Trail saver hitch mounting.

[Pete Kildow]

I was reading the mounting directions on my Hitch. And it shows I can just mount it to a 1/2" plate that is bolted to the angle brackets. That the big hitch is mounted to. Is it this easy on these Trail Saver hitches? Was thinking it would have to be mounted down between the frame rails. Like most of you have the others mounted. But if its going to work that way. I will just bolt my rails to the truck. Then mount the hitch to the rails. That way if I need to pull a goose neck trailer. I can mount the goose neck plate to the rails.

I did contact The Manufacture about my TS3 hitch. And was told if I did not want to use the rails. I Could get angle iron put on the sides of the hitch. Then bolt it to the 1/2" steel plate like the TS2 is mounted. Guess i will see how high the rails set from the ground. It has the 4 bag axle, Been singled from the 8 bag setup. Did not know it was that easy to single out. But asked my buddy today. He has been working on trucks for years. And he told me the 8 bag setup was no harder to single out. Then say a low air Peterbilt would be.

If I can get everything done by this fall. And my wife does not run out of vacation time. We may just make it to KS in Oct.

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

That's how mine is.  I need to drop it about 1.5 inches to pull level.  Pin box is raised all the way.

[HERO Maker]

Remember to 1st measure the height of the pin on your trailer, with that trailer sitting at ride level.   That will dictate where you are going to mount that hitch.

Plus, you won't be able to mount to the old 5th wheel brackets unless you are planning a real short bed on your truck.

[crazybanshee]

I have a TS2 mounted on a 1/2" plate sitting on top of the frame rails. Trailer rides level. All trailers have different pin heights so that is going to determine your hitch height.

[Pete Kildow]

Truck will not have a bed. Or no plans for one at the start. But can always change that if we see a need for one.

I checked a truck at my buddy shop today. And had my Kodiak there also. By checking both of those. Looks like it will fit perfect by mounting it to the rails.

Sure there will be lots more questions. I have been reading this site for years. And thought I had it covered. But now I have went blank. OOHh well fun is going to start when its home.

Pete

[Jack Mayer]

On my Volvo 610 I mounted the TS on top of the rails on 1/2" plate. 50 1/4" plate height.

[Pete Kildow]

8 minutes ago, Jack Mayer said:

On my Volvo 610 I mounted the TS on top of the rails on 1/2" plate. 50 1/4" plate height.

Thanks after getting the height of the same truck today. That is what I found also. Plus my pin box can be adjusted up or down. Right now its dead in the middle of the settings.

[Hot Rod]

When I bought the 5/8" plate to mount my trailersaver, I gave the local steel supplier the mounting hole schematic from trailersaver, and they flame cut all the mounting holes in the plate on the burning table at the same time they cut the plate to size.  They just fed the dimensions into the computer and let it go.  Only thing is you need to make the holes slightly oversize as the flame cut holes are not quite as clean as drilled holes.  For 5/8" bolts have them cut the holes at 3/4" and it works out nicely.  It's been a few years but I think it was about $300 for the plate with all the holes cut and ready to go.  Saved me a BUNCH of drilling.  Figured it was worth it's price in drill bits.  Plus that way they cut ALL the holes and I used every mounting bolt instead of being tempted to keep it to 6 or 8 bolts if I was tired of drilling holes.

I also had the plate made about a foot longer than the trailer saver and then bought a weld on gooseneck ball/plate from TSC and welded it right behind the trailersaver so I can tow anything.

[BlueLghtning]

I'm glad you brought this up as this has been on my mind lately. I also have a TS3 hitch and was able to find some heavy duty rails that it would drop into in a standard truck bed. I was trying to figure out though if you could just run the TS3 hitch rails across the HDT truck frame and and attach to the truck rails, but that only gives you 4 attachment points at on each rail, 8 total. As I thought about it, that seemed on the light side for attachment points not to mention the rails would be supporting all that weight with nothing in the middle. So it seems from reading above, the proper way is to use a 1/2" steel plate bolted to the original HDT 5th wheel rails on top of the frame. Then you mount the TS3 rails across the plate and that gives you extra support and way more attachment points. That seems like a much better setup. And if I didn't want to use the TS3 rails, I could get angle iron which basically makes it more like the TSLB2H mounting. Do I have that all right?

BTW, I've done the measurements and I should be right in the ballpark with this height. 

 

[VegasFlyer]

1 hour ago, BlueLghtning said:

I'm glad you brought this up as this has been on my mind lately. I also have a TS3 hitch and was able to find some heavy duty rails that it would drop into in a standard truck bed. I was trying to figure out though if you could just run the TS3 hitch rails across the HDT truck frame and and attach to the truck rails, but that only gives you 4 attachment points at on each rail, 8 total. As I thought about it, that seemed on the light side for attachment points not to mention the rails would be supporting all that weight with nothing in the middle. So it seems from reading above, the proper way is to use a 1/2" steel plate bolted to the original HDT 5th wheel rails on top of the frame. Then you mount the TS3 rails across the plate and that gives you extra support and way more attachment points. That seems like a much better setup. And if I didn't want to use the TS3 rails, I could get angle iron which basically makes it more like the TSLB2H mounting. Do I have that all right?

