Does anyone know why most campers come with a fifth wheel hitch and not a gooseneck? I bought my first 5'er last fall and drove 450 miles to pick it up. I added a popup adapter from Tweety'sand welded it up on the spot before i towed it home on my gooseneck ball. I just dont understand the purpose of the fifth wheel setup. I believe the goosenecks are rated at a higher tow capacity anyway. Anyone?

Stephen

 

Fifth wheels are supposed to be more secure and more stable. That's why big trucks use them and that's why goosenecks are required to use safety chains.

I saw a guy one time that rearended a stopped garbage truck while doing about 55. He had a flatbed Ford with about a 24 foot goosneck full of round bales. His gooseneck ballsheared off, it broke both safety chains and sent the front of the trailer through the back of the cab. Missed him by inches.

If a fifth wheel trailerwoulddo betterwith a gooseneck adapter on it it would come with one. I'm not welding nothing to the pinbox on mine. But that's just me.

 

It also has to do with wind resistance. most gooseneck trailers are gairly low profile compared to a fifth wheel. You want a wider contact patch with all that wind hitting that big sheet. other than that, i cant explain it better than behind bars

But you can buy adapters for your 5th wheel if your really set on it. i htink ranch hitch makes some.

 

I found this on a site and copied and pasted it.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both these set-ups.

Gooseneck....Good: The Gooseneck trailer has a tube hanging down from underneath the bunk. It hooks to a heavy duty 2-5/16" ball mounted in the bed of a truck. This does not take up a lot of the truck bed. You can even get a fold down ball set-up so you can utilize your whole bed.

Gooseneck.... Bad: To hook up to the trailer, you must position your ball directly under the hitch, which is not easy when the ball is centered over the axle. You must move the whole rear end of the trailer over to line it up. This is easier with 2 people. Also you must crawl into the bed and hook up the safety chains.

5th Wheel.... Good: The 5th Wheel hangs down from underneath the bunk and has a big steel plate with a 2" pin that aligns it's self (within reason) with a big plate on top of your 5th wheel hitch set up in your truck. Just back up, Get close and it hooks itself up. No crawling in the bed to hook up safety chains. They don't have safety chains. It's a one man operation.

5th Wheel....Bad: The hitch is a lot more expensive and takes up half your truck bed. You can get the removable type but it'd heavy to lift in and out of the truck bed. Also as an option, some trailer manufacturers offer an "inverted 5th wheel trailer". That's a gooseneck / 5th wheel type trailer with a 5th wheel plate set-up on the trailer that only requires the 2" pin to be mounted in the truck, not the big 5th wheel hitch. The down side to this is anyone that wants to pull the trailer must have this type of hitch set-up, and there are not many around

 

Thanks for all the input. Not sure I believe that the gooseneck is not as safe as the fifth wheel. I believe that the goosenecks hitches are rated higher than most of the fifth wheels. The B&W is rated at 30k and the highest fifth wheel hitch I have found was rated at 24k. Yes I am sure it is easier to hook up the fifth wheel than the gooseneck but I did not want to sacrifice the time and effort of putting in and taking out a fifth wheel hitch. I chose the gooseneck because my horse trailer is a gooseneck. I was told by B&W that the companion fifth wheel hitch would not work with a camper trailer and a Mega Cab. Which is why I added the popup adapter to the camper. As far as the wind resistance goes, not sure on that one either. I have not seen many other trailers of any sort that come with a fifth wheel, open car haulers, enclosed car haulers, large horse and stock trailers (some with living quarters). Maybe it is just for the ease of operation and 1 man job to hook up,but then again I hook mine up by myself in just a few minutes usually with one shot at backing it up, oh yeah but I do have to get in the bed to hook up the safety chains. bummer

stephen

 

Yeah, i used an adapter, but didn't like it. i saw alot of accidents. so i switch em out. it's a pain but. oh well.

 

Well I have had and have both. I like the 5 th wheel hook up. Plus I have the slider on the 5 th wheel that makes it a heck of allot easier to back into small camp sites. My bigbitch about the goose hook up is having to get in and out of the truck so much to line it up.Yes I am lazy.