Little Rocker 5th wheel hitch opinions?
David Ellis
uses the Little Rocker. It's about half the price of a Reese
hitch. Any negatives? --Dave
Donald J. Dickson
dellis...@ix.netcom.com (David Ellis) wrote:
Half the price of WHICH Reese hitch?
--
Don Dickson
Remove first "x" from xcx666 to reply by email.
David Ellis
xcx...@freenet.carleton.ca says...
>
>In article <7guo9m$6...@dfw-ixnews11.ix.netcom.com>,
>dellis...@ix.netcom.com (David Ellis) wrote:
>
>> The RV shop that'll equip my pickup for full-time traveling
>> uses the Little Rocker. It's about half the price of a Reese
>> hitch. Any negatives? --Dave
>
>Half the price of WHICH Reese hitch?
>
rno...@my-dejanews.com
claims ot tests to 2 x rating. One comment is on jaws/latch bar. My prior
hitah was a Reese with clam type jaws that you backed into and they opened
and shut. The bar on the little rocker must be opened before you back in, but
shuts by itself. I question if a reese type jaws can open. Others question
the line contact of the little rocker vs the Reese, they think the Reese is
semi-circle contact. Truth is unless the clam hitch has been machined to a
size on size to the pin, at best it has a two line contact.
Ralph Noack _ Like most things non-owners complain the most! <|8^)
In article <7h17k4$k...@sjx-ixn5.ix.netcom.com>,
dellis...@ix.netcom.com (David Ellis) wrote:
> In article <xcx666-0705...@210.192/27.18.226.209.in-addr.arpa>,
> xcx...@freenet.carleton.ca says...
> >
> >In article <7guo9m$6...@dfw-ixnews11.ix.netcom.com>,
> >dellis...@ix.netcom.com (David Ellis) wrote:
> >
> >> The RV shop that'll equip my pickup for full-time traveling
> >> uses the Little Rocker. It's about half the price of a Reese
> >> hitch. Any negatives? --Dave
> >
> >Half the price of WHICH Reese hitch?
> >
> The 15K Classic w/o slide. --Dave
>
>
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http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
Regor3
Its light and very easy to take in and out of the bed of the truck.
The bad:
1.although it has levers that switch it from locked to swiviling from side to
side you can't activate or lock them unless you are almost level to start with.
I have had to move the rig and get out as many as 3 times until the two were
even enough to switch from lock to swivel or visa versa.
2. The idea of the Rocking feature is to allow easy hooking and unhooking...IE
you switch it to swivel, back into your spot, level the trailer from left to
right and then unhitch. The truck and the trailer then supposedly can be on
different planes and you can still open the hitch. BUUUUT.... in reality it
does not swivel or rock all that much and if there is ANY pressure on the pin
you can't open the hitch. It can take a lot of doing to get the pressure off.
Then end result is I no longer bother with the switches. I leave them locked
all the time and level the truck and trailer together. Life is now much easier.
:-)
My brother has a rocking Reese.
The good
The rocking hitch is very easy to use and he has little promblems hooking and
unhooking.
The bad
Its expensive
Its heavey as hell...I mean its HEAVEY! :-) He leaves it on his truck all the
time
because its so hard to get it out.
Darwin Maitland
>
> The RV shop that'll equip my pickup for full-time traveling
> uses the Little Rocker. It's about half the price of a Reese
> hitch. Any negatives? --Dave
You will find the Reese is MUCH easier to operate. Having had the
opportunity to operate several different little rockers I would happily
pay twice the price for the reese, although in reality it shouldn't be
that much of a charge difference.
Robin
>
> x-no-archive: yes
>
> Regor3 wrote in message <19990508200815...@ngol07.aol.com>...
> >I have the little rocker
> >1.although it has levers that switch it from locked to swiviling from side
> to
> >side you can't activate or lock them unless you are almost level to start
> with.
<snip>
> I used to worry about this too, until some of the more experienced folks on
> this newsgroup asked me a simple question: Why lock it at all? Just simply
> leave it in the swivel position. There is no reason to lock it. I find it
> much smoother towing across uneven areas (like in and out of gas stations
> and some campgrounds) in the swivel free position. Even the tiny bit of
> pressure I used to feel being passed by semis is gone.
>
> Glenn in Den.
>
> "I'm not really an expert, I just play one on the Internet"
You're right. Actually, there's no even a provision to lock the Reese
version.
Bob KU8C
Regor3
>You're right. Actually, there's no even a provision to lock the Reese
>version.
The Reese hitch I am familiar has a very easy to operate lock. As an example to
lock it after hook up all you do is flip a lever up and drive foward. As the
trailer and truck undulate as you move the lock engages automatically.
Donald J. Dickson
(Regor3) wrote:
The reference was to locking the side to side swivel action in a fixed
horizontal position. Opinions seem to differ about whether the rig is more
stable if you tow with a fixed hitch plate or allow it to swivel. I have a
low profile 5th and I really don't see the merits of having half of the
double articulation locked out while towing. Perhaps I might feel
differently if I had a full height bedroom but it seems to me that the
strain frame of the truck and trailer should be reduced if the side to
side motion is not restrained.
