DIY gooseneck hitch project
 

Hey guys. I picked up a cheap $100 gooseneck hide a ball attachment the other day. Found some good metal at my in laws for free and figured I’d start working on it this weekend. Was wondering if anyone’s tackled anything like this or has any designs. I am planning on bolting it to the frame and not welding it as I’ve heard welding can cause cracks in the frame. Yes I know it is not a Manufacturers and I may be asking for trouble but I’ve seen quite a few welded on ones to the frame and think I have a pretty good idea on what I’m going to do. Also going to remove the bed to make things much easier.

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Post in the towing forum under 5th wheel goosenecks, that way you'll get a broader cross section of respondents who may have installed that hitch before.

I don't know what that setup was originally intended for or what you are trying to install it on, but with pickups you normally don't need to go to that level of trouble on hitch installs. The big mfg's like Reese and Curt often make a bolt on kit that will make your life a hell of a lot easier if all's you need is a gooseneck ball in your bed. That whole top face looks like it needs to be exposed so that will require a pretty darn big square hole to be cut in the bed where as usually on pickup installs the gooseneck subframe is hidden under the bed and hard bolted to the frame with 1/2" Grade 8 hardware. What does the bottom of that thing look like? I am guessing it is probably a custom piece meant to install on a 34" frame rail width like a cab and chassis or semi tractor has. (Check out these guys https://hitchcrafter.com/ for an idea what that looks like, they do some pretty cool custom work you can cheat some ideas from)

I have a DIY goose hitch that I made out flat 3/4" plate welded to the frame, worked great the only downside is that the ball can't be stowed.

I will try the gooseneck fifth wheel forum. This is what the underside of the hitch looks like. I figured for $100 that’s way cheaper than any other gooseneck hitch and I figured I could fab it together with some angle iron and plate of steel similar to a B&W or something similar. Up here in Alaska the hitches still go for $300 or more usually and they also can charge a crazy amount for shipping if you don’t get the right shipper. So for $100 I feel it’s a good deal
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Yous Alaskans know how to get things done, it's in your blood and being isolated up there you have no choice. I swear a good Alaskan woman could weave a 30' rope out of my hair if she had to.

I'm not so sure I'd want to use a 30' rope made of my hair - there's no stock on my head to chose from.

I doubt you'll get any help over there. It's a bunch of guys arguing over who is pulling too heavy of trailer with too small of a truck.

It looks like those are carriage bolts that have the square collars on them and those fastened to something underneath with holes in it...probably a steel plate that spanned the frame width in the case of a cab-chassis or semi tractor with a frame that is straight and flat, but with a pickup frame I'm not sure. You could probably use 2 pieces of steel channel cut to length with holes drilled or punched in the right spot that span the frame for the carriage bolts to fasten to, but I am not too sure how I would go about attaching those to the frame itself. Also it depends on how much vertical load/pin weight you plan on putting on this hitch and how legal for highway use this needs to be. If you are just planning to move stuff around your property or side roads that is one thing but if it needs to be good enough for highway use you do open yourself up to a bit of liability if it is not rigged up well enough and something bad happens.

"Where the men are men and the sheep are scared."

Lemons-lemonade. Don't discount the value of your assets, one just needs to know how to utilize them to their fullest. I'm sure a good Alaskan woman could polish you up to a fine mirror finish and gussie herself up nicely using the reflection.
I think that's Montana, in AK it's more like, "The odds are good but the goods are odd". :-X06

That's right.

Looks similar to a Atwood folding ball hitch. I have installed them in my trucks in the past. I use B&W Turnover ball now. Here is the install guide. https://lci-support-doc.s3.amazonaws...tion_guide.pdf

The previous owner of my truck did the same thing. Sure is stout but I would really like to turn that ball over.

Somebody did something similar with my cab and chassis truck when it had a welding body on the back. It was just a thick piece of steel welded to the top of the frame cheated a few inches past the center line of the axle. I cut it off a long time ago. Not a big fan of welding stuff to truck frames. If you look at how they build semi-tractors, almost everything is bolted.