Gooseneck Hitches

I have always ran a B&W. In Kentucky, until this last March, farm tags got you a registered weight of 38,000 lbs. I have run at that and a little over dozens of times. Never had one issue. I find it hard to need any stronger hitch unless you are pulling your trailer with a single axle class 8. But then you just build your own plate that snaps to the fifth wheel. If you are running more weight than 40,000 lbs. you don't need a gooseneck anyway. Just go on and buy a normal fifth wheel trailer.
 
I like my b&w and to the poster who didn't like the ball getting dirty. A plastic bag and a zip tie keeps the ball clean and greased.. Just bag it before you flip it..
 
I've had three truck with B&W's in them, that's all I'll use. Put the first one in and thought 'yeah, ok, it's nice but it's just a hitch'. Being a volunteer, I've seen a lot of fairly serious accidents, and several with goosenecks. I've been on a couple where it ripped the plates from the beds, ripped the balls out of the plate welded between the rails, and sent the trailers into the back of the cab. Could've been a very bad deal.
I've also seen two wrecks with B&W hitches. One of them, the trailer got mangled and bent up pretty good. For the other, it actually broke off the tube of the neck and it stayed attached to the truck! Yes, it bent up the B&W, but it held together and didn't break.
THAT was the moment I decided I wouldn't own any other hitch in my trucks
 
We have a local trailer dealer build ours. The ball spins out in about 15 seconds with a smack from my spare receiver hitch, and they know how we use our trucks and trailers....their guarantee as try and break it, we'll fix it no charge if you do. Same thing they told us about the 35' 24K GN trailer they sold us....try and bend it.

1" plate welded to the frame (yes, I know, no welding, but I'll do it any day doing what we do) with three 1/2" x 3" bars on edge welded to the bottom side of the plate for support.

I'll just say that at absolute max trailer weight they have served their purpose for better than 10 years on some of our trucks...and those are the older designs.
Chris
 
I skipped the other posts, but seems most people use B&W. Not sure if anyone posted the one I use. I installed a Drop n' Lock hitch years ago and it works pretty damn good. Used factory frame holes if I remember correctly and is basically thick piece of steel. 2 moving parts means the least amount of things to go wrong. I like it's simplicity.

Kansas Trailer Hitches Gooseneck Fifth Wheel Hitch Receiver Tow | Blue Valley Trailers

-Dustin-
 
This thread reminds me of the Platte City, MO pull about 6 years ago. A guy from Omaha was leaving the pits with his pulling truck on his trailer when the gooseneck ball came out of the mount. The safety chains caught the trailer and punched a hole through the box on his truck that had less than 15k miles on it. The gooseneck ball was mounted in a plate on 5th wheel camper rails and was held in with only a snap ring on the bottom. We ended up welding the ball into the mount that night in the pits.

We run only B&W.
 
I hit some pretty good washboards on a dirt road the other day...B&W rattled like hell, but I guess that is typical of all flip-over or turn-over balls. I miss my rigid mount. :(
 
Mine dont rattle. The neck of my trailer is a little loose and needing tightening. You may check that Dually, if yours has a addjustable neck. Mine raises hell when it gets a little slack in it.
 
I'll check, but pretty new. I think it has cross pins and a slack bolt...but not 100% on that. It has always been pretty quiet until that night. The road was pretty horrible. Anything that moves will get slack after a while so I'm sold on the rigid mounts....but I'm sure I'll get used to it.
 
Now that I've had this B&W for a while....I must say the only thing I hate about it is the loud clank it makes when you go over washboards or large bumps on the roads. That pin rattling in there with 10 tons on it kinda sucks. Other than that, I love it.
 
Knoberman said:
What would you say is the cause of the rattle?
Click to expand...

The ball in the square reciever. If you make it tight enough not to rattle, you can't get the insert in and out. It all goes back to that "hitched with moving parts wear" argument.
 
Anyone ever seen one of these, Gooseneck Trailer Hitch by Una-Goose

I saw it at the NFMS, my Dad had to drag me over to their booth to have a look. He has been looking at them for a couple years. If he ever gets a new truck I'm sure he will consider them but his B&W has worked flawlessly as usual.
 
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