Dropped 5th wheel

[wulfdog]

Hello, I should get a Darwin Award for this one. I needed to move my 36ft London Air 5th wheel across the RV park to a new space. I thought I had everything secure, but forgot to check to see if the 5th wheel automatically locked like it normally does. After pulling forward and backward several times to miss a picknic table I started off and as the trailer tires reached the pavement boom the trailer came down off the 5th wheel onto the pavement. Looks like it jammed the left hand front jack up into the trailer. How much damage could this have done and how much work will it take to fix this?

[wulfdog]

Hello, I should get a Darwin Award for this one. I needed to move my 36ft London Air 5th wheel across the RV park to a new space. I thought I had everything secure, but forgot to check to see if the 5th wheel automatically locked like it normally does. After pulling forward and backward several times to miss a picknic table I started off and as the trailer tires reached the pavement boom the trailer came down off the 5th wheel onto the pavement. Looks like it jammed the left hand front jack up into the trailer. How much damage could this have done and how much work will it take to fix this?

["007"]

wulfdog sorry about your mishap but welcome to the Newmar forum and irv2.
Some of our 5th wheelers will chime in here to help you out. Don't feel like your along I ripped a rear bumper off a Bounder pulling out of gas station.
Enjoy the forums and do post often.

[GraciesMom]

Just to make you feel better . . . .

When I picked up my first 5th wheel from Camping World and headed out, I hooked it up the way they told me to . . . did everything like they said . . . but they failed to tell me to look to make sure the lock had closed around the pin. I pulled out, made a left turn out of the parking spot, made a right turn to go up by the CW store, then started to make another right turn to go into the main parking lot and WHAM!!! My Avion Westport had come off of the hitch and landed squarely on the back of the bed of my, until then, pristine and beautiful Ford F350. Made a huge dent in the bed on the passenger side, a smaller dent on the driver's side. But boy, nothing like experience to learn my lesson. It was a $1800 repair job. I just left it, assuming I'd do something else like that before it was all over. Never did though. Graduated from the Westport to a 2002 Teton after 6 months of RVing and never had another mishap (knock on wood). Am now in a motorhome though . . . just to make sure!!

[RV Wizard]

wulfdog, welcome to iRV2.com. So sorry to hear of the accident. I don't own a 5th wheel but was taught that a good practice is to connect, hook up the umbilical cord, raise the jack just off the ground, manually lock trailer brakes with the brake controller and try to pull the trailer. If it is not lock properly and does come apart, it will only drop a 1/4" or so & not cause any damage. As to how much it will cost will have to be determined by inspection. Hopefully it will not be as bad as you fear. Good luck and keep us posted.