Ken is right. I have both the B&W turnover ball gooseneck hitch and the companion fifth wheel. I would not choose anything else. I simply pull the slide pin under the wheel well, pull the gooseneck ball, turn it over, and you have complete use of the bed with no rails, and it takes all of 30 seconds. The companion 5th wheel is great. I can put it in or take it out in about 5 minutes. I have no experience with anything else, but I have no reason to go with any other hitch. It all mounts from underneath and is extremely well built.
PP - Let me know if you want to look at the hitch setup sometime.
If you have a shortbed truck I would highly suggest a 5th wheel hitch that can easily slide back to take tight corners. The one I have you pull a lever out and forward on the hitch and hold the trailer brakes while you slowly pull forward and the hitch will slide back and lock. You do the opposite and it goes back to the original position. It makes fuel stops and getting it backed into tight places a breeze. I will check mine out tomorrow and find put what kind it is. It is the best one I have ever used.
Mark, Jim(fittergirl's husband) and I put one in his Dodge in like 2 hours, and IIRC that included beer time. Nice, simple install. He has the B&W one like above. I think the longest part was making sure we drilled the hole at the right spot. We also put his one in his old Ford.
That white Dodge I bought from you has the rail set up in it, I have never had a problem with the rails getting in the way, just they get rocks and dirt in them if you use your truck bed for that kinda stuff.
You get a new truck or is this for the black Dodge?
The main drawback for me is that with a rail system the rails stay in the bed, making it harder to load heavy stuff. With the turnover ball you can still get a flat bed in about a minute.
I don't see the problem? Frame flex and bed movement under load is normal. The b&w Bitches are not attached to the bed in any way and the ball in its mount has less play than a regular hitch in a reciever. You might want to watch for cracks in the collar around the ball but if that movement makes you panic sell your truck and buy a microbus.
Personally I think a 5th wheel hitch pulles better than a gooseneck. Most gooseneck trailers are set up to have a kingpin that can be slid in place of the ball reciever. Just make sure the 5th whgrl hitch is rated according to your trailer. I had a bad case of a 16k reece sliding 5th wheel hitch sliding while in motion. But the hitch was way over loaded.
Just makin sure I dont know a lot about Gn's yet.. :thumb:
as for 5th wheels.. I agree they do seem like they would pull better im just concerned about if i ever have to pull into an uneven area and articulation limitations on the 5th wheel setups
On a gooseneck flat bed you get tons of twist in the frame, and in my experience a 5th wheel has almost as much articulation as a ball. The reece hitch I used was set up so the platform could tilt side to side as well as front to back. Honestlly its not needed because I've put my semi in some crazy situations and that 5th wheel only tips front and back. You only need good articulation if your pulling something with a rigid body, like a camper.
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