck. So that's going to decrease drivability, decrease braking power, and just make the whole experience a lot less enjoyable. So in order to mitigate that, there's some suspension enhancement options that you can get for your rear axle that can level everything out and make everything a lot nicer. The first one would be just your standard jounce bumper replacement like Timbrens. Now this one isn't really adjustable so you would have to get one that has a really high capacity. Now I wouldn't really recommend that just for a fifth wheel, just because if you're gonna be driving this every day and you're not gonna have that fifth wheel on there, it is going to decrease your drivability. It's gonna be a lot more bumpy. The ones I would recommend are maybe an airbag or a road active suspension. These are adjustable, so when you're not using your fifth wheel, you can just set those to a comfortable ride and travel on your way. Now starting here with the airbags, these will have custom bracketry per vehicle and usually you won't have to drill anything. So these are a pretty nice option. They have a wide range of adjustability. And I would highly recommend getting an onboard compressor with these, just so you can have control from in your cab with a remote. So you hook up your trailer, you're going down the road, you can just simply air 'em up or air 'em down for the ride of comfort you would prefer. And we got the road active suspension here. This is gonna sit on top of your leaf spring and preload it. So it's actually going to use your existing suspension to raise your bed a little bit. So when you put that fifth wheel hitch on there, it'll lower everything back down to level. Something that could save you a lot of headache when connecting your wiring is adding a seven-way plug inside your bed. Now, a lot of the times that wiring on your trailer is really long, but I would highly recommend not draping it over your tailgate to plug it into the plug on your bumper, just 'cause that can rub the paint on your tailgate, and that angle of which you have to plug that in might bend up the wires, exposing 'em to the elements or bending the pins inside the plug itself. So adding this really simple solution is a really good idea. All you have to do is drill a hole, put some self-tappers in and route this to the plug on your bumper. Now last thing we're gonna talk about on the vehicle side is going to be a brake controller. Now a lot of the bigger vehicles, again, they will have a factory brake controller already installed in them, and those will work fine. But if you do plan to upgrade your brakes, maybe do hydraulic brakes, a lot of times that these won't work properly. So you will have to get an aftermarket option. And we have the Tekonsha P3 here, and this one is tried and true. It's been on the market for a long time and a lot of people have used it. And this one's just easy to use and it has a lot of presets on there. So maybe you have multiple trailers, you got your fifth wheel on the weekend, utility trailer on the week. You can set that and it'll respond to both of those. Another nice thing is the manual override. So if your trailer's pushing on you too much, you can press this lever. And it's spring activated, so it's really nice to just reach down and activate if you need to in a pinch. The Tekonsha is pretty large, and if you do have a newer vehicle, you might notice you don't have a ton of leg room. There's a ton of consoles in the way and a lot of electrical components. So there is a solution for that. Redarc actually does have a brake controller and it's a lot smaller. It's slimmed down, so you might like just the look as well. It's actually just gonna be this button. So this will mount somewhere, anywhere really on your dash. And this is going to be your gain control, as well as your manual override by pressing it. And that's all you're gonna see. The control module that's gonna be zip tied up underneath everything. And this is a really great option if you want that sleek look. Now when shopping for brake controllers, something to keep in mind is how many axles you have. So if you have more than two, you may need to upgrade because certain ones don't have the amperage to support those. So the Redarc does have the Redarc Elite, and that is suitable for your fifth wheels that have three axles. You can spend an endless amount of money on your fifth wheel trailer by upgrading every single component you can. Now that's not really what fifth wheel trailers are for, they're for going out and having fun. So the parts we pulled for this are just gonna be parts that are gonna increase your quality of life and be the ones that we think are essential. At the front we have our lube plate, and this is just gonna go right up on our pin box like this, and it's gonna decrease metal on metal contact between your pin box and the top of your fifth wheel hitch. So it's gonna decrease noise, and it's going to decrease rust because those rubbing components will wear away your paint. Now another thing this is good for is the alternative method is rubbing grease all around here. So if you do