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RDMueller's avatar
RDMueller
Explorer
Nov 23, 2017

Gooseneck travel trailer!

Camping at Vogel State Park this Thanksgiving and came across this unique travel trailer converted to a gooseneck. Just had to share. Happy Thanksgiving all!

  • Some people, as they get older, don't go up and down stairs well. I've heard of people that don't like the stairs of a 5th wheel. Travel Trailers solve that problem but, long travel trailers cab be a pain to tow. And,, a pain to hook and unhook with there Weigh Distributions Hitches. This person has found a way to solve those problems and make things out work for him.

    I like it.

    You should have gone over to say Hi and ask him about it.
  • Not that difficult to fab up. In fact, you can buy pre built welded gooseneck assemblies. Simple matter of lopping off the front of the frame and scabbing in the gooseneck. Any half way competent weld shop can handle that at a reasonable cost.
  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    The Advantage of a Gooseneck is you don't have rails in the bed of your truck, If the ball is a "pop up" when the trailer is not attached you have a standard pickup

    THe disadvantage is how you convert, I saw one conversion yesterday that did not work well.. This one was done differently

    Though in that photo looks more like a tow truck pulling a 5-er to me But that could be just the angle of the shot.

    (The guy I saw. He extended the king pin down to the gooseneck hitch, and about 2' and when he did a panic stop. tore it all to ... Well you get the idea the torque was too much for the pin box.

    OH and while we were chatting along with the fix it guy. We watched a 38' 5er Nearly new (if not brand new) Ceader Creek pull out of the gas pump. Turned too soon and tore the rear cap half off the trailer when he hit the concrete bumper..OUCH.

    Well. Better him than me is all I can say.
  • Don't quite understand your scenario. My ball mount screws into the hitch plate, which is mounter UNDER the bed to the frame rails. There is a round hole in the bed where the hitch ball screws in, it's 2" fine threaded hex nut, welded to the hitch frame itself and the ball is removable and is a one piece steel affair, threaded to fit in the nut.

    You remove the ball and the bed is flat and unobstructed by anything. With the ball in, it's solid, secure and the only way the trailer would come off is if the vertical hitch point failed. Not likely. Most are fabbed from heavy wall square tubing with a telescoping center section (to adjust the trailer ride height (secured with a retractable pin and a through bolt). The jaws on the telescoping section are of the clamshell variety and are locked onto the ball with a spring loaded pin. Nothing can go anywhere. Nothing ever has. I've been pulling mine for at least a decade, most times overloaded.
  • A lot of useless material hanging off the front IMHO. I am sure it tows great but it would with the proper truck.
  • What exactly is 'useless material' anyway? You can run a gooseneck hitch in any truck. Bed length or cargo capacity is only as important as how you load the GN trailer and how much motor you have.
  • Looks to me like he has a generator on the front as well as that cooler. If I had a paid for TT that I really liked I could see me doing that kind of transformation. I bet it pulls much better that way.
  • bukhrn's avatar
    bukhrn
    Explorer III
    ScottG wrote:
    Wow, super convenient place for a cooler... :R
    NOT, if that thing is full of beer & ice, what Gorilla is going to lift it off of there? :h

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