Andersen Ultimate VS B&W Patriot Slider

[njonl]

I've been to the end of the internet and back, and I'm still torn on which hitch to get. I'll start off by saying my TV is a 2015 Ram 2500 CC SB with 35" inch tires. It's does not have a lift kit, but I did put a leveling kit and air bags on it. Looking at buying a new Sabre 27BHD and I'm trying you outfit my truck with the appropriate hitch. I've been looking a lot at the Andersen Ultimate Hitch because I do have the B&W turnover ball and I feel like the Andersen would be easy. I also have a buddy with a slightly used B&W Patriot Slider for sale for relatively cheap. I'd be able to use the B&W with a Demco adapter that plugs into the turnover ball. I know the Andersen is light and people that use it seem to love it. However, my truck is a short bed and I'm not looking to ding the cab or break a back window. Any input is welcome, thanks.

[Jhurk]

Yes my pin box is at the lowest setting. It is welded to this setting so cannot move. I had to raise my fiver 5 inches to get level. I have 7 inches of bed rail clearance. Looks and pulls good. In hindsight I should of looked at replacing the trailair pin box. Why they welded tow pinbox I do not know!

[Nevadastars]

Jhurk wrote:
I have the AUH and love it. I have a 2014 Ram 3500 regular box and have the hitch ball on the highest setting. I would like to drop it down has I have to raise the 5th very high to hook,and unhook. I don't no how any one can drop hitch ball to,lowest setting and not have the 5th pin turn in the box without hitting the side be rails?

Wow. Set at the highest setting how much bed rail clearance do you have? Maybe your pin box is set at the lowest level? I would be ridiculously nose high if my Andersen ball was as the highest setting.

But I have the Andersen rail hitch and not sure if there is any height difference between the two versions.

[Jhurk]

I have the AUH and love it. I have a 2014 Ram 3500 regular box and have the hitch ball on the highest setting. I would like to drop it down has I have to raise the 5th very high to hook,and unhook. I don't no how any one can drop hitch ball to,lowest setting and not have the 5th pin turn in the box without hitting the side be rails?

[Durb]

Nice looking rig. It is a shame that one should have to consider doing expensive lifting modifications on a new trailer to fit a truck that is the stock height of new vehicles. Maybe look at Lippert Correct Track to get some height increase rather than frame add ons.

[slapshot12]

Does anyone have the Andersen with on a '17 F-350 SRW or even a 250? I just got the truck yesterday and noticed the rear end is noticeably higher than my 250 was. I want to make sure I'll have bed clearance but also not have the trailer riding too high in the nose to get the bed clearance. I know the rear end will be lower with the full pin weight on it, but **** that thing is high. I'm glad they have a ladder in the tailgate!! Each version gets higher and higher.

I'll be getting a new 5th wheel toy hauler soon, likely in the 36'-38' range. I like the idea of the Andersen and it's weight compared to a 5th wheel and being able to have a clean bed with no rails when I'm not towing. The B&W Companion is another choice, but the weight will be a p.i.t.a. to move around.

[njonl]

Nevadastars wrote:

njonl wrote:


Ended up going with the Andersen Ultimate. Picked up the trailer today and it towed great! Trailer does sit nose high and I have about 7" clearance between the bed rails and bottom of the trailer. I guess I'll need to look into lifting the trailer a little or possibly going to a 33" tire on my truck so that the trailer will sit level.

Congrats on the new purchase! Is your ball at the lowest level? I think I have about 6" bed rail clearance at the lowest level. Not sure how much room you have, but you may be able to go with a little taller tire on the trailer also. Just don't go too high on the trailer, these things are already pretty tall. You don't want clearance issues with low bridges, gas stations, etc.

Thank you! My hitch is currently on the lowest level. As it sits now, I have just over 7" clearance between the bed rails and the trailer. It looks like I can move the pin box up one notch before it's maxed out, but I'm not sure how much of a difference that will make. Maybe that combined with a lager trailer tire will do the trick? As far as lifting the trailer goes, I have a friend that does it. He says he builds a frame of sorts that ends up adding about 4". It's an extremely clean job and he adds some gusseting as well. The trailer currently sits at 12'3" high but I definitely don't want it to be too tall.

[treeofliberty]

njonl wrote:

Click For Full-Size Image.

Ended up going with the Andersen Ultimate. Picked up the trailer today and it towed great! Trailer does sit nose high and I have about 7" clearance between the bed rails and bottom of the trailer. I guess I'll need to look into lifting the trailer a little or possibly going to a 33" tire on my truck so that the trailer will sit level.

We went with the same hitch when upgrading to our F-350, and ended up the the same results. We're using the lowest hole on the hitch, and the nose is a couple inches high. We've had one outing and it wasn't an issue, so we may just live with it. When it's time to replace the tires on the RV, we may try to find something a little taller.

[Nevadastars]

njonl wrote:


Ended up going with the Andersen Ultimate. Picked up the trailer today and it towed great! Trailer does sit nose high and I have about 7" clearance between the bed rails and bottom of the trailer. I guess I'll need to look into lifting the trailer a little or possibly going to a 33" tire on my truck so that the trailer will sit level.

Congrats on the new purchase! Is your ball at the lowest level? I think I have about 6" bed rail clearance at the lowest level. Not sure how much room you have, but you may be able to go with a little taller tire on the trailer also. Just don't go too high on the trailer, these things are already pretty tall. You don't want clearance issues with low bridges, gas stations, etc.

[njonl]

Click For Full-Size Image.