that, you're likely gonna get grease all over yourself and the cab of your vehicle. Getting a kingpin lock is a good idea to do that. We have the etrailer one today, but whether you get this one or one that fully encapsulates your kingpin, it's going to deter those people from coming and hooking up to your trailer. The metal on the back, birds are trying to make a nest back here a lot. So usually people will shove their wiring back here and store that. But if you're at the campsite and stuff keeps trying to get in there, then this will end up on the ground and that's not a good place for it. It can get corroded a lot easier. So MORyde has a solution. It just has a cable manager, and you can actually just wrap this up. And there's a magnet on the back. And now you can just use that magnet, stick it on, and that'll just sit right there. And moving on to our stabilizer leg. When you get to the campsite, sometimes you can be parking on sandy terrain, maybe some gravel that's some loose. So when you deploy these, these can sink into the ground. As you can see, these are flared up, so these definitely sunk in at one point. And if it's metal contacting the ground, they are prone to rust. So you can see there's a ton of rust on here. So in order to mitigate that, SnapPad has a solution. They just have a rubber pad that can go right underneath this. It'll be a snug fit on there, and this will disperse the weight more evenly and prevent a lot of that rust from forming. Coming over here to our wheels and axles, I got some wheel chalks. Now these might seem like a no-brainer, but the amount of trailers that we see, and when we go to the campsite that have two by fours or rocks that are supporting their wheels is a lot. So getting some that have a rope attached to 'em is a really great idea. Now your dog might find this a fun toy, but it's really nice because you won't lose the other one 'cause they're attached together. And when you put 'em in when your trailer might settle, these might be a little hard to get out. So instead of kicking them, it's a little easier just to give these a pull and then you can storm away. Now moving on to your equalizer. Now it comes straight from the factory metal and it does the job, but it's a little jarring. So when you hit some bumps, it's going to jostle all your stuff around in your camper and transfer all that to your steering wheel and your steering in your truck. It's definitely going to make drivability an issue, and all your stuff's gonna be flying around inside. So upgrading to something like the MORyde CRE3000 is gonna be a great idea because this rotates over two rubber bushings, making your ride a lot smoother. Now this is going to be one of the more expensive items we have today, but it's definitely gonna be well worth it 'cause it's gonna mitigate a lot of those problems. Like I said, those objects that are jostling around inside your camper. And it's gonna prolong the life of your suspension as a whole. Now we have a ton of different options. We do have the Roadmaster Comfort Ride and that is gonna be your higher end option, but that's gonna be more for people who are living in their campers year round. Now on the back of our trailer, we have a backup camera. Now this is definitely a necessity if you have a longer camper and you're needing to backend those hard to get spots. It's not only good for backing up if you're out on the highway, it's good to see behind you. Maybe there's a car there and you're needing to change lanes and you need to know if someone's there or not. Now today we have the Furrion Vision+. This is their newest camera. And to know if you have the factory prep package is, it's gonna look just like this on the back of your camper, just not with the camera. And it's gonna be really easy. The wires are already gonna be there and you can just screw this on. Now this does come with a monitor that you can put in your cab. It's a pretty decent sized monitor here, allowing you to see clearly from the back of your camper. Now we've covered a ton of stuff that would help your towing experience. Some honorable mentions that you might want to consider getting. Maybe a surge protector. 'Cause sometimes, when you get to that campsite, a lot of those electrical grids are pretty old so you wanna protect all everything in your vehicle and your camper. And another thing would be maybe a water filter, water regulator, so you don't blow those lines when you're hooking up to city water. If you have any further questions about anything we talked about today or any of the components that has to do with your fifth wheel towing experience, feel free to reach out. We'd love to help you out, make your towing experience the safest and most comfortable. Especially if you have those half ton trucks, since those are a little bit lighter, we'd love to help you out, make that as easy as possible. And I hope this video helped you. If you are planning on towing fifth wheel for the first time, or if you've done it for a while, maybe see some products that you might get in the future to make it a little bit better. I'm Daniel. Thanks for watching.