Fifth Wheel Placement

[Dave Howie]

Hello all I hope you can give me some insight into your experiance. I have just purchaced an 97 FL50 the fifth wheel is mounted ahead of the drive axle by 6 inches, I would like to move it to the rear of the center of the drive axle to make space for my Harley on the deck. Are there any legal or other implications with doing this?

[Dave Howie]

Sorry I should have said I would like to place it 26 inches to the rear. 20 inches behind the center of the drive axle. Thanx Dave

[Bob86ZZ4]

I'm going to just guess here. I think by placing it in front of the rear axle it devides some of the trailer weight over the front axle too? So, if you have a heavy weight trailer and move the hitch back behind the rear axle is it going to overload that rear axle? Will removing weight from the front axle affect handling/steering? I would guess the heavier the trailer the more likely it would be to cause problems for you. Adding the bike to the deck would probably counteract the weight shift from moving the hitch?

[Dave Howie]

Thanx for the reply Bob I thinking the same because the bike is over 800 lbs and will be about 65 inches ahead of the center of the fifth wheel that it will compinsate for the loss of weight from the hitch. I was more interested in the legality of doing this and if any one had ever been givin a hard time by law enforcement over fifth wheel placement in Canada or the USA as I will be traveling in both.