Tips on how to hook up at an extreme angle?

[TenOC]

We have a 2014 3100RL Montana with Mor/ride RPB72-1116 king pin with a Demco Autoslide 18K 5th wheel hitch.


Last campsite we had to unhook at an 25 to 35 degree angle – the first time for us. When we tried to re-hook we had difficulty connecting the hitch. Any suggestions or tips on how to hook up at an extreme angle?

[Martyn]

CarnationSailor wrote:
Martyn suggested, "have a friendly neighbor hitch up to your trailer and pull to a spot where you can hitch up straight."

This alternative would also require that the locking plate be removed before hitching up with another hitch.

Not so - the locking plate is on the Demco hitch - the pinbox on the trailer is unaltered. That's one of the reasons I bought the Demco over the other slider, as their locking plate is on the pin box. Anyone can pull my trailer.....

[obgraham]

Reading the headline led me in a different direction!

[Cptnvideo]

After reading all the comments, I sure am happy we have a 8' bed on our dually.

[CarnationSailor]

Martyn suggested, "have a friendly neighbor hitch up to your trailer and pull to a spot where you can hitch up straight."

This alternative would also require that the locking plate be removed before hitching up with another hitch.

[Cummins12V98]

Another "SHORT BED" compromise story.

[CarnationSailor]

Ed9824v wrote:
Can rails be removed with the pullrite?

The problem is with the locking plate, not the rails. If you have a locking plate, then the rails serve no purpose. In fact, I had to permanently remove the rails on mine due to the type of pinbox I had.

[Ed9824v]

Can rails be removed with the pullrite?

[Martyn]

Campinfan wrote:
I have a Demco but there is no locking plate, it has the silver guide rails on the hitch. I have pulled them off or backed them all the way off....was pretty easy.....hooked up and then pulled out. If I had them off. I stopped, put them on and rehitched. Only took a few minutes. Without the rails in place, the hitch still works, it just does not "autoslide". If I had the rails backed off, I just slid them over once the trailer was straight and then tightened them.
My hitch is a few years old now so the design might be a bit different from the new ones.

Mine is the same as this ^^. I would do exactly the same given the circumstances. Just a few bolts to loosen off/remove and the hitch acts like a regular hitch and doesn't slide.
The only alternative to this is to have a friendly neighbor hitch up to your trailer and pull to a spot where you can hitch up straight.

[GottaRunGottaCa]

I have a Pullrite 24K Superglide hitch, the owners manual says the maximum angle of the trailer to the truck (being parallel to each other) is 10 degrees either way

[Campinfan]

I have a Demco but there is no locking plate, it has the silver guide rails on the hitch. I have pulled them off or backed them all the way off....was pretty easy.....hooked up and then pulled out. If I had them off. I stopped, put them on and rehitched. Only took a few minutes. Without the rails in place, the hitch still works, it just does not "autoslide". If I had the rails backed off, I just slid them over once the trailer was straight and then tightened them.
My hitch is a few years old now so the design might be a bit different from the new ones.

[CarnationSailor]

TenOC wrote:

CarnationSailor wrote:
s.

You could remove the locking plate from your pin box,.

To remove the locking plate is a 1/2 to 3/4 hour job.

Maybe that's another reason why removing and re-installing it isn't a viable solution.

[TenOC]

CarnationSailor wrote:
s.

You could remove the locking plate from your pin box,.

To remove the locking plate is a 1/2 to 3/4 hour job.

[opnspaces]

Not knowing 5th wheels is the locking plate necessary to move the trailer? Can you hitch up without it and move the trailer to level ground and stop and re-hitch? Yes it's a bunch of extra work. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

[CarnationSailor]

I have the same Demco hitch. Knowing that it will be extremely hard to unhitch/hitch up at an angle greated than 5 degrees, I make sure I never have to do that. This includes not reserving curved pull-thru's.

You could remove the locking plate from your pin box, hitch up, and then TRY to re-install the locking plate; however, I expect it would be very difficut or impossible to re-install the locking plate.

I wish I could be of more help.