Got turned away at my first RV park because of the HDT

[noteven]

Anyone know why a king pin coupled rv trailer is called “a fifth wheel” but the fifth wheel on it’s tow vehicle is called a “hitch”? Or why rv’rs (and many others) call a bob tail heavy duty truck a “semi”? 

Anyways I checked with the jackrabbit at the entry to my campground and he didn’t have a thing to say about my semi or my fifth. 

[rickeieio]

The spoken word evolves, and slang or abbreviations become the new norm.  That's why science uses Latin, a "dead" language.

Pass the jello please......

[packnrat]

by legal wording any trailer that part of it weight rides on the tow is a semi trailer.

but i do belive that bumper pulls do not fall in that deff. not that i woud argue it.

i would need to reread the laws first to find out.

but some out there just have problems. 

as mostly it is not a problem with a given trailer, but the drivers lack of ability

in my decades of driving class A commercial ( varied equmpment) i have gotten in and out of some of the strangest, tightest places one can think of.

 

i see a lot of small cars cutting over the double yellow at a traffic light as they make a left turn. heck i can do the same turn and keep a 53 foot trailer in my lane never touching the line.

 

.

[Morelli]

34 minutes ago, noteven said:

Anyone know why a king pin coupled rv trailer is called “a fifth wheel” but the fifth wheel on it’s tow vehicle is called a “hitch”? Or why rv’rs (and many others) call a bob tail heavy duty truck a “semi”? 

Anyways I checked with the jackrabbit at the entry to my campground and he didn’t have a thing to say about my semi or my fifth. 

I used to spend time correcting folks on this stuff ....  after a while, screw it, just wasting my time !   

[I'mdonewiththis forum]

5 minutes ago, Pug said:

I used to spend time correcting folks on this stuff ....  after a while, screw it, just wasting my time !   

Yeah, just like breaks and brakes, there, their, and they're.......

[Big5er]

10 hours ago, packnrat said:

by legal wording any trailer that part of it weight rides on the tow is a semi trailer.

but i do belive that bumper pulls do not fall in that deff. not that i woud argue it.

There are many different "definitions" but basically you have two types of trailer. A "semi" trailer has wheels toward the rear end, the forward end being supported by the rear the towing vehicle. A bumper pull meets that definition. As Tom mentioned the other type of trailer is a "full" trailer. A full trailer is supported entirely by its own wheels. A bumper pull is definitely not in that category. 

As I mentioned, just think "little red wagon". That would be an example of a full trailer. The way it was explained to us was the prefix "semi-" means "half". A "full" trailer has wheels in the front and back, like a kids wagon. A "semi-trailer" (or, essentially, "half-trailer") only has wheels in the back, and the front is carried by the vehicle that is towing it. Any trailer that can not support its own weigh entirely on it's own wheels is only a "semi" -trailer.