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5th Airborne Sidewinder replaces your fifth-wheel trailer's king pin and alters the pivot point of your rig, enabling you to make up to 90-degree turns. Enclosed air spring in pin box absorbs shock and adjusts for a smooth ride.
Features:
Specs:
Use the formula below to ensure that there will be enough space between your truck cab and trailer when you are executing a 90-degree turn with the 5th Airborne Sidewinder installed.
(A + B) - C = Clearance
A = Distance from center of 5th-wheel hitch jaw to truck cab in inches
B = Length of Sidewinder arm in inches (22")
C = Width of trailer in inches divided by 2
For example:
If you are using the 16,000-lb 5th Airborne Sidewinder, then B = 22"
If the distance from the center of your hitch to your truck's cab is 36", then A = 36"
And if your fifth-wheel trailer is 102" wide, then C = 51"
102/2 = 51
Therefore,
(36 + 22) - 51 = 7" of clearance
It is now possible to turn your short-bed truck 90 degrees without having to worry that your trailer will collide with the cab of your truck. The universal king pin locking wedge included with this Sidewinder prevents your trailer from turning or pivoting at the fifth-wheel hitch. Instead, the rotating turret at the end of the Sidewinder allows turning and pivoting to take place an additional 22 inches away from the cab.
1. Draw-Tite, Hidden Hitch and Reese (15K, 16K and 20K Select Series); Husky; Owens; Valley; and similar units
2. Reese Signature Series, Elite Series and similar units
3. Holland and similar units
A. Bolt locations
B. King pin
Custom King Pin Locking Wedges: The included universal wedge prevents the king pin from rotating in most fifth-wheel trailer hitches. Certain hitches, however, require a custom wedge (sold separately).
Note: Do not use the 5th Airborne Sidewinder with any of the following:
Note: It is recommended that if sitting idle for more than a week, the air springs be drained to relieve pressure on the system.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Today we're going to be taking a look at the Reese 5th Airborne Premium Line 5th Wheel Air Ride King Pins with Sidewinder. The 5th Airborne system really does a great job of kind of killing a couple birds with one stone. The first thing we're going to do, we're going to move the pivot point of our trailer from our main king pin back 22 inches. This is going to allow us a lot easier time of making up to 90 degree turns and maneuverability without having to use a slider system. We don't have to get out of the truck and back in the truck, all that kind of stuff. This is all in one system. It also has a built in shock right up here at the top.
This is a airshock. Fully adjustable right here for the two bolts. We'll move it back for higher ton weight. Move it forward for less ton weight so you can really customize your ride. This is going to help to reduce the chucking that we get or that front to back movement by about 60 percent.
Also, the up and down motor, the verticle load that we get right down on our fifth wheel by about 40 percent. This is going to help out a lot to reduce that wear and tear that we're going to get on the coach's frame and it's also going to help to reduce those vibrations inside and keep anything that we do have stored inside there nice and safe. Here you can see our king pin right here on the front. That's going to slide into the fifth wheel just as normal. We'll just back right up to it and allow it to latch. Right behind that, we have the adjustable puck.
This is going to take up that space that normally comes back and slides along that kingpin. It's then going to slide on the outside here so when we turn, it's going to hold this nice and straight allowing our pivot point here to do all the turning work for us giving us that additional 22 inches for maneuverability. Another great thing about this sidewinder, they use a C channel design for this. What this is going to do is strengthen it up quite a bit and offer more stability than what we get out of a standard pin box. All the work happens right here between the sidewinder itself and our rotating turret that's going to sit right on top. There's several options of these to fit many different pin box widths and even spacers which we've used in this application to help take up any of that extra room and give us a really nice fit. The fifth airborne sidewinder is a really heavy duty piece equipment here.
