Even if you’ve got the most capable pickup truck on the market, there will be times when its trailer hitch just isn’t nok til belastningen you want to pull. Sure, you can keep piling junk into the trailer or the bed and hope for the best, but we both know you’re only kidding yourself. Rather than hurt yourself, kill your truck, or worse, kill someone else, you need a different hitch.

That’s where femte hjul hitches come into play. These don’t hang out under your rear bumper but instead are installed in the bed, which gives much more safety and stability when towing heavy loads. They also open up a better turning radius for easier manøvrering af traileren.

JOST TAPE Fifth wheel 37C reparationssæt trailerdele

The Drive’s editors have been there and done that with trailer towing, and can tell you first hand that it’s a bad idea to rely on a traditional hitch for the heaviest loads. So let’s get rolling and find out what fifth wheels are all about.

We’re not talking about your awkward habit of tagging along on your friends’ double dates here, though you might want to talk to someone about it—just not us. We’re talking about a type of trailer hitch that allows for the connection of a cargo attachment. If you’ve ever looked at the back of a semi-truck, you’ll know what we’re on about. It’s the U-shaped hitch where the large trailers are anchored. In pickup trucks, a fifth wheel is installed in the bed.

If you’ve spent as much time laughing at car videos on the internet, as we have, you’re bound to have seen some poor sap pulling a voldsomt overlæsset trailer. Hvor sjove de end er, tjener disse videoer faktisk det formål at vise os, hvorfor et femte hjul er vigtigt. Ved tung belastning bliver det bagerste træk presset ned, hvilket kan få vægten over forhjulene til at skifte og reducere køretøjets stabilitet under bugsering. Drejeskivekoblinger er installeret mellem bagakslen og kabinen på lastbilen, hvilket i høj grad forbedrer trækvognens stabilitet og køredynamik.

En anden stor fordel ved femhjulede trailere er, at rotationspunktet mellem lastbil og trailer åbner muligheden for at dreje og trække lasten fra en meget større række vinkler. Uden risiko for jackknifing kan bugserkøretøjet drejes i en meget stejlere vinkel, hvilket muliggør lettere manøvrering.

No. You’ll need at least a half-ton truck like a Ram 1500 or Ford F-150, but it’s an even better idea to tow with a fifth wheel using a heavy-duty truck. The Ford F-250 and Chevy Silverado 2500 are both fine examples. This is because you need to have a truck with a tilladt totalvægt that exceeds the weight of the truck and trailer tongue weight, which is quite a bit easier with today’s heavy-duty trucks.

Den anden ting at huske på er sengens længde. En af fordelene ved et vendehjul er, at det åbner op for et stort rotationsområde for lastbilen og traileren. Mange store sættevognsvogne har et udhæng foran trækpunktet, som kan banke ind i førerhuset, hvis sengen er for kort.

Det er værd at bemærke, at lastbilens nyttelastkapacitet spiller en rolle for, hvor meget den kan trække med et drejeskive, og at anhængerens pinvægt også skal overvejes, inden den kobles til for at trække et læs.

Bliv uddannet!

The term half-ton is used to describe a truck’s payload capacity or the amount of stuff it can carry in its bed. Since a ton is 2,000 pounds, a half-ton would theoretically be able to haul 1,000 pounds, but modern pickups generally have much higher payload capacity ratings. The half-ton term is still used because of its familiarity with consumers.

Heavy-duty pickup trucks har rammer og komponenter, der giver dem mulighed for at trække og trække meget tungere læs end deres halvtons modstykker. Disse lastbiler kunne betragtes som pickupper på 3/4 ton eller 1 ton. 

A tow hitch is a component that is connected to a vehicle’s chassis that allows towing a trailer. Fifth wheel hitches are located inside the truck bed, while traditional tow hitches are usually located below the rear bumper.

A vehicle’s gross vehicle weight rating, or GVWR, is the total amount of weight that it can safely carry. That not only includes the weight of a trailer or load, but also encompasses fuel, passengers, and the weight of the vehicle itself.

You’ve got questions, Drevet har svar!

EN: Selvom de fungerer på samme måde, er svanehalse typisk billigere og mindre invasive at installere og bruge end vendehjulstræk er. Det skyldes, at svanehalskoblinger er simple kugletræk, der monteres i et lastvognslad, mens femhjulsinstallationer kræver store komponenter, der stikker ud af ladet. Svanehalse bruges mere til kommerciel og landbrugs bugsering, mens femte hjul bruges til at trække ting som RV trailere.

EN: Given the severe consequences of a poorly installed hitch, it’s probably best to leave the installation to a professional. Those jobs can cost anywhere from $750 to $2,000 or more, depending on the type of hitch and truck it’s being installed on.

EN: Ja og nej. Ja, du kan fjerne koblingen, men i mange tilfælde forbliver skinnerne og nogle komponenter i installationen. Nyere hitch-design remedy this problem with systems that don’t obstruct the bed when removed, so do your research to find the right solution.