5th Wheel and Gooseneck NOT the same thing.

[Iplayfarmer]

I just want to clarify this, because it seems that many people here use the 2 terms interchangeably.

THANK YOU!!

There is a distinct difference between 5th wheels and Goosenecks, and I'm with you. Call it what it is.

My brother claims that a 5th wheel is a subcategory of goosenecks since gooseneck refers to anything that extends over your bed. I'm a purist, though, and to me a gooseneck hooks to a ball and a 5th wheel hooks to a plate. I don't see any way to call a ball-hitch gooseneck a 5th wheel. There's no "5th Wheel" without the round plate that the trailer hooks too.

I love my 17' 5th wheel camper. It pulls like it's not even there. I can back it into any tight spot. I can hitch it up by myself without having to ever get out of the truck, and I have a place to stack firewood where it won't get wet.

Admittedly, the bed rails can really be a PITA. I don't have any reason to prefer a 5th wheel over a gooseneck other than I got the hitch installed for free when I bought the camper, but I much prefer either to a bumper pull.

 

[gerard]

I'll pass this on as pure hearsay, but might make some sense?

The gooseneck was used to achieve similar weight / towing characteristics to fifth wheels, without the same legal (licensing) requirements as the same utility / equipment trailers would have with a kingpin. Since goosenecks use a ball hitch, they'd follow traditional trailering laws and not require a class A license (at least in the past) as a fifth wheel hitch would (campers exempt).

Something I recall hearing in the past...... feel free to beat it to death if its way off.

Can only speak for NYS but since all states pretty much follow federal regs it probably applies all over. Licensing mainly goes by weights when it comes to towing/driving trailers and to my memory (been a while since I studied the vehicle and traffic laws) doesn't differentiate bewteen a 5th wheel or a gooseneck. In fact while I CAN recall the term "5 th wheel" mentioned in the V&T law, I don't recall the term "gooseneck" in reference to a trailer type. (Course it's been more than 20 years since I read that stuff!)

 

[JIGBUILDER]

GN ball hitches are limited to about 7500 lb verticle load and 30k+ lbs pull capacities.

A 5th wheel hitch can go over 50k verticle and over 150k pull.

I think some posters are confusing a RV type of 5th wheel hitch which is a very light duty 5th wheel hitch.

When I had a consruruction business we had one 4500 DRW Ford with a long haulers flatbed with a SAF-Holland 5th wheel hitch for a special flat deck steel hauling trailer complete with bunks and bulkhead.

Granted the 7500 lb GN will max out most 3500 DRW trucks rear axles but the 5th wheel setup is much easier to hook because of front of the bed tool boxes and fuel tanks which can block the view of a GN ball hook up.

The 5th wheel hitch isn't the best application for off road use such as custom stock haulers that load in the field across the creek.

Each has its own application.

 

[Reg]

They have some shared and some independent histories.

The old joke about their major difference was that goose neck trailers have their roots(deliberate pun) in agriculture, RV 5th wheel trailers have no heritage in ANY "culture".

The fact that 80,000+ lb rigs use 5th wheel hitches doesn't in any way invalidate the goose neck hitch for 25K and 35K trailers, neither does it validate the use of lookalike mini 5th wheel hitches on recreation trailers.

They are different, just different.

As a sweeping generality, goose necks can take travel across rougher terrain since the truck and trailer are freer from each other WRT side tilt.
I know, I know; it can be argued that they are therefore freer to tip over (-:

It becomes aggravating when someone asks you to move a trailer across town and INSISTS that it has the same type of hitch that they have seen on your truck.
I now INSIST that my trucks' and trailers' hitches are very different and modified to the point where they don't work with anything else.
I hint that this is PART of my theft protection plan (-:

 

[Iplayfarmer]

For me the point is moot now that I have a gooseneck spider to attach to my 5th wheel rails. The original frustration came when someone advertised their camp trailer as a 5th wheel, but it had been converted to a gooseneck ball hitch. I don't care how much they argued that it's the same thing. I still couldn't pull it.

 

[Duffster]

GN ball hitches are limited to about 7500 lb verticle load and 30k+ lbs pull capacities.

How did you come to that conclusion?

 

[AGGIE00]

I though gooseneck is just a brand name much like coke and fifth wheel refers to securing a trailer over the axle of the tow unit.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I though gooseneck is just a brand name much like coke and fifth wheel refers to securing a trailer over the axle of the tow unit.

I've also heard the arguement that gooseneck refers to any trailer that extends over the bed of the truck (it looks like a goose's neck) and 5th wheel is a specific kind that has a coupler that looks like an extra wheel ("5th" wheel). I don't see how a ball type coupler can be seen as a 5th wheel as there is nothing that resembles the extra wheel.

At any rate we need a militant faction bent on making a clear distinction in the world between the coupler that attaches to a ball in the bed and the coupler that attaches a king pin to a 5th wheel plate in the bed. As far as I'm concerned a gooseneck trailer attaches to a ball in the bed and a 5th wheel attaches a king pin to a 5th wheel plate in the bed.

 

[dstig1]

But, Reg...why did you dig up a 2-yr old thread to comment on?

 

[Qapla]

Let's not mention the "inverted 5th wheel" :thumbsup: