5th wheel vs. gooseneck?

[emarsh]

I'm new here, I thought both of these were the same thing?



For a uninformed person on this subject, what is the difference between the two? Atvantages, etc.

 

[Mark_Kendrick]

A fifth wheel is a plate on the truck into which a ball is inserted (like an 18 wheeler)



A gooseneck has a ball onto which a socket is lowered and locked.



I like the gooseneck. I have a Popup brand hitch rated for 30k. when installed there is a rod in the drivers rear wheel well that you pull to pop up the ball. When not in use you push the rod, the ball falls and you have the bed back and usable.



FWIW

Mark

 

[klenger]

5th wheel hitches are usually used on 5th wheel RV's (go figure) and goose neck hitches are usually used on utility trailers (like flat bed car haulers) because of their greater strength. Now you know everything I do about the subject.

 

[emarsh]

OK, thanks. I always assumed that anything that attached in the bed over the axle was a fifth wheel device and the gooseneck referred to the trailer part only.

I must agree and i like the gooseneck system. Now at least i will know what to ask for when looking for a trailer, I want a gooseneck!

My trailer experiance is limited to car hauling and I have a sloan quick load which is state of the art for rear hitch type car haulers.

Anyone need info on these and I can speak intellengently about how they work, etc. www.kwikload.com I have been towing with a 93 dakota with the 318 and auto trans and 3. 90 gears with firestone ride rite air bags, but live near the Cajon Pass and decided the last time i came up that pass that I want some Cummins Tow power! ED

 

[Mark_Kendrick]

IMHO Gooseneck is the way to go... Clearances over the bed are better. 5th wheels usually have much less room for movement before damage occurs.



Glad I could help.



Later,

Mark

 

[Wiredawg]

Guys:



I have a 15K lb 5th wheel RV I tried to get the RV dealer and a trailer fabricator to convert 5th wheel trailer to gooseneck. I bought my my truck used and it had a 30K lb gooseneck installed in it. Anyway, no one would convert the trailer for me due to liability issues. I had to remove the gooseneck hitch and have a 5th wheel hitch installed. And, yes I do have an axle inspection hole in my bed (under the bed mat) where the gooseneck used to be.



oh well,



Wiredawg

 

[CRuD]

Best of all three worlds

I have the B&W Turnball system and love it. I can 1. Have a flat bed. 2. Pull a gooseneck. 3. Pull a 5er (18000 lbs). I highly recommend this to you. Here is there web site http://www.turnoverball.com/

I have been using this for about a year now with no trouble. "Happy Camper" informed me about this and I really like it.

Being a "Newbie" Welcome to the TDR. Take the time and fill out your "sig" so that when you post questions folks can relate to you and your truck.

I bet that little six cylinder you run now is much different than that eight you had before.

I hope you have a good brake controller and electric brakes on your trailer.

Have fun and once again welcome to the TDR.

See Ya

Chris

 

[Mark_Kendrick]

Wiredawg,

I've always wondered why campers are usually 5ers. It seems like you should be able to order a new one w/any hitch you want. I wouldn't know, I haven't tried. I can see why you couldn't get them to convert it. . like they said liability.



I do know that I probably would not want a 5er living on a farm. everything else is gooseneck.



CRuD, Got any pictures of yours?



Later,

Mark

 

[CRuD]

I have a question for you all in the know of things.

Why do goose necks have safty chains/cables and 5ers don't????

This is me talking but it seems that the gooseneck with the tongue weight pushing down on it would be more secure than the 5er.

Before you start yes I know OTR trucks don't have safty chains on them either. I don't know of any of them coming apart either.

I am just curious.

Thanks

See Ya

Chris

 

[Mark_Kendrick]

The chaind on a goose neck are a joke. . but big rigs do have breakaway breaking systems as far as I know.



The hooks on most goosenecks would snap long before 30k lbs of trailer yanked on them.

 

[CRuD]

Mark

I can we have a dig camera but I don't know how to post the pictures. If you or someone can give me "step by step instructions" I can post the picures.

I am some what computer challenged if you know what I mean. My 14 year old son shows me something new almost every day.

My son and I installed the hitch in a afternoon. The hardest part is drilling a 4" hole in the bed of a brand new truck. I measured about 6 times and finally after much urging from my son to just do it I drilled the hole. I have NO regerts.

See Ya

Chris

 

[klenger]

CRud:



If you email the pictures to me at -- email address removed --, I'll put them on my website and post the links here.



All:

Not only can a gooseneck hitch be used to pull a 5er, but a gooseneck ball can be mounted on the 5er hitch rails. I figure if I ever need to rent or borrow a gooseneck traiiler, getting the adapter would be a minimal expense and I'd be all set. Which way you go depends on which you use the most, I guess. I sure like the simplicity of connecting to the 5er hitch.

 

[Mark_Kendrick]

CRuD,

Update your signature so we know what ya got. . I thought you had the flatbed or do you just have a flip over ball?



My popup is sorta like the flip over but id retracts.



pretty neat the way it works. . suprisingly little effort.

 

[CRuD]

Sorry Mark

No I do not have a flat bed on my truck, I meant that the bed of my truck is flat. The ball pulls out and that is it.

By the way my sig is updated with as much info as I want it to be. Big brother is watching over our shoulder on who is doing what to who's truck.



Ken

I will try and get the pictures this weekend. I will send them to you either Sat or Sunday . If you could sent me the directions on how to do this myself via a PM. Thanks

See Ya

Chris

 

[merryman]

Caution on fiver/goose necd adaptor

I got interested in the goose-neck adaptor for my fiver (12K), and looked into it. I got several warnings about them being hard on fivers, but I tried it anyway using the Cody Adaptor from Quick Hitch.

