@spasm3 great questions, which I will try to answer from my experiences towing both a bumper hitch trailer and a 5th wheel. I know
@Azjeff has done both extensively, so many he will add his prospective.
A bit about my experience pulling trailers, just to give you an idea where I'm coming from. Growing up on a farm gave me to opportunity to pull many different sizes, weights, and types of trailers. The smallest trailer was probably our fuel wagon, which was a 300 gallon diesel tank mounted on a short single axle trailer. While the largest was a combination of a large four wheel drive tractor pulling two 700 bushel center dump grain wagons. The whole rig scaled at up to 140,000 pounds. Most trailers were somewhere closer to 10,000 pounds and two axles, both bumper hitch and gooseneck.
First, my thoughts on pulling our 30' Airstream, which is a bumper hitch. Most of my 30,000 miles pulling the Airstream was with the Propride anti-sway and weight distribution hitch. I pulled the Airstream without the Propride, directly on the ball. Frankly, it's scary as hell and I do not recommend it, period. Pulling the Airstream with the Propride was like the truck and trailer were a rigid unit. The Propride completely eliminates sway and it doesn't matter how much push you get from a crosswind or being passed by a semi. When you are in a cross wind or get passed by a semi, there is still energy to overcome and you WILL get pushed, but you WILL NOT sway. It may seem like that's an exaggeration, but it isn't. I'm stating this, because almost all of my miles towing the Airstream were with the Propride, which biases my view, as I never had to deal with sway.
Second, our 5th wheel hitch is a Trailersaver, which has airbads to decouple the truck and trailer vertically. This hitch makes a big difference in ride quality vs. a rigid 5th wheel hitch. Because of this, my viewpoint of ride quality is biased as most 5th wheel hitches I see are rigid.
Here is my opinion.
The good:
- The bumper hitch trailer opens more room for cargo in the back of a truck.
- You can use a tonneau cover with a bumper hitch, but can't with a 5th wheel. When people can't see what's in the back of your truck, they don't tend to steal it.
- 5th wheel and gooseneck trailers do not have nearly as much tendency to sway. However, don't believe for a second that they can't sway. The faster you go, the more risk of sway.
- The 5th wheel is much easier to hitch and unhitch.
The bad:
- Since the hitch is on the bumper, you need a weight distribution and anti-sway hitch.
- Connecting the trailer farther to the rear (the bumper) every bump seems to get exaggerated. Some bumps make it feel like the truck and trailer are 180 degree opposite out of bump phase with each other and are jerking each other around. We hit a few bumps that I swear the trailer lifted the back tires of the truck off the ground. The bumper hitch loses to the 5th wheel in ride quality.
- The 5th wheel hitch removes much of the bed capacity of the truck, especially in short-bed trucks.
No difference:
- I don't see any difference between backing a bumper hitch, 5th wheel, or gooseneck trailer. It's a trailer and you just back it up. Learn to use your mirrors and backing is simple. Really it is.
