Blue Ox BedSaver hitch accessory ensures against truck damage

Good and bad things happen when you “drop” a fifth wheel trailer. Bad: damage to truck and RV, embarrassment when family and friends see what happened, plus potential injury. Good: you become great friends with technicians and insurance companies. The Blue Ox BedSaver prevents all this.

The BedSaver is an industry exclusive developed by Blue Ox to address a hazardous problem that fifth wheel pullers have encountered: the kingpin slipping out of the hitch, or failing to become engaged with the hitch, resulting in the kingpin and the trailer nose crashing into the truck bed. Such a drop can inflict severe damage to the truck and RV, and carries the potential for injury.

The BedSaver solution provides a simple add-on component to the truck bed hitch. This BedSaver component “catches” the kingpin and secures it should it come loose from the coupler. The BedSaver is an easy installation with no drilling or hitch modifications needed. The hitch operates just as it normally would. There are no moving parts to wear out and it requires minimal maintenance.

“The BedSaver is a nice insurance policy against costly damage to your truck bed,” said Jay Hesse, president of Blue Ox. “Dropping a fifth wheel happens more often than you think. We saw a need in the marketplace to give fifth wheel pullers greater peace of mind about preventing such an accident. The BedSaver is the result.”

For the RVW Lil Rocker, Blue Ox offers its exclusive BedSaver PL hitch attachment to lock the coupled kingpin. The BedSaver PL uses a counterweighted plate that pivots down to let the kingpin mate with the coupler before snapping in place. This prevents the kingpin from accidentally coming loose during transit. Simply unlock the BedSaver PL to raise the kingpin for unhitching.

RV Fifth Wheeling: On the Level

At times fifth wheel owners complain of their inability to access stuff in their pickup bed when the fiver is hitched up. If only they could stick their arm in between the bottom of the fifth wheel and the top of the bed rails, but alas, often there's just too little room. "Why not," they ask, "raise the fifth wheel hitch up a mite, and increase that space in between. There's a couple of good reasons.

Fifth wheels like being "on the level." There are adjustments on both the fiver's pin box and on the truck's hitch to be able to get both leveled out when hitched and standing on flat ground. The first reason for setting the hitch height so that all's level is for the sake of over-nighting on the road. It's a mighty hefty inconvenience to have to unhitch and set landing gear to make the rig "livable." Sure, you could conceivably leave it hitched and grin and bear the uphill walk getting to bed, but your RV refrigerator won't tolerate the pitch.

Another reason: Pitch the fifth wheel "back on its wheels" and you've gone and upset the designer's center of gravity. Fifth wheels are designed to properly distribute their weight over both tires and fifth wheel hitch. Throw more weight to the back, on to the tires, and you've put your tires into a greater load. If you're already close to safe tire load limits and you shift more weight onto them, hot running tires and the resultant chance of a blow out are on the horizon. Blowing tires on a rig that's already not balanced properly is a recipe for a big disaster.

Keep on the level and keep everybody happy: Your refrigerator, your tires, and your insurance company!

Fifth wheel hitch eases pain of sharp turning with short bed trucks

In this two-minute episode from the RVtoday TV show, host Stew Oleson and Motorhome Magazine's Bob Livingston demonstrate a hitch from PullRite that enables fifth wheel trailer owners with short bed trucks to make sharp turns without damaging their truck or coach.