looking at a deisel dodge ram truck and the description says 5th wheel. what exactly does that mean? theres 4 wheels on the trucklol. why call the extra wheel the 5th? or why call it a wheel?
That is the plate in the bed to hook up a trailer. Looks just like a semi fifth wheel. It is called that as it acts as a wheel. Look at a semi with no trailer attached. Same thing
lets not base too much in the numbers. A 97 F-250 and a 03 F-250 are not the same truck. The older trucks are are more heavy duty and just built better. The way I look at it is if you had a mid 90's F250 to buy a comparable truck now you need an F350. The F150 is basically a large ranger, A 250 is an old school 150 and so on. So in answer to your question the year and make are such a difference. I would take a 97 250 over a 07 350 any day but over that youll still get a heavy truck.
The fifth wheel coupling provides the link between a semi-trailer and the towing truck, tractor unit, leading trailer or dolly. Some recreational vehicles RVs are in a fifth wheel configuration, requiring the coupling to be installed in the bed of a pickup truck as a towing vehicle. The coupling consists of a coupling pin (or king pin) on the front of the semi-trailer and a horseshoe-shaped coupling device called a fifth wheel on the rear of the towing vehicle. Sometimes called a turn-table in Australia and New Zealand, especially if it's a rotating ball-race-bearing type. The term fifth wheel comes from a similar coupling used on four-wheel horse-drawn carriages and wagons. The device allowed the front axle assembly to pivot in the horizontal plane, to improve turning.
