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DaveF-250SD's avatar
DaveF-250SD
Explorer
Apr 01, 2015

Scary fifth wheel/gooseneck hitch

Just looked at a clean '97 F-350 XLT Super Cab dually for sale locally. It has a home made (?) Gooseneck/5th wheel hitch. Four foot by two and a half foot 1/2 inch steel plate, bolted entirely to the bed floor. Does not, and never did attach to the trucks frame in any way. Fifth wheel rails have wear spots in the paint where the cradle was attached, and the hidden gooseneck ball was in the up position, and has obvious signs of use, like it has survived World War II as a matter of fact. The back of the plate is bolted to a factory bed cross brace, but the front of the plate bolts just behind the next forward brace. Just washers and nuts underneath, no bottom support plate. The oddest part is that there is no warping or damage to the bed floor what so ever. Straight and unblemished in any way. Would never imagine the sheet metal would withstand that type of stress without any issues. Sign advertised under 80,000 original miles on a 7.3 Turbo Diesel with 5 speed manual. I know there are no doubt many stranger hitch set-ups out there than this one, just never seen one up close. :E

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  • mowermech's avatar
    mowermech
    Explorer
    Apr 01, 2015
    The first fifth wheel hitch I ever saw, many years ago, had two plates of 3/8 steel that bolted to the fender wells of the truck bed, then a crosspiece that sat in saddles on top of those plates. The fifth wheel was in the middle of that cross piece. It would tilt fore and aft, but there was no side to side tilt possible. the guy who owned the rig was a fire bomber pilot, and he towed his trailer all over the West during fire season.
    That hitch was not home-made. It was a commercially available unit, sold by most RV dealers.
    It simply worked!
  • JIMNLIN's avatar
    JIMNLIN
    Explorer III
    Apr 01, 2015
    If you guys are talking about a flat or bent plate in the bed with a GN ball welded to the plate their manufactured and sold that way.
  • Houston_Remodel's avatar
    Houston_Remodel
    Explorer
    Apr 01, 2015
    What about the liability of a home made hitch? What does your insurance say about such modifications?
  • W4RLR's avatar
    W4RLR
    Explorer
    Apr 01, 2015
    My Reese 15K fifth wheel hitch has brackets that attach directly to the truck frame, and the rails bolt directly to those brackets. No load on the truck bed at all. Reese supplies shims that go between the corrugations on the bed and the brackets so nothing is deformed when the bolts are tightened.
  • carringb's avatar
    carringb
    Explorer
    Apr 01, 2015
    Didn't all fifth wheel hitches simply bolt to the bed at one point? Many still do don't they?

    A 1/2" steel plate is probably much stronger than the 3/16" channels used by most hitch makers.
  • JIMNLIN's avatar
    JIMNLIN
    Explorer III
    Apr 01, 2015
    Jeeze ... in lots of cases thats how we did it years ago.
    I put 360k miles on a F350 DRW long bed std cab years ago pulling heavy GN trailers commercially at 25-28k GCW. This truck was on the road multi state weekly.
    The 5/8" plate was bolted to the trucks bed frame. We usually welded the bed frame with brackets to the trucks main frame in four places 12"-18" forward and aft of the plate.
    Those old GN trailers didn't have torque tubes back then so that stiffened the bed some what to counter twisting from the GN trailer.

    Yeay...todays GN and 5th wheel hitches are a better deal for that kind of use.
  • DaveF-250SD's avatar
    DaveF-250SD
    Explorer
    Apr 01, 2015
    Heavy metal Doctor, that set up you saw is definitely scarier than the one I saw. At least this one has grade 8, 5/8" attaching hardware. Your friend was lucky he didn't get killed or severely injured. Makes you wonder how many more times the same setup was done on other trucks by that installer.
  • Heavy_Metal_Doc's avatar
    Heavy_Metal_Doc
    Explorer
    Apr 01, 2015
    A friend in the automotive towing and transport business decided to buy a 3 car "wedge" goose neck trailer and start hauling longer distance transport work. Trailer dealer bolted down the mount on the floor of the pickup bed with 3/8" grade 5 bolts through holes they drilled through the bed and then on down through the top flange of the truck frame....scary! I pointed out that I didn't think it was up to the task, but he assured me the trailer guys knew what they where doing....and then he turned it loose with customers cars on it and an inexperienced driver behind the wheel....it finally broke loose and trashed the bed and ended up getting another truck set up right....

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