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Elite Veteran
Posts: 714
 
Location: Minnesota | Has anyone switched or thought of switching from the gooseneck and ball to a 5th wheel plate? I seems to me that might give a little more stability from swaying on curves and would sure be alot easiier for hooking up, especially with these crew cabs and not being able to see your ball very easily. |
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Expert
Posts: 2614
| That's the truth! And my husband got the idea he wanted a windowscreen scene on his back truck glass,and it's pretty,but when it rains the water gets behind it and you can't see crap out of the back glass.NOT able to hook up very easily. But we have only had the ball hookup,how does the 5th wheel hookup work with the trailer coupler? (DUH I really don't know never had looked at one or driven a tractor trailer so had no reason to know.)Do you have a different sort of coupler? |
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Expert
Posts: 5870
 
Location: western PA | I don't like the large amount of room the fifth wheel setups take up in the bed, and removing them to use the bed for cargo is beyond my lifting capabilities. My goose hitch ball unscrews from the bed and leaves a perfectly flat area with only a small hole which is covered by a mat. The fifth wheel coversions I looked at were quite involved and I would have to get the adapters for my trailers, another cost consideration. I still don't know why horse trailers are predominately goose coouplers, while the rv trailers use a fifth wheel set up. A friend of mine needed to have his travel trailer moved when his truck broke down and I couldn't help him. I have a super cab and have very little problem in hooking up, much less so than my spastic attempts with a bumper hitch. I'll stay with the goose set up. BOL Gard |
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Veteran
Posts: 196
Location: WI | Originally written by gard on 2007-11-15 11:08 AM I still don't know why horse trailers are predominately goose coouplers, while the rv trailers use a fifth wheel set up. Nor do I. My friend has a GN coupler on his camper - it cost $300! As far as stability, I can't see how a 5th wheel set up would offer any more. ??? My trick for hooking up was two strips of reflective tape in the crevices of my bed liner that help align the trailer to the truck. When hooking up, just keep the coupler between the two strips of tape and back up. Plus the B & W turnover ball goes away when I don't need it. This is a rock-solid system, and bolts to the frame in a bazillion places. It's not going anywhere. |
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Regular
Posts: 95
Location: East Central Kansas | Here is a trick I use when hooking up my trailer. Take a bungee cord and put it accros the bed at the top. Align the cord over the middle of your goose neck hitch. Next put a clothes pin on the cord, but align the clothes pin on the cord dead center with the hitch. Center your coupler with the hitch and once you touch the clothes pin, you are aligned. |
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Expert
Posts: 2614
| wow,what a great and inexpensive idea! Will try that! Far safer than husband standing behind the tailgate where he could get crushed and watching.(ALtho I have to say,I back it up a lot better than he does,esp.the BP's!) |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 500
Location: West TN | I have both type trailers and it is alot easier to align the fifth wheel. Plus you don't have to worry about the safety chains with it. It is a hard task to put in by yourself unless you break it into parts. Then it is still heavy. If you did not need to use the bed the fifth wheel is the way to go. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 368
Location: Georgia | An easy to use "cheat string" for hooking up a GN..take a bungee cord place an over sized nylon twisty tie in the middle and hook the bungee cord under the rim of the bed of your truck. (My truck has rings mounted into the upside of the bed, and I hook the cord there.) The nylon twisty tie will point directly to your ball. Once you have hooked up this way a couple of times, you will know exactly how close to your coupler your bungee cord needs to be...(I just touch the twisty tie to my coupler when I back up and it is perfect.) The nylon twisty tie is a piece of small strip of plastic about 8 inches long with a small loop lock on one end. Simply loop the tie around the bungee cord and through the loop lock and it stays in place. I know "nylon twisty tie" is not the technical name for this thing but I do not know what else to call it. You can get them at any home improvement store or probably even Wal-Mart for that matter. I wish I could say I thought of this ingenius "cheat string" but I borrowed the idea from someone else.
