Fellas, just bought my first goose neck trailer (30ft) to haul various things here on the farm. It has what I would call, a "low profile" neck on it and with the trailer floor being 1 in higher at the front, I have 7in of clearence between the bottom of the neck and the tail gate and bed sides. Question is, under normal working conditions, can you ever get into a position that could damage the pick-up bed? To be quit honest with you, I spend more time looking in the rear view to see if I'm going to get into a jam....where I need to be watching where I'm going so I don't run into something. Don't want to damage my "baby" you know!

Any replies with experences with a goosneck trailer would be helpfull. Thanks

 

Given your connection point is a round ball and the trailer neck swivels around it almost all of your load is vertical through the bed. Now if your trailer were to slide off the road you could potentially put enough pressure on the frame to twist it but I bet the hitch/collar assembly would break before your bed was damaged. All the gooseneck hitchs I've had or seen are mounted to the frame of your truck via underside crossmembers (take a look under your truck). If anything, these cross members add now more rigidity to your bed.

In my opinion, Ford makes the most solid frame and stable rig for towing. I can't say how tough the Dodges and Chevy frames are.

 

Under normal circumstances you should have no problems. Biggest problem will be on really uneven ground where the tail end of the truck would be up in the air which would close up the gap between the bumper and the frame of the trailer. Just watch those turns when backing up. A friend of mine has put two rear windows in his truck due to backing and jack knifing the thing.

 

I tow a 5th wheel and have slightly more clrearance than you do (about 8"), I have never come close to hitting the bed, but the back window is another issue....
Just be careful when pulling into fuel stations etc. where there is a very steep short drive. If the truck goes much higher than the trailer and then the nose of the truck goes back down, it does get close to the back of the bed. I have towed off-road in many places that I probably shouldn't have been, but (knock wood) haven't hit yet.
I understand your apprehension, I too watch in the rear view mirror a lot...

 

My brother just barely skrunched the tailgate once. It was on a steep driveway that approached the road, which was slightly downhill. The truck & trailer are both going uphill (steep), then when the truck levelled off & started downhill, the trailer was still going uphill. That's when the tailgate got scuffed. These new 4x4's are so high, I think the chances are higher than ever. The length of the trailer's wheelbase will affect this, too.

 

I had looked into getting a 20' gooseneck from a local manufacturer. I went and talked to them about getting an extra 6-12" in the height of the tongue and they had said that the extra cost would be minimal. I had also thought about getting them to make the tongue 6" longer to move the front of the trailer further back.

Now they make an extender that hooks into the tongue of the trailer and moves the hookup point about 4" back to correct this problem.

 

To be properly set up with a goose neck you do not want the ball any further back than a couple of inches in front of your rear axle. Definately no further back than the rear axle. Any further back and you have to start reducing the load on the gooseneck to keep from looking like an overloaded bumper pull going down the road, as the trailer will start unloading your front end. That extender may work however as the hook up point verticle force is still applied at the same point, but this now seems like it would be the structural weak point, unless it was engineered very well or had the same frame width as the neck frame members.

 

The hitch extender that I had mentioned earlier is one that is designed and manufactured by a hitch company. I finally found the website and I am posting a link to it.

Here is the link, not sure whether you can click or copy and paste it.

http://www.popuphitch.com/sb1coupler.htm

 

my wife tows a trails west horse trailer with her 2k f350 and has never had a problem. our turnoff for our road goes up a pretty steep hill so your going from flat to thast and she hasnt hit the bed sides with the trailer at all and theres 7~8" around the bedsides to the trailer also.

 

Your 4X4 is about 4 inchs higher than a 2X, so thats why the trailer is higher in front than rear. Look at the trailer axles and springs. The axles are on top of the springs. You can reverse that and put the axles below the springs, which raises the trailer about the 4 inchs or so you need. If the trailer then is more than an inch lower in front than rear, adjust the gooseneck down to raise the front of the trailer. Now you'll have plenty of room to clear the rear of the truck and can stop watching the mirror. Either have the axle work done by a frame and axle shop or at least have the trailer wheels realigned afterwards.
Warren

 

Thanks guys.....my pick-up has a plate between the frame and the ball mount is over or just slighty ahead of the rear axle. The 1in higher floor height at the front of the trailer is the way I set it up when empty to get the maximum clearence between the bottom of the neck and tail gate. I realize that this measurment will not change much when loaded but was trying to get as much distance as possible in that area. As far as the distance between the rear of the truck and the bulkhead of the trailer...I'm satisfied that I will be ok there so don't need any kind of an extender. Thanks