BTW, I've done the measurements and I should be right in the ballpark with this height. 

 

Blue,

I believe you are somewhat close, but possibly 4" off....lol

In the bed that we are building, which will utilize a TS3, we are mounting the hitch to a 1/2" plate, via angle brackets.  The 1/2" plate is welded to 4x4 .125 wall tube.  That arrangement gave the proper hitch height.  

[BlueLghtning]

9 hours ago, VegasFlyer said:

Blue,

I believe you are somewhat close, but possibly 4" off....lol

In the bed that we are building, which will utilize a TS3, we are mounting the hitch to a 1/2" plate, via angle brackets.  The 1/2" plate is welded to 4x4 .125 wall tube.  That arrangement gave the proper hitch height.  

VegasFlyer, So does your 4x4 .125 wall tube raise you 4" above the HDT frame rail height? So are you thinking I'm going to be 4" low? I'm actually concerned I might be a bit high. 

My HDT frame rail height is just under 40". My Toy Hauler pin box is at the tallest setting right now which should put me around 53-54" pin height. The pin box could be put in a lower position a bit if needed, but I don't think I need that with this hitch. I think had I gone with the TSLB2H hitch I might have had to lower the pin box or raise the hitch some. From my understanding the TSLB2H hitch height is about 11" from the base while the TS3 is about 14". So if I go 14" on top of my 40" frame rail height, that puts me at 54" pin height. Of course the 1/2 plate adds a bit.

Just putting my hitch on top of the frame rails is the eaisest right now, so I'm hoping that works. If it has to go between the rails, that's going to require some work and possibly a frame extension. I'm going to go bedless for awhile if the hitch height is good and possibly build a bed later if we like everything. 

[Jack Mayer]

Trailersavers have been mounted for more than a decade on top of the frame rails as you describe. I've done it on a number of trucks. As long as the (about) 50" plate height works for you it is quite simple and clean to install. Typically 1/2" plate is used, but 5/8 works fine too. 

[VegasFlyer]

10 hours ago, BlueLghtning said:

VegasFlyer, So does your 4x4 .125 wall tube raise you 4" above the HDT frame rail height? So are you thinking I'm going to be 4" low? I'm actually concerned I might be a bit high. 

My HDT frame rail height is just under 40". My Toy Hauler pin box is at the tallest setting right now which should put me around 53-54" pin height. The pin box could be put in a lower position a bit if needed, but I don't think I need that with this hitch. I think had I gone with the TSLB2H hitch I might have had to lower the pin box or raise the hitch some. From my understanding the TSLB2H hitch height is about 11" from the base while the TS3 is about 14". So if I go 14" on top of my 40" frame rail height, that puts me at 54" pin height. Of course the 1/2 plate adds a bit.

Just putting my hitch on top of the frame rails is the eaisest right now, so I'm hoping that works. If it has to go between the rails, that's going to require some work and possibly a frame extension. I'm going to go bedless for awhile if the hitch height is good and possibly build a bed later if we like everything. 

The plate is mounted on top of the 4x4 tube which is mounted on top of the lower flange, inside the fame rails.

[Pete Kildow]

On 5/24/2017 at 11:30 PM, BlueLghtning said:

I'm glad you brought this up as this has been on my mind lately. I also have a TS3 hitch and was able to find some heavy duty rails that it would drop into in a standard truck bed. I was trying to figure out though if you could just run the TS3 hitch rails across the HDT truck frame and and attach to the truck rails, but that only gives you 4 attachment points at on each rail, 8 total. As I thought about it, that seemed on the light side for attachment points not to mention the rails would be supporting all that weight with nothing in the middle. So it seems from reading above, the proper way is to use a 1/2" steel plate bolted to the original HDT 5th wheel rails on top of the frame. Then you mount the TS3 rails across the plate and that gives you extra support and way more attachment points. That seems like a much better setup. And if I didn't want to use the TS3 rails, I could get angle iron which basically makes it more like the TSLB2H mounting. Do I have that all right?

BTW, I've done the measurements and I should be right in the ballpark with this height. 

 

Think about this for a few minutes............................................................. Those rails are bolted into a pickup the same way...... Ok mine was bolted in the bed of the 2004 Chevy with 4 bolts per rail. Thus 8 1/2" Grade 8 bolts total. 

 

Now forward to a semi. If your still pulling at or below the rating on the TS3 hitch. Why in the world would it matter if its still bolted down the same on the Semi truck? Or the pickup truck?