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Member
Posts: 31
Location: new richmond, wi | Gooseneck ball hitches and fifth wheels are designed for different applications. The fifth wheel plate is definitely more stable. That's the whole deal. If a semi trailer or large boxy light weight camper gets in a heavy sdie wind, the stability of the fifth wheel plate helps keep the towing rig tight with the trailer to keep from tipping over. As long you're on a flat surface, like a road. If you pull off road, onto uneven terrain, the fifth wheel is going to cause twisting and bending of your whole rig from front to back. There's no give. If there's a chance you might be off road, in a field, pasture, construction site, etc. the gooseneck ball hitch allows the towing rig and trailer to roll through the dips and bumps. Usually this type of trailer is heavy (horse, grain, aggreagate) or low profile (construction, backhoe, flat bed) and isn't affected by side wind loads. |
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Expert
Posts: 5870
Location: western PA | After reading paintpaddy's explanation of the two types of hitches, I can now understand why the horse trailers use the ball and goose. I've had my rig in several situations where the truck and trailer were twisting in different planes, bumpy roads, fields, sharp curves and pot holes etc. My biggest worry is hitting the goose part of the trailer on the truck bed when things get to twisting. So far no damage. Thank you for that explanation. It seems logical and a better reason for me to stick to a ball/goose setup. BOL Gard |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 714
Location: Minnesota | i agree with gard. Thanks paintpaddy. It was something a few of us were discussing after seeing the Turnover Hitch and POPUP hitch ads for the conversions. Thought it might be better than crawling in to hook up the safety chains. |
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Expert
Posts: 3853
Location: Vermont | Originally written by paintpaddy on 2007-11-15 9:20 PM Gooseneck ball hitches and fifth wheels are designed for different applications. The fifth wheel plate is definitely more stable. That's the whole deal. If a semi trailer or large boxy light weight camper gets in a heavy sdie wind, the stability of the fifth wheel plate helps keep the towing rig tight with the trailer to keep from tipping over. As long you're on a flat surface, like a road. If you pull off road, onto uneven terrain, the fifth wheel is going to cause twisting and bending of your whole rig from front to back. There's no give. If there's a chance you might be off road, in a field, pasture, construction site, etc. the gooseneck ball hitch allows the towing rig and trailer to roll through the dips and bumps. Usually this type of trailer is heavy (horse, grain, aggreagate) or low profile (construction, backhoe, flat bed) and isn't affected by side wind loads. There was a discussion about 5th wheels having a note about Recreation Use Only...since I don't have one I can't comment any further on that and haven't found anything to expand on it... I have also seen a 5th wheel support collapse to one side, something that has never happened with a GN... The other advantage for the manufacturers is a GN is cheaper to manufacture with larger adjustment tolerances... 20K 5th Wheel
 |  | Features side-to-side pivot to better accommodate hook-ups on uneven ground. Quick installation, strong, reliable performance and easy removal to allow full truck bed access. - Two-jaw locking system
- Fore-and-aft and side-to-side pivot limited to about 7 degrees
- Locking jaw handle
- Vertically adjusts from 14-1/4" to 18-1/4"
- 20,000 lbs. towing capacity
- 5,000 lbs. pin weight capacity
- Solid base assembly for superior stability
- Requires Rails & Installation Kit (sold separately)
- 5 year limited warranty
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Edited by PaulChristenson 2007-11-16 1:09 AM
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.jpg) Expert
Posts: 2828
Location: Southern New Mexico | We put an adaptor on our camper so we didn't have to put a 5th wheel hitch in the truck. I like it better because we still have the bed when we need it without having to remove a hitch. The first camper dealer we went to wanted to charge us $500 for the hitch so we kept looking. The place we bought from gave us the adapter for free. |
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 Regular
Posts: 88
Location: Youngstown, OH | The only issue I have with my gooseneck hitch is getting the bolts in the coupler tube tight enough after adjusting to the proper height on my truck. I struggled with this for a year and after the coupler tube slid down while I was going down the highway (and scared the crap out of me- it was so loud I thought I blew a truck tire or something), I took it back to the dealer (Leonard Truck & Trailer) to see if there was something that could be done. They were great and created a "sleeve" that went around the coupler tube and kept the coupler from sliding down when I was traveling. It was a real easy fix and now I don't have to worry about trying to get those bolts so damn tight!!! |
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 Expert
Posts: 1283
Location: Home of Wild Turkey Whiskey | A friend of mine has made a bracket just under the lip of the bed and it holds one of those lazer lights, he backs up until the light hits the front of the tube and bingo he is over the ball. I haven't used it but it worked pretty slick for him. |
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Regular
Posts: 67
Location: Iowa | We used to have an extended cab longbed with a toolbox. It was a PAIN in the neck to hook up. I wanted to paint a spot ont the toolbox to know where I was lined up, but never did.Now we have an extended cab and I can see the ball when I get close. A friend of mine pointed out the screws in the tailgate. If you stay lined up with those (it's like a triangle), you are lined up with your ball. |
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Veteran
Posts: 142
Location: KY | Also, most 5th wheel hitches only have 15,000 lb to 18,000lb ratings where most goosenecks hitches are rated at 30,000 lb. |
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Expert
Posts: 2953
Location: North Carolina | Originally written by genebob on 2007-11-15 9:17 AM
Has anyone switched or thought of switching from the gooseneck and ball to a 5th wheel plate? I seems to me that might give a little more stability from swaying on curves and would sure be alot easiier for hooking up, especially with these crew cabs and not being able to see your ball very easily. Consider the bind the 5th wheel plate would have in this case: More likely the crushed support or bed torn off. Lucky for me, it's a ball & socket hitch... No damage. 
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5th wheel plates rather than goose & ball
