Gooseneck fifth wheel and a flat bed. Help!
Hello, I'm a little green on this so please have patience with me. I have an 1985 Chevrolet K20 that has been converted to a 1 ton truck with single rears. It has a flat bed and is set up for a goose...
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The 4-speed doesn't help. 3.42 gears are a problem, limiting you to ~5000lbs of towing, if I'm not mistaken, and then not very comfortable towing. Lots of time down in 3rd (really 2nd because of the granny low).
On an old school truck like that you really need 4.10 or even 4.30 gears. This will get the RPMs of the engine up so that you can tow. Even then you're probably only looking at 8000lbs if you want any comfort level at all. That's a pretty small 5th wheel.
With newer trucks the gearing isn't so much of an issue because you have more gears to choose from, and more evenly-spaced. On your truck there's such a gap between top gear and the next one down...
On an old school truck like that you really need 4.10 or even 4.30 gears. This will get the RPMs of the engine up so that you can tow. Even then you're probably only looking at 8000lbs if you want any comfort level at all. That's a pretty small 5th wheel.
With newer trucks the gearing isn't so much of an issue because you have more gears to choose from, and more evenly-spaced. On your truck there's such a gap between top gear and the next one down...