 

I asked the main guy at the plant. And he told me to mount it with the rails. As that was fine, as long as you do not go over the rating of the hitch. Or bolt angle iron to the side of the hitch. Then the angle to the 1/2" thick or thicker plate. If you were going to be over the weight rating of the hitch. Then the hitch and rails both would not be good.

Pete

[VegasFlyer]

10 hours ago, wild wolf products said:

Think about this for a few minutes............................................................. Those rails are bolted into a pickup the same way...... Ok mine was bolted in the bed of the 2004 Chevy with 4 bolts per rail. Thus 8 1/2" Grade 8 bolts total. 

 

Now forward to a semi. If your still pulling at or below the rating on the TS3 hitch. Why in the world would it matter if its still bolted down the same on the Semi truck? Or the pickup truck?

 

I asked the main guy at the plant. And he told me to mount it with the rails. As that was find, as long as you do not go over the rating of the hitch. Or bolt angle iron to the side of the hitch. Then the angle to the 1/2" thick or thicker plate. If you were going to be over the weight rating of the hitch. Then the hitch and rails both would not be good.

Pete

On our new bed, we are removing the rail mounts from the TS3 and bolting it to the 1/2" plate with angle brackets.  It makes for a cleaner install for our application.

[BlueLghtning]

11 hours ago, wild wolf products said:

Think about this for a few minutes............................................................. Those rails are bolted into a pickup the same way...... Ok mine was bolted in the bed of the 2004 Chevy with 4 bolts per rail. Thus 8 1/2" Grade 8 bolts total. 

 

Now forward to a semi. If your still pulling at or below the rating on the TS3 hitch. Why in the world would it matter if its still bolted down the same on the Semi truck? Or the pickup truck?

 

I asked the main guy at the plant. And he told me to mount it with the rails. As that was find, as long as you do not go over the rating of the hitch. Or bolt angle iron to the side of the hitch. Then the angle to the 1/2" thick or thicker plate. If you were going to be over the weight rating of the hitch. Then the hitch and rails both would not be good.

Pete

That was my first line of thought of what you said. What kept getting me though is that in a pickup truck bed, the rails sit right above or physicall on the bed? In the HDT truck, they would be spanning the gap between the rails and the hitch would be sitting in the middle of that with no support in the middle? They seem plenty beefy, but I was having a tough time wrapping my head around that thought and 4 bolts just on the outside of each rail and a heavy hitch and all that weight in the middle and my house all riding on that?

The other challenge is the width of the 2 bolt holes on the 5th wheel rails are just a bit wider than the width of the bolt holes on the rails on the truck. You could drill and expand one of the two holes in the HDT rail, but then that hole is now larger. Would maybe another piece of steel on the bottom connecting the two bolt holes be necessary for some more strength? 

And of course my wife is in my ear going, go pay someone to put the hitch on for you, so I know I'll never live it down if I screw something up.

[Pete Kildow]

When I mounted mine in the Chevy. The bed was not doing much if anything for the rails. IT had spacers between the frame and rails. And noting in between to support it but the rails there self's. Will try and get mine mounted next week. IF I get the truck. I'm about an hour away from it now. Will get up in the am and get where its at around 8am. 

As for the bolt holes not lining up right. I'm going to just use new angle on the sides of the truck frame. And drill my holes where I need them. As the hitch is off this truck. and it has channel iron across the frame. Then a goose neck ball mounted on that. If I think it needs more bracing. I will just notch the ends of the channel iron on it now. Where it lays flat on the frame. Then bolt through it and the rails into the angle. But that's over kill above and beyond for sure.

Pete

[BlueLghtning]

19 minutes ago, wild wolf products said:

When I mounted mine in the Chevy. The bed was not doing much if anything for the rails. IT had spacers between the frame and rails. And noting in between to support it but the rails there self's. Will try and get mine mounted next week. IF I get the truck. I'm about an hour away from it now. Will get up in the am and get where its at around 8am. 

As for the bolt holes not lining up right. I'm going to just use new angle on the sides of the truck frame. And drill my holes where I need them. As the hitch is off this truck. and it has channel iron across the frame. Then a goose neck ball mounted on that. If I think it needs more bracing. I will just notch the ends of the channel iron on it now. Where it lays flat on the frame. Then bolt through it and the rails into the angle. But that's over kill above and beyond for sure.

Pete

Thanks! That gives me some more ideas. 

[lockmup68]

There is a goose neck adapter for the TS. You swap the 5th plate for a ball. I have a new one, never used. 

[Pete Kildow]

11 hours ago, lockmup68 said:

There is a goose neck adapter for the TS. You swap the 5th plate for a ball. I have a new one, never used. 

AT one time I was going to order one of those. But all my trailers now use a 5th wheel hitch. But I do have the goose neck plate that fits the 5th wheel  Rails. I may sell it and get one of the goose neck adapters. Be easy to keep in the truck. And not have to remove the  hitch if I had to pull a Goose neck trailer.