Has anyone every heard of anyone changing the ball on the tow unit every year or so? I have a friend that has a large dirt moving company and they do it every other year. He states that, pulling 20k or so, he believes that the wear and stress on the ball warrants change out. I have not heard or seen anyone else ever doing this. Any ideas?

We have well over 20 K on our GN ball and it isn't even close to being worn out. Previously there was some discussion about whether lubing the ball was advantageous or not. This seems like a short life span, that might be increased with some grease. It would be interesting to know if he is changing it out of a precaution or because of actual wear.

Gard

Quote.... Has anyone every heard of anyone changing the ball on the tow unit every year or so? I have a friend that has a large dirt moving company and they do it every other year. He states that, pulling 20k or so, he believes that the wear and stress on the ball warrants change out. I have not heard or seen anyone else ever doing this. Any ideas?

If he's changing the ball and not changing the coupler at the same time..... Then that might explain why the ball is getting chewed up so quick... You know that ball is made of alot better material than the coupler. I've seen the cup/socket inside of the coupler worn away on an old 30" steel, three axle hog/stock trailer. This trailer worked every day except Sundays. The couple tube was actually sitting on the hitch plate in the truck bed.

If you don't grease the King Pin and 5th wheel plate and locking jaws on the tractor trailers, you couldn't hardly drive them... It has a big affect on the steering when the trailer plate and the 5th wheel plate tries to bind or stick to one another...

Quote... If it were me I would go straight to king pin setup.

Then you got that Fifth wheel plate in the bed of the truck when you're not pulling the trailer... Makes a pick up truck bed pretty much usless... You going to unload that chunk of steel every Monday morning, then reinstall it on Thursday night, before going to a show or trail riding.. Suppose you got it out of the truck and you need to make an emergency run to the VET in the next state??? You need to be hooked to the trailer and on the road. Someone has misplaced one of the anchor pins, or run over the whole thing with the tractor and loader and sprung up one of the brackets.... Clock is running, horse ain't getting any better, whatcha gonna do!!!?  Does everyone on the farm know how to properly put that 5th wheel back in the truck bed? Think about it......

Ken, You'll see the vast majority of horse trailers use the 2 5/16 GN BALL set-up.  (actually, I've never seen anything else) 5th wheel hitches are mostly used on travel trailers.

In previous threads, the consensus,was the ball allows much more articulation ... as when pulling the trailer through a field or camp site.

Or this instance ... when I ran off the road with the trailer.  Note the extreme compound angle of the truck and trailer. I think a 5th wheel hitch would be trashed or something bent.

Thanks to Retento on the other thread.. I'll have to eat these words...  Now, I have seen several horse trailers using a 5th wheel hitch.  Of course for the mass market of 1,2,3 & 4 horse trailers, a GN is the favorite flavor.  Now if one is moving a 15 head herd of horses in a single trip... a king pin & a class 6 truck is it.

You got to figure anything 9  horse or larger is going to mash a pickup truck, so folks will buy a used over the road tractor to pull the gooseneck. Slide a king pin hitch in an go....

10 horse Hart with king pin...  http://www.horsetrailerworld.com/home/trailerdetail.asp?ID=188915

Economically priced road tractor... http://www.horsetrailerworld.com/home/truckdetail.asp?ID=8542

I pull my trailer with a flat bed and a 5th wheel hitch. I am short, so reaching anything in the bed of a standard pickup requires me to climb into the bed. Makes me mad everytime I have to do it. My lack of stature also makes it impossible for me to see the gooseneck ball to hook the trailer up by myself. Switching to a flat bed solves the problem of reach and the 5th wheel hitch can be seen from the cab, making it a breeze for me to hook up by myself. Makes me a hapy camper!  I have never had any kind of problem with articulation, and I have been in some pretty rough, remote areas with my rig.

Marla

Most newer style 5th wheel hitches move ALL directions.  The old style just moved foward and backwards, the newer style move foward, backward and will also move side to side giving you close to the same action as the gooseneck.  Here is a picture of one I found.  I think Reese hitch has better verison.