5th wheel height? Is 13' 2" an issue?

[tuffr2]

I just looked at Flagstaff 5th wheels and was mildly impressed. I looked at the brochure and see it is 156" high with the A/C. My old 5th wheel was only 12' 4" high at the A/C unit.

[Old-Biscuit]

Our 5th wheel was 'listed' at 12'10"
When hitched to truck and after reloacting spring pack to lowest shakle holes (raising trailer) so it towed level.......actual measured height is 13'4"


We traveled secondary/back roads for 7 yrs FT and PAID Attention to SIGNAGE


Interstate travel....no issues

[Itchytoe]

13'2" is pretty tall. You'll definitely have to keep an eye on clearance signs. I recommend getting a tape measure and actually measuring your rig to make sure it really is 13'2".

[tuffr2]

My previous 5th wheel was a lot bigger than the Flagstaff. But my previous 5th wheel was tall enough at 12' 4".

The freeway is not a problem I know but sooner or later you have to get to the state park or RV park which are usually on some narley roads and thru the woods. At least in the east.

Maybe in the west where there are a lot fewer trees it would not be an issue.

[mrgrayaz]

We're close to 13'6" with the axle flip. Never had an issue....though we paid attention...
Its an overblown issue in my opinion, though we did see a Class A with its 3 AC's scraped off at Liberty RV Park in New York lol

I suppose when it costs you $5k+ an incident you spread the word far and wide....

[consolenut]

im at legal max of 13'6. I make sure i am level when i depart. If not my a/c may be meeting the highway.

[Searching_Ut]

Mine is somewhere between 13’4” and 13’6” hard to be exact as measurement varies slightly from time to time. Signs and slight prep landing seem to keep us out of trouble. We do get into branches on a regular basis, especially in forest service and national park campgrounds. We have to be pretty careful not to get branches under the solar panels as we slide in, but always have made it work. Sometimes they let me climb up on rig and trim branches, sometimes we have to find alternatives.

[Jshopes81]

I drive cranes and wireline units all the time that are 13+ feet tall on some really stupid back roads. Pay attention to signage. Something to think about, ive seen some equipment moved with a pilot car. Alot of these pilot cars have a post rigged up on their front bumper to check clearance going down the road. If the pilot car tags something the convoy is stopped and the obstruction is dealt with. You could potentially rig up something on your front bumper as a feeler to match the height of your tallest point and just attach it when your in a questionable situation. Ive had wireline trucks show up on a wellsite missing ac units and a feeler setup would be way easier than lissening for crunching.

[JpalmerCass]

With modern pickup trucks so high it's not uncommon to see 5th wheel trailers being towed tilted with the front end high making the trailer in effect even higher than when level. Reversing the shackles and other methods of leveling the trailer by raising the rest of it still result in a very high rig, something I think undesirable.

One of the truck makers should make a low slung "towing special" dually. The generation of Ford dually recently replaced sits considerably lower than the new generation and looks much sleeker and more purposeful. And no doubt is much easier for the codgers who use them to get in and out of.

[Itchytoe]

Originally Posted by JpalmerCass

One of the truck makers should make a low slung "towing special" dually. The generation of Ford dually recently replaced sits considerably lower than the new generation and looks much sleeker and more purposeful. And no doubt is much easier for the codgers who use them to get in and out of.

I've had a Ford F250 and an F350 4x4. Both were taller than my current F350 dually. I'm not sure about the other makes, but Ford's duallies do sit lower than the SRWs.

[dbfrv3]

There's a subscription-based low clearance database here: Low Clearance POI - GPS Data

There's a free list from Coach Net, by state and road number, here https://member.coach-net.com/members...bridgeinfo.pdf

I recently had a concern about clearance for an unmarked railroad overpass on US 20 in NY. I called the local sheriff's department and they were happy to help. Better that, than scraping 5er parts off the bridge.

What's the old saying? Know before you go.

[IC2]

With 25 psig in the air bags, we are leveled at 13'4/5" depending on load. If I bump the air bags to 30 psig, 13'6'7", again load considered. We have traveled over 25,000 trouble free miles all over the US and Eastern Canada with nary a problem. The last 5er was at 13'6" and that one went over 50K miles with no oops problem to the roof. Watch signs and use an RV dedicated GPS and there should be no problem.

[n0mad]

13'4" measured on our new truck, and I'm pretty sure it was a a couple inches higher on the old one. No issues, but as mentioned, be cautious of signage and plan your routes ahead of time.

As I understand it, most tractor trailers are around 13'6" so it should be a non-issue, as long as the big trucks can go there. They seem to go everywhere, so I don't worry too much about it.


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WE DID HOWEVER rip open our roof a few years ago on a low hanging tree branch entering a campsite. Insurance covered it and replaced it with a FlexArmor roof, which gives us a lot of peace of mind. Watch those trees entering campgrounds.

[southernlady]

https://www.heavyhaul.net/trucking-l...ht-limits-map/ Shows the legal height limit by state.

Our 5th wheel is 13’4”. We get uncomfortable if we go under a bridge at 14’ for two reasons, not much wiggle room and when a road is repaved, they don’t typically remeasure and resign the overpass. And they sure as heck, don’t raise the overpass to keep it same as before.

We use a truckers atlas along with a RV GPS that has our height and weight factored in.

Only issue we’ve had was arguing with a tree limb.