Fifth wheel to Gooseneck ????

wmiller2502 wrote:
I think I have the sand to just go with it and see what happens. No travel trailer company is going to reccommend this because it would be too much of a liabilty. I'm cool with that but i see alot of these on campers at campgrounds. I just never bothered asking anyone about them until now. YOLO !!

How do you loosen a stuck bolt/nut? You put a cheater on your wrench. Put a 2' cheater on most any 1/2" ratchet, and you're likely to break the wrench. Translate that torque multiplication onto a GN adapter and the forces acting on the FW frame. You're, in effect, putting an 18-24" "cheater" on the king pin. IMO, the Anderson (and any other raised ball-type hitch) would be the only thing I'd consider using. In AZ, =all= ball hitches must have safety chains used, so now you've also got to have chain anchors in the bed. YMMV... I have the B&W Turnover Ball and FW Companion and use (and love) both.

Lyle

hmmm

Dang, I sure hope I dont end up with that ^^^^^^^ Problem.

There is a reason that gooseneck trailers are made the way they are with all the framing coming to together in the center and spanning a couple feet in height! The average 5th wheel has 6 to 8 inches in height of the framing in that area and does not have braces angled into the area.

Chris

Old-Biscuit wrote:

There is good reason why the total hitch isn't shown in these pictures. If I remember correctly these, or some like it, were posted only to be discovered it was an unconverted hitch. The factory 5th wheel hitch.

laknox wrote:

Put a 2' cheater on most any 1/2" ratchet, and you're likely to break the wrench. Translate that torque multiplication onto a GN adapter and the forces acting on the FW frame. You're, in effect, putting an 18-24" "cheater" on the king pin.

Lyle

Yes, from an engineering standpoint there is the possibility to put more stress on the hitch with an adaptor but not an 18-24" "cheater" bar. Here is mine with the long pin box. If I remember correctly in the last 5years plus, there has only been one or max two frames broken with an adaptor but more that have never been converted. Pivoting a 5th wheel beyond the couple degrees most new hitches are made to pivot to the sides so that the hitch takes the stress from the truck also far exceeds the extra stress the extra 6 inches or so will ever put on the frame.

The stress from the goose box would be identical to any other hitch with the same dimensions.



Lippert knows this yet they still only allow the goose box because it puts $$ in their coffers.

Dsteiner, are you running a gooseneck adapter?

You gotta love the folks who post a question and then only want to read answers that they agree with!

I was going to respond to the OP, but why bother!