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KTM Guy · 10-01-2010, 11:46 PM

Think of your pin box as a pipe wrench with the jaws latched on to your frame. Your hitch pushes up on the end of the wrench and the frame is unaffected, even by big pushes from bumps in the road. The frame designer built in a safety margin to withstand those and somewhat larger inputs.

Now substitute a longer wrench. Are you sure the frame will be unaffected by those same pushes on a longer wrench? How much of the safety margin does the longer wrench eat up?

Do you feel lucky?

My 2¢

Rolling Rock · 10-03-2010, 06:13 AM

Maybe I am misunderstanding the reason for his wanting to use an extender. The distance from the center of the pin to the edge or side of the trailer remains constant. That distance is about 4 feet. If you use an extender to move the front of the trailer back from the rear of the cab to keep it from hitting because of the position of the hitch. You are only correcting one aspect of the problem. When you turn the sides of the trailer are still the same distance from the center line and will hit if the turning point (hitch pin) is not 4' or more behind the cab. If you doubt my word, make yourself a model out of paper with the correct ratios and see for your self. Don't ask me how I know this won't work. The problems with overpowering the strength of the frame will seem insignificant when you can't pull the trailer. Sorry.
Rolling ROck

RustyJC · 10-03-2010, 06:25 AM

You're exactly right, and the situation can be even worse with a 102" wide RV like ours. At a 90 degree angle, if the distance from the rear of the cab to the kingpin bore in the hitch is less than 1/2 the width of the RV, there's going to be contact. An extended pinbox isn't going to correct that problem - that's why a sliding 5th wheel hitch is recommended.

Rusty

transamz9 · 10-04-2010, 04:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rolling Rock

Maybe I am misunderstanding the reason for his wanting to use an extender. The distance from the center of the pin to the edge or side of the trailer remains constant. That distance is about 4 feet. If you use an extender to move the front of the trailer back from the rear of the cab to keep it from hitting because of the position of the hitch. You are only correcting one aspect of the problem. When you turn the sides of the trailer are still the same distance from the center line and will hit if the turning point (hitch pin) is not 4' or more behind the cab. If you doubt my word, make yourself a model out of paper with the correct ratios and see for your self. Don't ask me how I know this won't work. The problems with overpowering the strength of the frame will seem insignificant when you can't pull the trailer. Sorry.
Rolling ROck

There are hitches that does fix that problem without have to get a slider but they are quite $$$$$$$$$$$$$. They pin at the hitch and swivel at the camper.