We're going to have a full black powder coating that's going to go completely across it. It has a one piece, kind of a streamlined design here. We've got fully welded seams. Each of our connection points are each of the areas where two pieces of metal will come together essentially building it into just one nice big strong piece. Our king pins going to connect into any of our standard fifth wheel trailer hitches and it's going to allow very easy hookups and disconnects no matter what angle that we're on. Now that we've gone over our features of our 5th airborne sidewinder, let's going ahead and hook it up to the truck and see how it's going to improve that maneuverability as opposed to the standard fifth wheel that we started with. Here's a perfect situation where that sidewinder is really going to come in handy. You're trying to get backed into a spot and you can't quite get that full rotation simply because if we do, we're going to wind up crashing the camper into the back of the truck. Nobody wants to start their camping trip this way. As we back up here, just take a look at how much maneuverability we've got now. We can really put this thing on any angle we want. All the way back to a really true 90 degrees here without having to worry about any contact. 22 inches really makes that big of a difference in this setup. You can see we can bring her out the other way and straight on down the road. Now let's try our U turn. Now when we tried this the first time with our standard fifth wheel, it took nearly this whole area to get this truck and trailer combo turned around. Now that we got our sidewinder in place, check out how nice and tightly it's going to turn for us. Now that we've seen just how handy it really is, that's going to complete today's look at the Reese 5th Airborne Premium 5th Wheel Air Ride King Pin with Sidewinder.
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (12 Customer Reviews)
5th Airborne Sidewinder replaces your fifth-wheel trailer's king pin and alters the pivot point of your rig, enabling you to make up to 90-degree turns. Enclosed air spring in pin box absorbs shock and adjusts for a smooth ride.
I am very happy with this Sidewinder. No more having to slide my hitch in order to get my trailer out of storage. The only trick is making sure you are lined up with the pin box so the wedge engages correctly. You can hook up at any angle by just pushing the pin box so it lines up with your approach angle. It takes a little more time, but it is far easier than using an auto-slider. Once you are hooked up, you no longer have to worry about tight turns or backing into spaces. 739195
works perfect for my 2016 tundra crewmax 694777
I have received the Reese airborne, installed the turret, have not put it on the trailer yet. Will do next week (29th). Right now I am very happy after looking it over. Thankyou. 676999
We really like it makes a smoothie ride And make sharp turns 557823
Judy - 08/25/2019This item works as described. Diana in sales was awesome to work with and made sure they had the right parts I needed for my rig after Reese told me what parts I needed for my rig. I can't compare it to other kingpins as I haven't had a 5th wheel in 20 years. I will say that for my rig, this is perfect. I'm pulling with a 2012 Dodge Ram 2500 short bed with the Ram boxes. I called Reese and they told me exactly what parts I needed to order from Diana to set this up correctly for my truck. I can turn tight angles and have no worries at all. 557749
This pin box installed quite easily. Set in on a HD lift on the tailgate of my pickup. Lifted it up in place nicely. Completely solves my short bed turning radius. Highly recommended. 367332
This kingpin is awesome! Short bed fifth wheel towing solved. I tow with a Crewmax Tundra and I never worry about hitting the cab. This pin solves the need to have a slider hitch (which are heavy, cumbersome and expensive. I needed to watch my weights as well since I tow with a 1/2 ton. No additional weight with replacing the pin. The ride is great too having the shock absorber and air bag in the pin box. Can't say enough good things about it. Once the wedge is set and aligned properly, you are set. Only negative is you need to drop and hook up straight on. It doesn't work well when dropping/hooking at an angle. I keep a torque wrench and a 5/8" socket with me in case I need to adjust the turret back to the "straight" position. 336734
After having used the 5th Airborne Premium 5th Wheel Air Ride King Pin w/ Sidewinder and Turret for about 7,500 miles (one year of towing for me), I would not recommend this pinbox setup unless it was absolutely necessary for your application. PROs: It does provide a nice ride quality (albeit with the occasional odd popping noise) and provides additional clearance for shortbed trucks (and the ability to pull a fifth wheel with a RamBox equipped Ram Pickup). CONs: Poor quality. The turret is not completely square, it requires consistent maintenance for it to operate smoothly and the directions I received with the packaging was not clear (and did not match the posted online instructions which were more up to date). Also, as with all the recent Reese products I have purchased, the powder coat/paint was damaged on delivery and easily flakes off over time. 260846
Installed easily and works great. The amount of maneuverability that this allows is almost unbelievable. Thanks for the videos as well. If you don't have one you don't know what you are missing. 252684
Excellent product, fast shipping, easy installation. 243406
A great purchase. The shock absorber removed virtually all of the chucking. What little that is left is very mild and generally only one bounce. 183217
Excellent product! Nice ride, easy hook up! I almost bought the Pull Rite 12K model 3100. When I saw it weighed 350lbs, I looked for a better solution. The Sidewinder was the answer! No compromise! 15654
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