In my off time, the little I have, I am a First Responder/ECA/Firefighter for a county in West Texas. I-10 runs right through the middle of our response area, with three large truck stops also in the area. I gave up counting the number of times I have responded to trucks loosing their trailers. Believe me it happens all of the time, they just don't talk about it. Trying to get a loaded trailer off of a parking lot or road normally requires a crane and the story is always the same, the truckers don't know how it happened. They checked every thing after they hooked up and even did a pull test. The worst was a fully loaded LPG tanker that went over a slight bump in the truck stop exit roadway. They had to off load the LPG before even attempting to raise the trailer. The pucker factor was extremly high on that one.
I was at the local dealer getting a new hitch installed (got a Reese 16K) and asked about the BedSaver. The service manager said that the real problem is user error and not hitch failures. If I can be sure I always hookup correctly there is no need for one. He then walked me out to the service bays where their two tow/service trucks were.... both had wrinkles in the bed. Was kind of funny
* This post was
edited 11/03/09 07:27pm by HobbyTalk *
ratfink09 wrote: Was just on the USA Trailer Hitch web site and there was one testimonial of a guy who said his fifth wheel with a pin weight of 2k crushed his Bed Saver. Anyone have this experience? My 3400RL Montana has that kind of pin weight.
Maybe he had it installed incorrectly. Our pin weight is 3.1 K and the bedsaver saved our pickup bed last year. Did not do any damage to the bedsaver. Or the pickup bed.
ratfink09 wrote: Was just on the USA Trailer Hitch web site and there was one testimonial of a guy who said his fifth wheel with a pin weight of 2k crushed his Bed Saver. Anyone have this experience? My 3400RL Montana has that kind of pin weight.
Maybe he had it installed incorrectly. Our pin weight is 3.1 K and the bedsaver saved our pickup bed last year. Did not do any damage to the bedsaver. Or the pickup bed.
Same here, but just checked mine to see if it would work and not hurt the bed saver and it did only drops a couple of inches and no damage.
CactusJohn wrote: You’ll have people tell you that you don’t need one, because if you always do things correctly, never make a mistake, and “PAY ATTENTION” you’ll never use it. Those people are absolutely correct—that’s why I have one. The BedSaver is very cheap insurance for us less-than-perfect folks.
Yessir, I am one of "those people". In three years of full timing in a 5er, I never had a problem with the hitch releasing and dropping the trailer on the truck bed.
Am I, therefore, "perfect"? Oh, no, far from it. However, having had a career in aviation, I am well versed in doing the same things, in the same sequence, the same way, EVERY TIME. "Perfect" has nothing to do with it, it is simply ATTENTION TO DETAIL!
I don't have a "bedsaver" and I have no intention of getting one. That is ONE place where I don't need a crutch.
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS and ATTENTION TO DETAIL prevents all sorts of problems.
I've also had a career in aviation, the last 34 years with a small cargo airline with purple airplanes based in Memphis Tn, some may have even heard of Fedex. Those 34 years were spent in various positions in aircraft maintenance, engineering and quality assurance with a couple years teaching analytic process (Situational Awareness and that sort of thing). I own and use a Bedsaver, it even paid for itself that one time when I failed to use my checklist on that day I was in quite a hurry. I, like many others, recommend, if one is available for the particular hitch used, why not spend a few more dollars to help protect some very expensive equipment. I've seen some every ugly results of 5th wheel drop, it's highly probable and can be prevented.
One more thing.....
The bed saver fit a 15 K hitch. We upgraded to a 22 K hitch. After searching for 2 months for a bed saver to fit this hitch. I don't think they make one. We took our bed saver to a metal fabricator and he made it fit our 22 K hitch. It was after this that it saved our truck bed! This new 22 K hitch was new to us and I didn't have the handle down in the position and it went "bang" but the bed saver caught the king pin!
So if you have a bigger hitch, it is still possible to have a bed saver to fit that hitch. This guy did an excellent job on the bed saver.
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