Been looking at sliding hitches for towing with a short bed. Have heard alot of good things about the Pullrite 16K Superglide which is an automatic sliding hitch. Is it worth the extra money or are manually sliding hitches just as good (If of course you remember to manually slide them back in a tight spot).

Main concern, is not whether I remember to unlock a manual sliding hitch in a tight spot, but do you think the Pullrite is a SAFER hitch when towing? In an emergency situation would the Pullrite have the advantage?

In 3 years of towing a fifth wheel with a shortbed I have not once had to slide my manual sliding hitch from its forward position. Edited by: Max Power

as long as youer pin is ahead of youer bulkhead you should not need a slide hitch if it comes down bofore youer bulkhead which some do you would need a sliding hitch

I have the super glide and love it... I tow a weekend warrior 32 footer with an 04 HD short bed and when I saw how well it performed on a tight turn I am sure glade I got it. The hitch did its job really well and missed the back cab by inches, no guess work and I dont have to worry about it.


The best part only you can tow with it it only works with pull rite hitcjes the special plate is great. Great for theft prevention.


Only down side is that you will need to call a couple of friends when you need to remove it. Its a ball buster...http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/smiley18.gif


Search under my name and see the truck with the trailer.

I have a Husky 16k dual pivot with slider. I always used the
slider in the beginning..... Than stopped. The slider is
nice to have in a tight area. If you camp (I presume) in state
parks or lesser campgrounds, the sliding hitch is good. Stick to
reputable (poor choice of words) campgrounds, a slider won't be
neccesary.





Mine I take out in two pieces (only once on my own) A friend
helped the other time. Both out of shape and had no problems
lifting.



Ultimately get a reputable hitch. Reese, Pullright, Hijacker....

Thanks guys for all the replys. Back in '96 I had a Chev short box and towed the 5th wheel without a slider hitch, however the new Dodge short bed is not as long as previous shortbeds and makes me a little nervous towing w/o a slider hitch. What to do, hate spending the xtra $$ for a slider hitch, but I guess it only takes one bad experience. I have really been impressed with the Pullrite from what I have and read.


Uplink - I have heard there is a plate available through Pullrite which you can put on the Pullrite plate that is mounted to the kingpin, which allows others to tow your 5th wheel in a pinch. Do you know anything about this?

I have the Reese 18K signature series in my '03 Dodge SB, as others have said when I first got it I used the slide, then I realized I did not need it 99% of the time, but when you do it is worth the extra bucks. The signature series is pretty new, it has a one piece jaw instead of two like the other Reese hitches, the install was knid of a pain, fishing the bolts through the frame through a hole 2 feet from where the bolt had to go was quite tricky, but the kit comes with a pretty neat wire to do it. It has a 7 year warrantee as well, 2 years more than the regular Reese.

On Dodge you have to fish the bolts through the frame but on a GM you don't.

Tschwab



The only plate that I have heard about is the dealer plate, this allows
dealers a to hook up a non plated king pin to be used with a pullrite
hitch. It screws on but its a temp fix.



The guy who installed my hitch told me they can pick up the 5er if need
be but I had Giant RV install the plate but a guy down south installed
the hitch, did a nice clean job. PM me if you need more info.

I had an extended cab, short bed and with my 25' Terry I needed the
slide in tight turns, putting the trailor at 90 degrees would have
taken out my rear window. I now have a crew cab, short bed and with the
same Terry I assume a slide hitch is also needed (getting a signature
18K hitch), it seems to depend on the trailor more than the short
bed. I forgot to move the hitch to the forward position once,
only got 1/2 mile down the road before I noticed, electric slide would
be cool but not worth the extra $$ to me since I never had an issue.
I'm only getting the new signature series because the rails mount under
the bed rather than on top like my existing hitch. My .02

I bet you will like the hitch, my only complaint is the weight, it is one heavy, aukward piece of metal to move around when you want to take it out or put it in.

I have the Pullrite and absolutely love it. Yes, its $$$, but worth it to me. I pull a 33' 5'er and on tight turns, it misses my back window by just a few inches.


There is an adapter available so other 5'er hitches can tow yours. It used to be a piece of junk that you wouldn't have wanted to tow very far with, but they have redesigned it so it works very well now.


The adapter runs about $150 IIRC.

Cargopilot & others with the Pullrite Superglide, On the plate that mounts to you kingpin, did you bolt it on or welded on?


Thanks - Terry

Hi Terry,


You can either bolt or weld the adapter plate onto your pinbox. The hitch includes bolts to do this. I drilled and tapped my pinbox so I could easily remove the adapter if I ever had to. Some guys prefer to have a solid, welded on plate. I've had no problems with mine - I did use threadlocker on the bolts - in two seasons and over 10k miles towing. It did come in handy when my dealer accidentally used a standard plate on their loader to move my rig and sheared the wedge off the adapter plate - the bolt on system made it much easier when they replaced my plate.


Overall, I really like this hitch. It leaves a clean box when removed, allowed me to replace my extended pinbox with a shorter one reducing the overall length when towing, and reduced the liklihood that the back of the extended pinbox would hit my boxsides in a tight turn (which almost happened several times). The hitch's locking mechanism is very solid. We do often camp in state parks with smaller sites and close trees necessitating nearly 90 degree turns and the superglide insures the camper doesn't hit the cab, or that the back of the pinbox doesn't hit the side of my box.


I have the old style adapter to allow my 5'er to be moved by a non-superglide hitch. I, too, have heard that their new adapter is a much improved and more expensive solution. I am not aware of any adapter that allows a superglide hitch to safely tow a 5'er without the adapter plate.


I did my own install which is documented in My Pictures in my sig.


Good luck!


Don

had the same problem,i called the frame co. and ordered an extended pin box for the 5 th. wheeler. set the trailer back 10" and i can put it into a 90* angle with plenty of room.especially on cold nights and in the rain you do not have to get out and play with the hitch. I have pulled it this way for over 50 000 miles on a short box. Looking foward to going back to a diesel the 6000 motor is killing me. 5 mpg with load between Pa and Tampa Fl.
new 05 dura max will be ready for pick up monday. short box crew cab 4 by 4
ride safe,
ken

do you not like the husky i will be installing mine tomorrow

One thing to keep in mind in the Automatic Slider vs Manual for a shortbox. If you ever unintentionally jacknife your truck/trailer, for example on slippery road or emergency brake situation, without the auto slider your 5th will be visiting the rear seat area of your truck. I keep 3 of my most precious belted in the back seat of my crew on our trips, and I don't want the pinbox of my 5th shattering out the rear window if the unthinkable happens.

My .02

We went for a year without a problem with our short bed truck and 102" wide 5th wheel trailer; but during a 7,000 trip we recently took I forgot and turned too sharp while making a U-turn in a parking lot at the end of a long driving day. Trailer was ok but we dented the truck cab and knocked out the back window. Cost us over $500 to fix it. :mad:

We decided it was too easy to do it again so we now have a PullRite SuperGlide 16K. Found a little used one for less than half what a new one costs. Yes it is heavy but it works great--there is now over 5" of clearance when truck is almost 90 degrees to the trailer.:D

You might look at the B&W trun over hitchs. Very good system for goosenecks and 5th wheel. 18k rated and I can take it out in 5 min. no rails clean bed. I have never needed a slide with the trailers I have pulled. This hitch cam be adjuste 3 posistion.;)