The first trip with the adaptor was to San Diego and return from Oregon.

About 2000 miles into the trip, I looked in the inside mirror and I could see movement between the king pin box and the fiver body.

Investigation showed that the king pin box was being torn from the frame of the trailer------exactly what I had been warned might happen. I was very close to dropping my fiver in the middle of the highway;Wouldn't that be great at 60 MPH!!. The adaptor puts added stress that the fivers are not designed to handle.



A bunch of repair and welding and I was able to cripple home and re- install the regular fiver hitch.



While some have gotten by using the adaptor, I and several others I have heard from found it a disaster.



Vaughn

 

[KMeek]

Klenger, I am intrigued by your claim that a gooseneck connection has greater strength than a traditional 5th wheel connection. Why do you say that? I would think that if your statement was true the 5th wheel world would be overcome by conversions from traditional 5th wheel connections to gooseneck connections. I camp with my 5th wheel a lot in the nice weather months and I have seen less than 5 5th wheels that have a gooseneck connection.



Generally, the key draw/advantage of a gooseneck over a 5th wheel is that the gooseneck is better able to handle the rougher terrain that ranchers must navigate with stock trailers--e. g. , fields and pastures. The ball connection of a gooseneck does not place the restriction on the side to side movement of a trailer like traditional 5th wheel hitches do. (There are now some 5th wheel manufacturers that build 5th wheels with good side to side movement). Thus, with the ball style gooseneck connection a trailer has much more flexibility than the traditional 5th wheel. The potential risk of the gooseneck connection is that the terrain will become too adverse and the trailer will dent up the railings during side to side movement.



I am also puzzled by comments I continue to read stating that goosenecks have better clearance over the bed. Changing from a traditional 5th wheel connection to a gooseneck connection would not give you any more clearance between the box rails of the truck and the part of the 5th wheel trailer that might dent the truck box rails. The distance between the box rails of the truck and the trailer is simply a function of the height of the 5th wheel trailer. It is true that most gooseneck connected trailers are built to have more space above the connection so that you don't have to worry about denting the box rails on uneven ground. But the gooseneck connection itself has nothing to do with creating more clearance. Most 5th wheel trailers are designed with the expectation that travel will mostly be on level ground so there is less need for the gooseneck style connection.



Finally, I seem to recall a Trailer Life article that discussed the fact that the gooseneck style connections may not be legal in all states for 5th wheel travel trailer hauling unless there are certain safety connections like chains. I may be mistaken on this last point.

 

[klenger]

KMeek



I'm not much of an authority, so please take my posts for what that's worth. Mostly I'm passing information that I've heard.



The comments that I was making relate more to the overall design of a gooseneck vs 5th wheel trailer, not the coupling mechanism. If you look at the gooseneck part of a gooseneck trailer, there is usually LOTS of steel as opposed to a more simple frame on a 5th wheel camper. I agree about the bed clearance not being any different between the two hitch styles; again, I think that the comments were more related to the overall design of the trailers.



I've never used a gooseneck trailer, as my towing experience is in the RV world. Other than the 5er hitch being heavy and taking a lot of space in the truck bed, I really like the easy hookup and visability of the 5er hitch.

 

[Happy Camper]

Somewhere in TDR lala land a member posted several pictures of the B&W hitch but I don't have the link handy. It comes in 3 pieces. 1. Bolts (no drilling) to the frame. Hard part as said in this thread is cutting or having some one cut the 4" hole in the bed. 2. The hitch frame part that secures to a shaft that fits into #1. 3. The rocker part which comes off by removing two pins and lifting off for removal of the hitch.



Too many horror stories to go the gooseneck adapter route.

 

[RustyJC]

The B&W turnoverball gooseneck with combination 5th wheel RV hitch can be seen at http://www.turnoverball.com if anyone is interested.



We have this hitch installed and finally have it debugged, but please be aware that we had severe fore/aft surging problems when initially towing our 5th wheel with the companion RV hitch. If anyone is interested, drop me an e-mail or PM and I'll give you the details of what we had to do to get the 5th wheel hitch stabilized in our truck.



We really like the versatility of this hitch system and the clean bed when it's not in use, but (at least in our case) things weren't quite as simple as they look on the B&W website for installing the 5th wheel hitch (they call it the Companion RV Hitch).



Rusty

 

[Mschevey]

Just though I would add my $. 02. I have a 20' utility trailer that has a 5th wheel (king pin). The kingpin itself is the same size as used on Big Rigs. (And on 5th wheel campers. ) I had the trailer custom made and wanted this for the ease of hook, up and the fact that the hitch is higher in the truck bed causes less torque on the front of the trailer.



As mentioned previously, the main reason for the Gossneck stlye was freedom for the trailer to pivot in any direction over rough terrain. The older 5th wheel hitches only had front to back pivots and therfore much side to side pivoting caused a lot of stress on the trailer connection and truck hitch. The newer 5th wheel hitches have both front to back and side to side pivots.



Safty chains are not needed on a 5th wheel because the King pin has a reduced diameter where it connects, (2" I think). Above this is the skid plate this carries the weight and transfers it to the truck. Below the 2" section is a larger section (~3. 5"). The larger section under the hitch piont does not allow the triler to 'lift off' of the hitch.



Sorry about the long post, and any spelling errors I am in a hurry.



Mike.