Lightest 5th Wheel and Install Kit for a 2018 Ford F-150 with 6-1/2 Foot Bed

Updated 04/02/2018 | Published 03/30/2018

Question:

I have a 2018 f-150 with 3.5 ecoboost and 10 speed trans, am looking for the lightest combination 5th wheel hitch, bed is empty. truck specs are gcwr 16k, max trailer wt. 10600lbs,gvwr 7050, cwr 1795lbs on sticker,driver side. looking at 28ft trailer with dry wt of 6976 + 500lbs stuff, pin wt is1240. truck bed is 6.5ft. how does front storage in trailer affect pin wt

asked by: Mike K

Expert Reply:

For your 2018 Ford F-150 with 6-1/2 foot bed the lightest set up is going to consist of Pro Series 16K hitch PS30094 with semi-custom installation kit # RP30035-31. The hitch weighs under 130 pounds and the install kit is under 62 pounds.

However I do recommend going with hitch # RP30051 even though it is a little heavier and just under 148 pounds. The reason is that the 16K uses a slide-bar jaw which allows for a lot of movement of the trailer king pin in the hitch creating back and forth movement called chucking. The 16K on the other hand uses a dual jaw design so it is more secure with less chucking.

Anything placed in front of the axles on the trailer will increase the pin weight. The closer the weight is to the king pin the more it will increase the weight. Storage at the front of the trailer, below the overhang will increase the pin weight but not by how much weight there actually is.

So if you put 500 pounds of stuff in the front storage of the trailer the pin weight would only increase a fraction of that. But by how much I couldn't say for sure. You could say that if the weight was half way between the pin and the axles then half of the weight would be applied to the pin. It is probably less but for estimating purposes it will work.

expert reply by: Michael H