Mirror for seeing hitch

[Mark & Andrea]

Why doesn’t Grand Design have a mirror installed on the nose of their 5th wheels to assist in connecting the hitch?

[TucsonJim]

I had one on my Keystone Cougar. It was worthless. The angle was wrong and since it was convex, the image was too small to be useful. In addition, it was easily scratched.

Several owners use portable back up cameras that they position to afford a good view of the hitching process.

[Yoda]

Ford has a bed camera that I plan to get on my new truck. In the past I have used one of those tennis balls on a pole (magnetic) and set it on the hitch. When hooking up it just gets knocked off. I also painted a dot on my hitch to align up with a dot on the king pin.

Hope this helps

[Canyonlight]

I used to stick a pool noodle section about a foot long in my hitch pin receiver area and that worked very well simply looking over my right shoulder when backing. When I got close to where the pin touched the noodle, I just removed it as simply as it was place it into the hitch jaw are. The noodle size fit snuggly into the hitch jaw area. After several times hitching I have not used it or anything else for years as practice and experience makes backing to the correct area relatively easy.

The few older trailers I have seen with the "mirror" have also lost their reflective capacity due to scratches, the elements, cleaning, possibly inferior quality, etc.

Dan

[Cate&Rob]

With my manual slider, I can see the hitch plate when it is in the rear maneuver/hitch position.
Makes hitching easy and lots of room between the open truck tailgate and the front of the 5th wheel.
I can also be at any angle to the trailer.

Rob

[bradnailer]

Ford has a bed camera that I plan to get on my new truck. In the past I have used one of those tennis balls on a pole (magnetic) and set it on the hitch. When hooking up it just gets knocked off. I also painted a dot on my hitch to align up with a dot on the king pin.

Hope this helps

I use the Ford supplied camera on my 2019 F250. It has a regular view which helps lining up to the pin them a zoom that I use when locking into the hitch. Works great! They also have one also with zoom that I use when hooking up my utility trailer.

[bogen2]

I added this mirror to the top of my pin box. Now I can see that the pin and hitch are lined up in the truck mirror, and that the release lever has moved to the locked position. Works great - no more twisting around and stretching trying to see. Folds down for travel.

Bob