Fifth Wheel Adapter For Ball Hitch

[ThaddeusW]

Anyone know if they make an adapter that lets you hook a sort of towbar to the 5th wheel to allow a regular ballhitch to be used? I looked around and came up with nothing. I know a 5th wheel would allow the bar to swing around and pitch up and down but a sort of lock could rest of the frame and hold the bar strait.

Here is a simple drawing of what I am trying to explain (notice the "leet paint skillz")

The idea is if I find a running truck that I can drive to within reasonable distance I can rent a uhaul car carrier and hitch it to my tahoe and drive to the truck. Once at the truck I hook the tow bar adapter the to trucks 5th wheel, lock it to the frame using clamps, chains, straps whatever and hitch up the uhaul to the truck. I then put my tahoe on the trailer and drive home. That way I can easily retreive a truck and drive it home solo without having to own a trailer.

If it aint made commercially then I could make it myself. Easy fabrication and I could even make it extendible in both axis to fit a varity of 5th wheel positions and heights. But does anyone know if its legal?

[Lmackattack]

thats basicly what I use when I do the sled pulls at the fairgrounds. except the block under the bar is there just to support the weight when pulling.

Im shure you could fab up a hitch like that but I think it is overkill? just my opinion .. It would be fairly easy to fab up a bracket that mounts to the rear of the frame. kinda like a pintle hook on a landscape truck. a good welder could make that bracket and all you would have to do is mount it between the frame rails. I see alot of the house movers tow the chase car with this style set up.

Trent

[Freightrain]

I made my own permanent hitch for the back of my B. Bought a reciever tube, cut, welded and then covered in diamond plate.

I know what you mean, something you could just throw on any truck to get it home. What I did is a bit overkill, but it's staying on the truck.

I suppose you could mock up something pretty easily, use clamps or such to secure to rear of frame after hooking to fifthwheel.

I'm familiar with the truck pull apparatus that Trent is speaking of. That is not far off from what he needs, just need to be able to lock it down in the rear.

[DWaits]

I have a buddy that pulls an oversize load from time to time and he has to have an lead car in front of him.

He uses a ford escort and tows a dolly behind it, on his tractor he has a dropped reciver hitch that he pulls the dolly with and puts the escort on the dolly and who ever is driving the escort rides back with him.

DW

[GGB3_MS]

Hi Thad,

I had posted a question on the yesterdays tractor board that I frequent. Great bunch of guys (and girls). A fellow named T-Bone had some comments. Just from reading his posts over the years I have a good deal of respect for his ideas and opinions. I would be careful with going to some kind of design that is too far out of the norm. If something were to happen, the lawyers would have a field day. especially if you are not a certified welder, etc. What I was thinking was a reciever type hitch on the back of the mack that I could pull ball trailers, pintles, etc. I will paste some of T-bones comments in to the message below and put a picture of the hitch design he talks about. If it does not go into the message, it will be in my album. I hope he does not mind me posting it.

Hope it helps,

George

T-Bone's comments from question I had;

Hi George,

About the only thing I can add, is I would consider using a 2-1/2" or 3" receiver tube with a 1" or 1-1/4" pin.

I use 2-1/2" custom built receiver with a 3/4" pin and I noticed with my tri-axle flatbed pintel, my pin shows some offset wear after about a years use, maybe 2k miles total OTR use. That's about as close to pin shear as I want to come. I'll be changing to a 1" pin shortly and I use tractor top link pins as they have a nice hole for a pad lock.

I used a 40ton pintel hitch off a semi trailer along with a solid 2-1/2" steel draw bar then made 20" of total adjustment in the ball mount plate, 10" up/down, with a 1/2" x 2" plate gusset. I then use two 5/8" grade 5 bolts to attach either the ball mount head or the pintel head.

When I change the pin too 1", I'll also add 1/4" thick flat washers to either side of the pin hole. This will give me 1/2" total thickness on either side for the receiver pin bearing point. My 3/4" pin wear could be coming from to thinn of bearing point sidewall and not from being overloaded (pin size overload).

T_Bone

Hi George,

I would not go less than 30º on the 1/2" x 2" gusset and can end between the two top holes.

The plate for the adjustment head as well as the ball/pintel mount was made from 3/4" plate as thats what I had on hand. I would not go less than 5/8" plate tho.

Use inside pipe spacers or make the ball/pintel mount first when welding the verticle adjustment plates on as this keeps the distance spaced even as the side plates will draw tight/open when welded. I just bolted the head in place before welding.

The drawing shows a space between the ball/pintel mount and the adjustment plate when in reality this is a close fit only allowing for clearance for the welds.

You will also want a tight inside fit where the ball/pintel mount plate fits into the back of the adjustment plate. This is for if one of the 5/8" mounting bolts shear the ball/pintel plate would bind inside against the verticel mount plate.

I also use 5/8" holes with 5/8" bolts. I didn't want any slop here. The same apply's to the receiver pin, 1" hole and a 1" pin.

Use 1/4" x 3/4" flatbar to wrap the end of the receiver tube. This supports the tube end during side stress.

You want the draw bar to extend into the receiver atleast 2" past the pin hole. This is for draw bar bind between the top and bottom with-in the receiver tube. Again a tight fit. I have to keep the rust off the draw bar surface so it will slip in easy. This keeps the hiching quite while traveling.

I tend to use/abuse my hitching so I don't want any failures. This is also my winch point if needed.

My actual hitching extends 18" out from my bumper as I had a automatic boatloader on my pick-up that I had to clear with my 8kGVW travel trailer. My hitching never moves.

T_Bone

[DWaits]

That is very close to what my buddy uses to pull his escort with, he has been using it for the last 12 years with no problems. I like the idea of using a top link from a tractor!

DW

[ThaddeusW]

Hi Thad,

I had posted a question on the yesterdays tractor board that I frequent. Great bunch of guys (and girls). A fellow named T-Bone had some comments. Just from reading his posts over the years I have a good deal of respect for his ideas and opinions. I would be careful with going to some kind of design that is too far out of the norm. If something were to happen, the lawyers would have a field day. especially if you are not a certified welder, etc. What I was thinking was a reciever type hitch on the back of the mack that I could pull ball trailers, pintles, etc. I will paste some of T-bones comments in to the message below and put a picture of the hitch design he talks about. If it does not go into the message, it will be in my album. I hope he does not mind me posting it.

Hope it helps,

George

Thanks for the info George (and everyone else too!). See the thing is I want a compact and 100% portable hookup. It has to mount to any tractor and every tractor has a 5th wheel. Some type of rear plate for a hitch seems too permanent and requires me to adapt it at the point of pickup. This thing if built right it would work with no problem.

[DWaits]

Thanks for the info George (and everyone else too!). See the thing is I want a compact and 100% portable hookup. It has to mount to any tractor and every tractor has a 5th wheel. Some type of rear plate for a hitch seems too permanent and requires me to adapt it at the point of pickup. This thing if built right it would work with no problem.

I have seen something close to whay you want only it was for towing another tractor, it hooks up to the 5th wheel on the towing tractor. The end that hooks up to the tractor being towed has a truck bar kinda like what the big truck wreackers have. Athough it would work for what you want you could not lift it unless you had a fork lift! IMHO I would think you could make one or have one made, I would be sure it had some sort of safety

chains just in case.

DW

[Lmackattack]

If you want it portable or liftable by your self or 2 people. your design will work, like I had said above we use a hitch simmilar to your drawing for sled pulling. 2 people can lift it and lock it into the 5th wheel but it makes life easy with a machine. If you made a smaller version of what sled pullers use I think it will work for you and be portable. just have a good welder fab it up for you!!!!!

Trent