Best 5th Wheel Base Rails and Hitch for 2014 Ram 2500 with Rambox

Question:

I recently purchased the following vehicle: 2014 Dodge Ram 2500 with Ramboxes Cummings Diesel 6-1/2 foot bed I took the truck to a local shop to have a BandW Companion hitch installed to tow my 2013 Keystone Cougar 5th wheel 8,000 lbs because I do not want to have rails in the bed. I do not need a slider because I was able to tow the 5th wheel with my previous short bed truck 2006 GMC Sierra 2500HD with no problem. I was told it could not be done because the 5th wheel pinbox would hit the insides of the bed. I was also told my only option would be to install a hitch with rails and to replace my current Lippert hitch item # 296300 with a sidewinder pinbox. If I do this then I am limited to only towing a 5th wheel with this setup. I have the following questions: 1. Why cant the BWRVK3500-5W hitch be used instead of a railed hitch? 2. Could a Gen-Y Executive hitch be used instead of the sidewinder?

asked by: Kenny

Expert Reply:

Thank you for reaching out - you've come to the right place!

Your local shop is correct. You need to use a base rail kit that has a 4-point connection and a Sidewinder (or similar) pin box with the rotating turret for this application. The B&W Companion 5th Wheel Trailer Hitch # BWRVK3500-5W has a single-point connection with the square shank and so the twisting forces placed on it by the Sidewinder system will damage the gooseneck receiver. You have to use a pin box with a rotating turret because the Ramboxes on your 2014 Ram 2500 will come into contact with a standard pin box that rotates on the king pin. Since the Gen-Y Executive would be rotating on the hitch ball you'll run into the same issue of the pin box contacting the Ramboxes during turns.

For your application I recommend installing the Reese Quick-Install Custom Installation Kit w/ Base Rails # RP50054-58 and using the Reese M5 Hitch # RP30928 along with the Wedge # RP44FR used to lockout the Sidewinder king pin.

If you let me know what pin box model you have I can let you know what Sidewinder you need to use. You'll be looking for a number like 1621 or 0179 which are pretty common models.

Attached are some videos for you to check out.