Hooking up your truck to your fifth-wheel trailer
is an easy process.
First you want to start by backing your truck in,
make sure your truck is backed in straight as possible,
not so much of a
45 or 90 degree angle jackknifing.
You want to go in as straight as possible.
Once you get your truck close,
you want to come out,
you want to check the height of your pin box,
to the height of your hitch.
This can be a little bit lower then your actual hitch itself
because this head will pivot.
Once you back your truck up, it'll actually slide up here
and then level off and lock your handle into place.
To adjust the height of your trailer,
which you might have to take it up or down,
there's a switch located on your trailer
to raise or lower your actual height of your trailer.
Once that's ready,
every hitch would be a little different
but they all work the same way.
You may have to release this handle
to release your lock pin.
Some are already preset for that,
so just check what the manufacturer that provided you the hitch;
they can answer that question for you,
but the rest is gonna be the same.
Now that you released the pin,
you're going to be all set to back your truck up.
Once your pin
hits the end of this hitch,
it will release this handle
and lock in the lock.
You'll actually hear it, it'll be a loud click
Now that we have the truck and the hitch
locked into place,
you want to make sure that lock is set in
before you start to drive away.
So what you want to do is,
you want to raise your front jacks,
you just want to take them off the ground
just about a quarter of an inch,
half inch, just so all the weight is on your truck.
Once you do that, what we'll do is we'll go inside the truck
and put it in drive,
and we're gonna scoot forward,
just to make sure that that trailer hitch is locked in place.
And the reason we only pick the legs up a little bit is,
if it wasn't locked in,
of course the truck would come dislodge from the trailer
and the trailer wouldn't drop down too far and ruin the top of your bed.
Now that we know the truck's locked into the trailer,
now I'll go ahead before I pull my jacks up,
I'm gonna go ahead and plug my 7-way plug in,
and also my breakaway switches.
So now I'm gonna hook the 7-way plug.
Usually the plug's stored up inside your pin box
just to make it easier for you to take it out.
Now, depending on your truck
your 7-way plug could be here below the bumper,
right here,
but if you have the option or if your plug was installed inside the bed,
it could be up here.
This is just a little more convenient
because it's closer to the pin box.
So again, you have your little tab here
which is your lock pin and your 7-way,
and this pin here will go up
along the top of your box.
Push it in,
lock it in release your cover,
and now you you know seven way is secured.
After that, we'll grab your
breakaway switch.
Your breakaway switch, the loop
will go right around the handle
that you are releasing
the fifth-wheel with.
So we'll just put this loop right around there.
Now once your hitch is in,
again depending on the style hitch you have,
this one has a safety pin
that will go inside to lock this handle.
So you just push the safety pin right through,
and just clamp it around.
Now that cannot be released.
Okay so we're disconnecting the trailer from your truck.
I've already disconnected my breakaway switch,
and removed my 7-way plug.
I've also removed my pin
from my handle so I can release that.
So now we're going to lower my front landing gear.
I've put my blocks down,
so I'm just going to extend my jacks.
Ok, now I'm gonna stop there for a minute because I want to show you,
when you're raising your trailer to disconnect it,
you just want to take a little weight off this
pin box from the top of this hitch.
Now this is gonna be something you'll have to get
used to doing for a little while,
but raise the trailer up slowly...
once you see a little bit of a gap there
you're gonna be even. Stop.
Right there you start to move a little bit,
that's the clearance you'll need...
I'll do it again.
You'll see a little gap show up there.
Right about there.
Now,
this is gonna be something you'll have to get used to doing,
you're gonna pull on your release handle;
if it's too hard and won't come out,
you can adjust your height up or down
to make this handle easier to come out.
Grab it with two hands,
and give it a good pull,
and now your trailer is released from your truck,
so now you're gonna be able to go ahead
and pull your truck out from under your trailer.