goose-neck vs fithwheel?

[robert stone]

the truck i may be getting already has a fithwheel hitch any reason to junk it and go with a goose neck style hitch? I'm looking to find a trailer to tow the jeep around

[FYRMAN]

A gooseneck trailer will be easier to find. On the other hand, you could just get a goose to 5th wheel adapter and run with that.

What kind of hitch is it? How does it mount? And, can you get a pic for us? If it's the Reese hitch with rails that run from side to side, you should be able to use those rails and just get a gooseneck plate to sit on it.

Don't trash that 5th wheel hitch either. You can get a couple hundred dollars out of it in the freebie ads.

As far as one being better than the other, I like the gooseneck hitch, because you don't have to ever worry about wether or not the jaws of the 5th wheel hitch are locked around the pin. There are a few guys over at ford-diesel.com that have had their trailer meet the tailgate. With a gooseneck you just have to be sure the jack leg is up and the locking pin is in. I like to be able to physically see that the hitch is locked. I've actually had a few guys bring their trailers in off of the farm to have me work on them, and hear them say "Oh shit! I just drove 50 miles with the gooseneck unlocked!" So it's not like being locked is really that critical.

[robert stone]

the hitch is about 15 years old it goes across the bed of the truck and is mounted on each side to the frame though the bed hard to describe it is not just in the center like the newer ones so i dought there is any kind of adapter to convert it to a goose neck

[Bill Collins]

i have a reese 5th wheel hitch,and also have the plate with gooseneck to bolt onto the rails...

[robert stone]

this hitch goes all the way across the bed wheel well to wheel well

[FYRMAN]

Originally posted by robert stone
this hitch goes all the way across the bed wheel well to wheel well

Gotcha... You could use that hitch (if you think it is safe enough) with an adapter to go from goose to 5th wheel. Or you could yard that thing out, have a bedliner sprayed in to cover the holes, and put a gooseneck hitch in. Or you could just shop around and find a 5th wheel flatbed...

If it were me, I'd yard out that 5th wheel hitch and put a B&W hitch in. www.turnoverball.com

[smurfsdad]

FYRMAN, do you know anyone that has alot of towing time on one of those B&W setups and when it starts wearing can you get replacement parts or do you have to buy the whole thing again. I have worn out a couple of hideaball setups in my work truck, which is not a big deal as they are cheap and easy to replace but i like the idea of only putting a small round hole in the bed and we are gonna buy a new pickup when Ford comes up with something new, which i understand to be the end of this year.

[FYRMAN]

The stories I could tell you smurfsdad...

The major wear point is always going to be the ball. That's a given. Keep the ball lubed (cleaned off and re-lubed once a month to get rid of the road grime) and it will last forever. Other than that, nothing really wears on the hitch.

The ball is truely a turnover ball. You pull the handle in the driver's side rear fenderwell, jump up in the bed, lift the ball out of the socket, turn it over, and put the locking pin back through the ball via the handle in the fenderwell. Only takes a few seconds. You don't pull the handle to make the ball raise or lower, you don't lift a plate and rotate the ball on a fixed pin, you just turn it over. There are physically no points to wear besides tha ball.

My boss started off putting one in a 99 Ford PSD. It's a leased truck that he got through a deal with the Ford dealer, where they upgrade the truck every year and he sends alot of people over there to get hooked up with bigger trucks if need be. Ford has not changed their frame configuration since then, so he is on his 4th truck with the same hitch. When it's time to swap, he pulls the hitch out, he goes and buys the cheapest plastic bedliner he can get his hands on, and trades the truck over.

We recently had a trailer in our shop to have the gooseneck portion of a trailer swapped out. This guy was driving into a fairgrounds somewhere and drug the tires of the trailer up over a huge decorative rock. The twist the trailer put on the truck made the truck go over on it's side too. It tore up the truck, tore up the fender's, running boards, and gooseneck of the trailer, but the B&W hitch was perfectly straight.


And if you are looking for strength, that hitch is rated for 30,000 lbs. You will run out of truck before you overload that hitch.

[smurfsdad]

The part i wonder about wearing is where the ball fits into. I keep everything well greased and the ball itself wearing is not the issue but the connecting point of the ball in the hitch. Thats what wears in the hideaball is the parts of it that hold the ball. The hideaball hitches are only $65 so changing once a year or so isnt a big deal but i like the idea of that small round hole in the bed, but dont want to have to buy a spendy hitch too often when it gets some wear in it. I think i will just try one when we get the new pickup and see what happens as i can always cut a bigger hole to install a hideaball if the B&W doesnt work out.

[FYRMAN]

The ball drops down into a socket that comes through the 4" hole in the bed. It's like a cup that the ball fits snuggly into. There is a plate welded to the bottom of the cup so the ball doesn't fall through. You can actually haul just like that, without the locking pin through the ball itself.

There was a guy hauling a huge living quarters trailer with two old porches in the shop area in back... He didn't have the pin through the ball. He hauled like that from here in Washington State, over to NYC, back across the country to Cali, and was driving through Oregon when the bottom of the cup gave out. The gooseneck of the trailer came down on the center section of the hitch, tore up the floor of his bed, but he still pulled that trailer all the way back here to Pasco, Washington. We took it to a really good fab shop here in town, they welded a new bottom on the cup, and he has been using the locking pin ever since! even the boss didn't use to use the pin, because he had air bags on his truck and it was a little harder to get to the release handle.

As long as you use that locking pin, and grease the ball, there should not be any problems. Click that B&W link and take a look at what is really involved in that install. They have full instruction for every hitch they make on the website.