David Ellis
xcx...@freenet.carleton.ca says...
and yaw. This discussion is about trailer roll with respect to the truck.
Agreeing with comments above, it seems to me there's a lot of unnecessary
strain on the truck frame when roll is locked out. Is there an increased
tendency for the trailer to hit the box rails when roll is allowed? When towing
a high-bedroom fiver, say 12 feet, in a strong gusty cross wind, would allowing
roll at the hitch make the rig more difficult to handle? --Dave
rno...@my-dejanews.com
in. During a sharp turn the right wheels of trailer dropped 12 to 18
inches in a ditch. The hitch rocking was unlocked. the trailer hit the
right rails twice and the left once. In a dumb stunt like that I don't
think locked or unlocking would have made a differnce.
If you use the truck to haul bulk material ie dirt, sand, gravel etc,
the little rocker has cross mounting rails. Other models of the same
brand have mounting rails that run with length of bed.
Ralph Noack - Surprising what can happen in Chitina AK!
In article <7h5i6o$n...@sjx-ixn6.ix.netcom.com>,
dellis...@ix.netcom.com (David Ellis) wrote:
> In article <xcx666-0905...@243.224/27.18.226.209.in-
--== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==--
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Deanna Fladgard
rno...@my-dejanews.com wrote in message <7h5vlb$hv0$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>...
Deanna Fladgard
hooking/unhooking. Very positive and simple bar locking system.
I can't forsee a situation where it wouldn't be adequate.
David Ellis wrote in message <7guo9m$6...@dfw-ixnews11.ix.netcom.com>...
Ralph Noack
Chitina AK is where the Chitina river joins the Copper river. Alaskans fish
there with dip nets and fish wheels. The road goes on to McCarthy and the
Copper river flows to Cordovia. RVing to the extremes; look out for railroad
spikes after a rain, road was a railroad track.
Ralph Noack - Sign over the door of The Chitina Cafe" A woman needs a man
like a fish needs a bicycle! " <|8^)
Deanna Fladgard wrote in message <9263879...@news.remarQ.com>...
Deanna Fladgard
Alaskans like myself who remember the bumper stickers that were popular in
Anchorage in the late 70's. Their simple message:
Where the Hell is Chitina?
I just wish I could remember the bar that had those things printed.....
Walter M
was cheaper than others. Tried it both ways ,noticed no diff. The only
thing I noticed that I did not like was when the bar started wearing I
got more clunking when stopping and starting. I kept it well lubed. I
have a Reese Classic now will see how it holds up. The weight of the
Reese is a factor.
Dennis & Kelly Szymanski
--
The Ill Rocker Hitch has a Million Mile Guarantee. A great hitch! have
one on my 1 ton - dodge!
Dennis
David Ellis <dellis...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:7guo9m$6...@dfw-ixnews11.ix.netcom.com...
jlu...@dbtech.net
GMT,?dellis...@ix.netcom.com (David Ellis) put fingers to keys and
wrote:
<Snip>
>I'd like to hear more about this. In the flight world we talk of roll, pitch
>and yaw. This discussion is about trailer roll with respect to the truck.
My 2 cents, I have a Reese Trailboss, it has lock out side tilt,
(roll). the first few tows I left the tilt/roll open. No problems,
low profiles 5th. Then I towed with the tilt/roll locked out just to
see. I assumed that the truck would feel the 5th more, but I was
wrong. All I can figure is the laws of inertia apply. With the
tilt/roll locked out the whole rig absorbs the tilt/roll, so not as
noticeable. With it open the 5th leans, the tilt/roll max's out and
the truck comes into play, this you can feel. Neither is bad, and have
not
even come close to contact with the sides of the truck, due to the
'pitch' of the 5th, nose high, 7inches above sides of truck.
Sway/yaw, not to open a can of worms, but I have experienced
sway/yaw. (I know 5ths can sway, but hear me out) I was towing
with the fresh water tank full, (front),and the black hold full,
(rear), on the causeway over Mobile bay, there was wind and
passing semi's. The 5th wanted to wiggle, you could detect a slight
wag in it's tail in the mirror. There was no noticeable effect on the
truck, and it still towed like a dream. My next test will be back tank
full, front empty, I will report on sway/yaw at that time.
Don't try this at home, or with a travel trailer! Unless of course
you have one of those hyper/mega/5thwannabe hitches!
If I had known the difference a 5th would have been my first
unit not my 7th, no going back 'hooked' (sorry for the pun) on
a 5th wheel!
Aviators, how about a steerable undercarriage to 'crab' the unit
down the road in cross winds! It would help on those sharp curves
as well! <g>
jlu...@dbtech.net
Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, or
New Order
may be heard in the area of
97 Ford F150
87 Kit Road Ranger 5th Wheel