Need a hitch height measurement......

[oscar]

Can someone tell me what the approximate height of their hitch is for a 4100 or 415RW? I suspect the others are probably close....

Also, any guesstimate as to how much the 3000 or so pin weight of one of these monsters will push my Chebby 3500 DRW down?

Started putting the hitch in today. Got the front rail and the custom frame brackets in position and bolted down. Not a whole lot of fun as the mercury was around 34ºF

Need to put the legs on the hitch and the whole thing in place to determine the location of the second rail. I have three height hole sets to choose from and I'd like to get the right ones the first time....

Thanks.

 

[Bob&Patty]

My vertical hitch bolts are in the second hole down from the top. Yours might need to be changed to a different hole. The bedrails are higher on a newer Chevy........so. Here's the deal, you need 5-6" of bed to 5er clearance and you want the 5er to set level. It might just be a trial and error thing. Hopefully someone with a late model GM truck can answer your question. Will it drop the rear of the truck...maybe. Depends on how heavy the pin weight is when your all loaded up to travel.

 

[oscar]

My vertical hitch bolts are in the second hole down from the top. Yours might need to be changed to a different hole. The bedrails are higher on a newer Chevy........so. Here's the deal, you need 5-6" of bed to 5er clearance and you want the 5er to set level. It might just be a trial and error thing. Hopefully someone with a late model GM truck can answer your question. Will it drop the rear of the truck...maybe. Depends on how heavy the pin weight is when your all loaded up to travel.

Well, since I'm looking at a 4100 or 415RW the pin weight will be in the 3000# order of magnitude. My bolts are not in a hole yet, hence my question. I am installing/assembling the hitch myself. Yes, I know I want it level, would like to have a starting point though.

 

[Vtxkid]

You can figure your truck will drop between 2.5 to 3.5 inches based off the rv's you mentioned. Set your hitch at the second hole down as mentioned and you might have to slightly adjust height once you hooked up the first time but that will be a good starting point.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC

 

[oscar]

Allrighty then. Put the second rail in today. Based on what I'm reading on the Chevvy forums the "walls" are higher than their ancestors, plus I have a tonneau cover rail on there, so I went with the highest setting. Got the custom frame brackets and torqued the bolts on the chassis (fishing those was fun) down to the required 150 ft/lbs. Can't get the torque wrench with a socket between the chassis and the bed to torque the rail bolts down, so had to order one of these:

http://www.toolsource.com/torque-adapter-p-109008.html

Will torque these bolts down later this week.

Then it gets interesting, as I also want to be able to carry a truck camper. So, working on a solution to re-establish a level floor for same and mitigate the protruding rails from the 5th wheel hitch.....have a few ideas.....stay tuned.

 

[Bob&Patty]

The bed camper will an interesting thing to see. If its toooo long , you wont have much of a turning radias.

 

[traveler44]

When I set up my hitch for the Bighorn I measured the distance from the pin to the bottom of the overhang on the front of the fifth wheel. Then I measured how high I would need to set the hitch for the clearance I wanted above the bed rails. When I hitched up the clearance between the bed rails and the overhang was about 5"-6" and amazingly the whole set up came out close enough to level. I have raised the hitch one inch since then because I have bigger tires on the Bighorn now and I wanted the weight close to even on the axles. Tom.

 

[mobilcastle]

Make sure you do a jackknife test to see if the bottom of the wings that your pin box is bolted too or the bottom of the pin box do not hit the top of your side rails-I have read where an owner drove away from the dealer and on the first tight turn destroyed the top of his truck rail. Chevy bed rails are higher -I have a 2011 Chevy 3500 HD dually. I ended up taking off my tonneau cover because it was going to hit the rail system and replaced it with a trifold that has no rail system. Good luck.