Another little touch of the unexpected

[aadler]

When I made my RV summary post six months ago (here), I thought I’d covered most of the spread of what’s out here. Sure, there could be occasional oddities: teardrop trailers (minor subcategory of travel trailers) or homemade campers (likewise subcategory of camper shells) or converted vans (vestigial versions of the Class B type), but those were variations, not entirely different types …

Then I saw the horse trailer with living quarters (here), and a day or so ago there was yet another unanticipated appearance.

It’s been over ten years ago now, but I drove an 18-wheeler for a while. One of the main parts of a semi tractor is the ‘fifth wheel’, the connector that a particular part of a trailer hooks into when you back the truck in properly. In the RV world, ‘fifth wheel’ refers to a type of towable, which connects in a way similar to — but not quite the same as — the fifth wheel on a semi tractor. I even took a quick look at the connector on a fifth wheel trailer, wondering if the two were compatible … and, no, the connection on the RV trailer was smaller than the one on a freight trailer, so I really didn’t see them working together.

Wrong. Pulling into our current campground was a semi tractor pulling a fifth-wheel RV. And an internet search shows that the tractor connector can be modified to work with the connector in a fifth-wheel trailer.

So, yet another new one. Wonder how many other possibilities I just haven’t considered yet?