Well, I hear it happens to everyone at some point, but I dropped the 5’er yesterday. We are using a Hensley BD3 hitch. Here is what it looks like.
You can see that at the top left of the hitch, there is a copper bar jutting out. It has three positions: 10 o’clock is unlocked, 9 o’clock is auto-lock, and 8 o’clock is locked. I store the hitch in auto-lock, and check it every time I’m in the truck bed for whatever reason. When it is in auto-lock, when you back into the trailer, you hear it pop into the locked position with a fairly loud bang, and it forces the jaws to remain closed. The king pin on the trailer itself is what actuates the jaws into the locked position so that what is effectively a metal block connected to the lever can slip between them. You can put a padlock through there for extra security. I usually do and double check the bar position when doing this, but since we were only going to drive around the block to test the brakes I didn’t bother with the padlock.
When I hooked up, I heard what I thought was the auto-lock pop, and got out, verified that the jaws were closed, even did a pull test! before pulling up the jacks, but did not check that it was in the locked position. I assumed, based on the other criteria, it was good. Going about 10mph, about 50′ later, I heard a loud bang. The trailer had pulled out of the hitch and the king pin was resting on my toolbox, and underbelly of the fiver resting on the side of the truck bed and the tailgate. When I looked at the hitch, it was in the 10 o’clock (unlocked) position!
I put down the landing jacks and pulled out from under it so I could survey the damage. I was very lucky – aside from the tailgate, the truck was fine. The toolbox was also sacrificed. But the trailer didn’t have any visible damage that I could see. It could have been a whole lot worse.
Looking online, there are tons of takeoffs for tailgates, but none in black that have lift assist (which is required to directly replace mine) to be found. I found some white ones with the same features as my OEM tailgate for close to $1,000, but they’ll still require painting. I don’t want to file an insurance claim on this but want to keep my out of pocket costs reasonable. I decided to take a look at aftermarket options. Most of the louvered tailgates out there do not preserve the OEM backup camera, but I use mine a lot and really want to keep it. I thought about retrofitting and aftermarket camera that mounts on the license plate frame to the OEM harness, but when I found a Husky aluminum tailgate that preserves it, I decided to go that route. The only issue is that the tailgate only comes in silver, but it is a “paintable” finish, so I picked up four cans of Dupli-Color Perfect Match automotive acrylic spray paint to match it to the truck. That paint is ridiculous at $12 per 8oz can, but cheaper than a professional job and on a louvered tailgate, should come acceptably nice.
The tailgate itself is fully featured, and retains lift assist and the backup camera. It uses a different locking mechanism, so the electric tailgate lock won’t work, but since it is a fifth wheel tailgate that won’t be an issue. The fifth wheel tailgates have a slot in them for the king pin to flow through, so you don’t have to open and close it when hooking up. It uses a toolbox keying cylinder, so once I get everything in I’ll rekey both of my toolboxes and tailgate to use the same key based on the keys used in the second toolbox I’m buying, since it has three cylinders.
I really liked my custom toolbox, but have been having issues with organization. In a huge chest like that, small items tend to get lost. Since I had to redo it, I decided to look at other options. I found a Brute fifth wheel toolbox fits all the needs nicely.
The Brute toolbox will sit right below the tonneau rails on my truck, actually underneath them, but does not open upward, so it can be a bit longer. In fact, it goes almost from one side of the truck to the other. It will block off the umbilical cord attachment point, so I bought a 2′ right-angle extension to run the plug up closer to the hitch. It is pictured above in polished aluminum, but I purchased it in black. There are a couple things, mainly my socket set and 1/2″ torque wrench, that won’t fit into the box so I will be storing them in the small compartment in the top of my RDS fuel tank. The drawer will be great for storing gloves, tape, and other small items I keep losing in my toolbox now. And it maintains the pass through area so that it won’t interfere with the trailer.
This was an expensive mistake, but could have been a lot worse since I’m getting out of it for around $1,300.
