Fifth Wheel or Goose Neck
Well after my other question about going from travel trailer to fifth wheel, I believe we have decided to make the jump and get the fifth wheel. Now to wait for the one I want, 2010 to 2012 Arctic Fox...
Forum Discussion
DirtyOil wrote:
Tell me... how is a fifth wheel trailer attached to a TV? From what I see... there is what? a 2" pin which is welded to a plate which in turn is welded to the frame. Now that same 2" pin has all the forces acting on it first which then translates to the "plate" then the "frame". Tell me how having that same 2" pin "attached" to the TV either via a "fifth wheel" or via "gooseneck hitch" translates to a "broken frame" or "delaminated walls" or "twisted frame"? Older "fifth wheel" hitches don't have that "side to side" movement, how many frames, sidewalls etc. were effected with the side to side motion? Seems to me, regardless the "hitch" setup, that 2" pin while in motion is going to twist, move up and down with the movement of the TV, if violent enough, that 2" pin is going to transfer the forces from the TV to the "pin plate" and then to the "frame". Porpusing, while cruising 60-80mph down the highway no matter what setup one has is going to cause damage. The trailer is being pulled and the TV motions are being transferred through a 2" pin period! Engineering shmeering!! How many bolts hold the wings on a Boeing 737? Wanna guess?
It requires an understanding of physics specifically related to torque.
But the simple explanation:
with the 5th wheel hitch all the force is applied directly to the pin in a basic forward (or backward when stopping) direction,
but the gooseneck adapter is hanging some distance below the pin. That adapter is essentially a lever with the force applied at the bottom of that lever. And a lever applies a rotational force to whatever it is attached to. And worse, it amplifies that force in a rotational direction rather than straight on direction.
Easiest way to visualize it is to relate it to a cheater bar. You put a short wrench on a tight bolt and it is hard to remove. You put a cheater bar on the wrench and suddenly it is easy to remove, all because of the amplified force (torque) applied to the bolt via the longer lever (cheater bar).
With the gooseneck adapter that amplified rotational force is applied to the pin box and subsequently to the front part of the frame.
