On some 5th wheel hitches you can move the head position for and aft. B&W, Reese and some others. Review thier installation manuals to verify. However it does not seem possible with your hitch. If you dealer sold you this hitch I would have them replace it with a model where the head can be mover back a few inches. I would not move the rails as that can compromise towing performance.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the reply. Yes, the dealer has said that he would make it right. My other thought was that I still have two bolt holes in which to raise the hitch plate. If I raise the hitch plate up two bolt holes it would gain me about 3/4 to 1 inch in clearance because of the slope of the front corner of the trailer.

Careful with the height adjustment, you want to use that to make the trailer tow level, otherwise you could overload an axle and tires but not splitting the weight correctly.

Thanks. Its more to see if it would work rather then long term. The truck and trailer go back to the dealer on Monday so they can figure out what to do.

gundealer just wondering. It seems like the turning movement you described was a rather sharp, near 90 degree turn. I have never turned any fifth wheel I've owned (this is number 5) that tight. It can be hard on both the truck and trailer suspension. Keep in mind that your extra short bed, at 65 inches or so, only yields 32 inches or so forward of your hitch head. Your hitch pinbox is probably about 18 inches total, but the pivot is a couple inches shy of that from the kingpin; let's call it 15 inches. 32 + 15 = 47, and your trailer is at least 48 + 48 = 96 inches wide. The pinbox you have is probably your best bet. Changing fixed mount hitches won't help as the kingpin will still be in the same place. Adding a slider will add a significant amount of weight to your truck, and take up much more bed space. A manually activated slider is easily forgotten in the heat of the moment; and an auto slider will really add a lot of weight and take a lot of space, and render your pinbox useless ( it would have to be locked in a straight ahead position, moved the pivot point forward; you can't have two pivot points) Am guessing you have a half ton truck.

You likely will never turn that tight in a forward direction. Rearward, might just take a couple of "pull-ups" to reduce the severity of the turn while backing. Pulling into a back-in campsite, I try to set the trailer up for the turn as much as possible while still travelling in a forward direction. This also minimizes the turn angle in reverse. Hope some of this helps you out. I know how frustrating it can be when an expensive new toy doesn't work out as planned.

Dave

Hi Dave. You are correct about the short bed. Its a Ford half ton. In looking at the Grand Design website video on the Reflection 150 being short bed half ton tow-able made up my decision on what to purchase. I'm not really interested in doing the 90 degree turns either, but when you look at my issue I'm only getting 45 maybe 50 degrees of turn since the left front corner of the trailer hits the third brake light above the rear window which is dead center in the middle of the truck. . In my mind thats not nearly enough turning radius. It would be just nice to know I have the ability to do a 90 should I ever have to. In the years that I drove a tractor trailer I can only remember needing a 90 twice, but those two times saved my butt.LOL. I think GD is doing a little bit of miss advertising. I talked to tech support at GD. They had heard of this issue before, took all of my information and told me to call Lippert about their turning point pin box. Lippert said their pin box works just fine and referred me back to GS. There you go. So on Monday we go back to the dealer to suggest a fix. If its a slider so be it.

gundealer

You should probably start by showing your dealer the Reflection 150 Series video. That is definitely a Ford F-150 with 5 1/2 ft box maneuvering the 5th wheel trailer . . . including 90 degree turns.

Rob

Hi Rob,
Yes they are aware. I think that's the main reason they are bending over backwards to fix the problem.

gundealer You might want to have them check with GD to see if they are using an extended pinbox for the 5-1/2' bed vs a standard pin box. That would move the pivot point back and help with you issue.

Hi Joseph,
By extended pin box do you mean like the 90 degree lippert pin box? If so, that would be the same thing just different names I think. Yes, thats what the Reflection 150 has. Thats my problem. Oh well, Monday will be interesting for sure.

The turning point pin box only comes in one size (as far as I know). What we don’t know, is what hitch Grand Design used in the demonstration F150 with 5.5 ft box.

Rob

You would be correct Rob. Also don't know if they set the fixed hitch back an inch or two to clear the third brake light. Personally I don't see where one or two inches would make all that much difference in setting a fixed hitch. If you can move a slider to accommodate why not a fixed hitch and be done with it. If it boils down to paying 1500 more for a slider or moving the fixed hitch one or two inches I'm inclined to go with moving the inch or two.

One or two inches of clearance (and more!) can go away very quickly if towing across uneven terrain. Note that the Reflection 150 towing demo video is done on level ground.

I have a manual slider which moves the trailer pin back 10". There are a lot of advantages to a manual slider. It is not as difficult as some suggest, to throw the slider handle before backing the trailer. Other advantages include being able to see the hitch out the back window when hitching, clearance between tailgate and trailer, more responsive backing because the hitch point is behind the rear axle.

Rob

gundealer Correct the Turning Point. Did not realize it only came in one length. Which Pullrite hitch do you have? Is it possible to turn the head 180 on the base then turn the base to move the kingpin back?