Ended up going with the Andersen Ultimate. Picked up the trailer today and it towed great! Trailer does sit nose high and I have about 7" clearance between the bed rails and bottom of the trailer. I guess I'll need to look into lifting the trailer a little or possibly going to a 33" tire on my truck so that the trailer will sit level.

[skidooman93]

I have a 2015 Ram with air suspension the 5th wheel sits a little nose high but im not about to mess with the axles on the trailer to fix the 1" nose high. However the pin box on my open range while using the Anderson hitch can hit the bed rails of the truck. But that is only on real tight turns. And actually when the pin box is about to contact the bed rails the cab and the front cap of my 5th wheel are only about an inch apart so it is kind of nice. I can look through my rear window and see where the pin box is and know how much clearance I have between my cab and front cap.

I love the anderson, it provides plenty of clearance with the funnel mounted forward of the pin. It is light super easy to take in and out. Hitches up super quick, much simpler than a traditional 5th wheel. It makes auto leveling a little more challenging because you have to account for the 5th wheel being nose high when you unhitch. But other than that. I see no reason why I would ever want a traditional hitch. With the anderson in 5 minutes you can have your pickup bed back. With a traditional hitch you need to call your buddy feed him beers and lift out the other. Then call him back and feed him again when you need to put the hitch back in.

[Wild_Card]

Nevadastars wrote:

2001400ex wrote:

goducks10 wrote:
I used to love my Andersen rail mount until I nicked the bed rail. My issue is the very long 1716 MorRyde pin box. Only way to alleviate the issue is to turn the aluminum coupler so the ball socket is rear of the pin. Then I need to turn the Andersen around so that the ball is rear of the axle center so my bumper clears my 5th wheel front. If I mount the ball towards the cab then I only have about 1" of clearance between the bumper and 5th wheel when turning. That makes me nervous.
The other issue I had when we came home a week ago and tried to unhitch I couldn't get the coupler off the ball. Never had that issue before. My truck and 5er are in a slight V configuration when back into the driveway. You could see the angle and it was definitely greater than when I had things mounted the other way. I couldn't even release the sliding pin that holds the coupler to the ball. Ended up releasing all four rail pins and lifting the Andersen out of the truck. Interesting in that I started using the Andersen late last summer. Put a few trips on it then used it all of this summer plus. Only way I found this out was when I recently took the 5er into an Auto/RV paint shop to get an estimate to paint my front cap. I needed to drive to the end of the street and make a uturn in a large parking lot. As I was turning I looked in my side view mirror and saw the pin box make slight contact with the bed rail.
Guess I was pretty luck as to not have made contact with all the towing I did prior. Mt bad for not measuring the distance of things after installing.
So now I'm back to my B&W. Arrg. Kinda sucks as I really like the Andersen but I see no way to make it work. Just a heads up to those interested.

My funnel on the pin box is setup to the rear of the pickup. I'm going to turn it around and try it in a parking lot to see if it will but the bed rails. My concern is that I have a short bed and I have come close to the cab a few times. If I turn the funnel to the front, that will give me about 8 inches more clearance.

Just curious as to why you have the funnel in the rear? Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't see where the funnel is placed would affect bed rail clearance.

Funnel to rear make pin box overall length shorter so the pin box can rotate inside the bed. I had to run mine in tje rear position as it would hit my bed rails.

[Nevadastars]

njonl wrote:

Nevadastars wrote:
I have the Andersen Ultimate rail hitch with a leveled/air bagged 07 Ram 2500 short bed 4x4 and have a ton of clearance between the cab and the Forest River Wildcat 262RGX. I am sure the ball on the standard Ultimate is in a similar position to my rail hitch. Personally, I won't use any other hitch. It is so easy to use and remove it's laughable.

I believe the newer Ram 2500/3500's are around an inch or two taller than my 07. They seemed like it when I was looking at them anyway. Here is the only pic I have where you can see the clearance between the cab and nose of the fiver. It is when I brought it home and tried to stuff it in our old motor home cover and didn't quite fit so had to dig out the floor....

What height setting do you have the ball on the hitch set at? I'm assuming mine will have to be on the lowest setting to keep the trailer somewhat level. Nice looking setup! I looked at a 2015 Wildcat Maxx 312BHX last week.

Mine is also at the lowest setting.

[njonl]

Nevadastars wrote:
I have the Andersen Ultimate rail hitch with a leveled/air bagged 07 Ram 2500 short bed 4x4 and have a ton of clearance between the cab and the Forest River Wildcat 262RGX. I am sure the ball on the standard Ultimate is in a similar position to my rail hitch. Personally, I won't use any other hitch. It is so easy to use and remove it's laughable.

I believe the newer Ram 2500/3500's are around an inch or two taller than my 07. They seemed like it when I was looking at them anyway. Here is the only pic I have where you can see the clearance between the cab and nose of the fiver. It is when I brought it home and tried to stuff it in our old motor home cover and didn't quite fit so had to dig out the floor....

What height setting do you have the ball on the hitch set at? I'm assuming mine will have to be on the lowest setting to keep the trailer somewhat level. Nice looking setup! I looked at a 2015 Wildcat Maxx 312BHX last week.

[Nevadastars]

2001400ex wrote:


It was installed to the rear by the dealer. It's one adjustment you can make. The bed rail clearance wouldn't change. But the back end of the king pin might hit the tailgate or the bed rails by being closer to the tailgate. I have to make the change the drive it to see. Chevy 6 foot 6 inch bed doesn't leave much room.

Change it, I think you will be fine. I had plenty of clearance to the gate. Although I ended up getting a dedicated 5th wheel gate after killing my original gate by unhooking and forgetting to lower it......:S