Hitching and Un-hitching my Fifth Wheel

Easily one of the most nerve-wracking parts to buying our fifth wheel was getting used to hitching and unhitching it. I had heard stories of people dropping their fifth wheel onto the bed rails of their trucks and have always had visions of death or dismemberment of important body parts while I hookup or unhook. To say I’m paranoid might be an exaggeration – but, very particular and extra cautious are probably fair.

Hitch Selection

For me, and I’m not knocking anyone’s brand of fifth wheel hitch – part of my decision for which hitch would I use came down to the type of mechanism that held the fifth wheel pin to the hitch. I went with the B&W Companion fifth wheel hitch because it has jaws that wrap around the pin. They’re not the only brand that does this, but I liked the definite visual of knowing that I was latched. Secondly, I can’t close my hitch arm to lock the pin in place unless it’s properly seated. Finally, it’s just really nice to have a completely empty bed without the hitch in place. But, this isn’t a safety concern – it’s a Doug-spastic-ness concern.

Hooking Up/Getting Hitched

First off, if my fifth wheel is parked anywhere, I am using wheel chocks. Always. They’re the first thing on when I start unhitching and the last thing off when I am hitching up to leave. You don’t want any forward or backward movement allowed when you’re hooking up to alleviate any undue stress on the front landing gear. The wheel chocks prevent that.

1. Ensure wheel chocks are in place
2. Ensure that rear stablizers are UP on the fifth wheel (if you have them, checking that kind of cross-stabilizers are loosened when doing so)
3. If you have them, ensure that any kind of cross-stabilizers on the front landing gear are loosened
4. Lower tailgate on pickup truck
5. Back the pickup truck until the king pin on the camper is close to the hitch
6. Using the front-landing gear, raise or lower the king pin so that it is slightly lower than the fifth wheel plate
7. Open the arm/jaws on the fifth wheel hitch
8. Gently back the truck up so that the king pin rides up the fifth wheel hitch and into the awaiting jaws
9. You will see the handle close on its own if you are lined up right and back far enough
10. Put the emergency break on
11. Close the arm/jaws on the fifth wheel hitch and pin into place
12. VISUALLY check that the jaws of the hitch are around the king pin
13. Plug-in the power umbilical cord
14. Plug-in the emergency breakaway cable
15. Raise the landing gear so that they are just off of the ground (1″ or less)
16. DO A PULL TEST:
    1. In the truck, manually activate the trailer breaks
    2. Take off the emergency break
    3. Press the gas and try to pull away from the camper
    4. Put the emergency break back on
17. Raise the landing gear to their fully retracted position
18. Close tailgate
19. Remove wheel chocks & stow wheel chocks
20. If needed and used, you’ll need to pull the RV forward a little to remove whatever is under the low-side tire
21. Stow everything
22. Do your final walk around the camper – locking doors, compartments, checking your antenna is down, etc.

Unhitching

Once you get to your destination, you will need to level the camper however your RV is setup. The lucky few have the fully automatic systems. They just push a button and go. For the rest of us, we have to level side by side using boards or Lynx Levelers to raise the low side. Once you’re leveled side to side, you can start the unhitching process:

1. Chock the wheels (both sides)
2. Lower the truck’s tailgate
3. Disconnect the power umbilical cord
4. Disconnect the emergency breakaway cable
5. Lower your landing gear via the motor and then the inner leg
6. Raise the hitch up until you see space between the fifth wheel king pin plate and the hitch coupler
7. Unlatch the hitch handle, this will release the pin from the jaws
8. Pull the truck forward
9. Level the camper front to back using the front landing gear

In Closing & Caveats

These steps are obviously, specific to my camper and hitch. You need to modify these for your own specific setup.