KZ Durango half ton and 6.75' Bed - Turn Clearance to Truck

Thanks - I haven't ruled out the AUH, just not completely sold. I do think with that design (looks like it moves the trailer back about 8-10") clearance should be good.

My '22 3500 Denali standard bed tows my D1500 just fine. I had it out in our dirt shop yard to check turning and had several inches clearance both R and L when going forward. I do have 4x4, so that may make some difference. I also have my B&W set to the rear, which also gives me more room.

Lyle.

I have been using a Pullrite for 8 years and it works great for short beds.

Just a follow up after towing for 2500 miles for anyone else considering the Andersen Ultimate.

I’m going to try to describe the Andersen hookup options.  Might sound a little confusing but if you have researched the Andersen it should make sense.  

I went with the Andersen ultimate w D283RLT and 2023 4WD F250 7.3l gas with 6.75’ bed.  I have the standard Ford puck system that looks like it has the goose neck ball about 2” in front of rear axle.  The pin box “funnel” of the Andersen can be mounted forward or backwards.   The Andersen ball in the bed of the truck is offset 5”.  With the funnel has a 4” offset.  With the funnel mounted in front of the pin it give a full 9” offset with the trailer directly behind you, but at a 90 degree turn the trailer is 5” back and 4” further way (left or right) from the side of the Truck (think of an L).

This created plenty of room outside the truck, but unfortunately the back of the pin box was going to rub the side walls of my pickup truck bed.  Probably because trucks today are so high that the back of the pin box is slightly lower than the side rails of the pickup truck bed. So I had to mount the funnel to the rear.   This means the trailer is 1” back when it’s straight behind (5” ball offset - 4” funnel offset), but 5” back and 4” closer to the side when at a 90 degree.

With that all said, I can get to about 90 degrees without a problem.  Probably more so due to the rounded corners of the Durango than the hitch system. Ride was smooth, no chucking or other issues on decent roads.  Very happy with the drive characteristic with the exception of about 10 miles of really shitty road which was a problem.

Overall happy, but wish I could have mounted in the typical way.  Only issue is with the tailgate down the tailgate will contact the trailer about the same time as when it gets to hitch position.  Probably would have happened with a standard hitch as well.  This means I must put the backup and get the pin box inside the truck bed, then put the tailgate back up before getting into final position.   If I could have mounted the normal way it would have given me 8” of additional room.  Unlike a Normal 5th wheel hitch, it is easy to “overshoot” on backup and hit the trailer.

Am I glad I went with the Andersen, - not sure.   Working well, and easy to remove.  But I wish I could have tried a standard hitch first and saw the turning radius.

With that said, I’m glad I didn’t go with the sliding hitch.   Very heavy, some have “chucking” issues, and after having everything hooked up and measuring multiple times I think at full slide the back of the pin box would be dangerously close to hitting my tailgate 

Frustrating that there are so many variables (shape of front of camper, pin box shape, truck bed dimensions, exact location of hitch in truck bed, height of truck bed and sided) that it’s almost impossible to know exactly how a hitch system is going to work until you try it out.

Miled

Any problems hitching with the Reese sidewinder? I like the concept and considered it, but was concerned about the complaints of slop,chuck, and difficulties in hitching. For 10 years a towed a travel trailer with a Hensley hitch. Greatest hitch in the world for towing, BUT about 1 out of every 10 times I tried to hitch up something just wasn’t lining up right and it was a total bitch. Didn’t want to be in a similar situation.