I have a gooseneck in my truck and want to pull my Carriage fifth wheel. Should I remove the gooseneck or buy one of the conversion kits available to convert the trailer to a gooseneck?

 

I've heard that most manufacturers will void the Frame warranty of the 5th wheel if you do that.

 

The fifth wheel is a 1999 in great shape and there is a conversion unit that has a shock system built into it but I have read that most trailer manufactueres feel it could put too much stress on the trailer. sometimes companies are just over protecting themselves??

 

Welcome to FTE. Being a 99', you shouldn't have to worry about a warranty. I know there are people doing this, but don't know much about it.

Good luck.

 

if it's a '99 the warranty is probably long since gone anyhow, right. I'd put the conversion on myself. We use all goosenecks here, that's all I have a need for. What style of gooseneck do you have in the rig? And one other thing, will you be pulling anything behind your 5er? If you are, some states require you to have a fifth wheel hitch to pull another trlr. behind it (small horse trlr., cargo trlr, fishin' boat, etc.) you can NOT hook one ball mount trailer to the back of another ball mount trlr.

 

I didn't know this. I guess you couldn't pull another trailer if you have a TT hooked to your truck?

 

Some guys tow a TT and hook a boat or ATV trailer to the back of the TT. One truck pulling a trailer thats pulling another trailer. Weird that you cant tow a second if the main trailer is a gooseneck.

 

The conversions kits can put lots of extra stress on the kingpin. Its like adding a pipe to a wrench. There are convertable gooseneck/5th wheel hitches for trucks. You can swap out the 5th wheel hitch for a gooseneck plate. Its the last one on this page Hitch House - Towing products - Gooseneck & Fifth Wheel Hitches

 

Now this law is just in certain states, guys. For instance MI. if the first trailer is hooked on your truck with a ball (including 2 5/16" gooseneck ball) you can NOT pull another trailer hooked to the first, BUT if the first trailer is hooked to the truck with a king-pin (ie. fifth wheel) you CAN pull a ball mount trailer behind the first. Just saying if that may come into play, check the states that you will be going into. Another odd thing kinda like that, it's not legal in MI to have amber turn signals on the back of a CMV, apparently they have to be red, not amber. ODD huh, not sure how hard they inforce such laws, but the way I found out was a trucker that was either warned or ticketed for having amber turn signals on the back of his semi trailer. Any how, good luck with your desicion.
BTW, Trevor, that is the same style gooseneck that we have in one of our rigs, we COULD put a 5th wheel hitch in if we needed to, I like them well, and have used them in several different trucks over the yrs, I get along good with 'em.

 

When I first got my 5th wheel I bought the adapter to hook to my gooseneck, after my first trip I bought a 5th wheel hitch and removed the adapter. With the added adapter it made the king pin flex and every bump or dip on the highway shook my truck back and forth real hard. You get minimal shake with the 5th wheel. But that was my experience.

 

I ended up tearing out my goosenech hide-a-hitch thingy and installed the real deal. Couldn't be happier. I don't use my bed as much as other people out there though. I can pull the hitch by myself no problem.

 

Dumb question here,

Do you have a long bed or a short bed?


If it's a short bed check into the slider hitches.

 

theres no such thing as a stupid Q. just a stupid A.

 

I learned something from this thread. But I still don't think I would go back to a 5th wheel hitch from the gooseneck adapter I installed. I do use the bed a lot and it was getting real hard in my old age to take that 5th wheel hitch in and out of the bed AND I love the fact that there are no rails or other things in my bed any more. But I got to admit, I do get more "bucking" then i used to which indicates to me that the king pin is flexing more than with the 5th wheel hitch.

Aside from that I got a PopUp RV1 Gooseneck adapter over a year ago. It's built really solid and I haven't had any problems at all.

 

By the way, I've taken probably 10 or 12 trips with the gooseneck adapter, pulling a 15K, 34' trailer.