GN hitches, likes and dislikes?

[Silvic]

B&W turnover is the way to go. Have not seen the paint issue yet but don't live in heavy rust areas either.

 

[Soundguy]

I have a pop up and turnover. No rust either, but no salt in my area.

 

[zing]

Wow, I am surprised at all of you big spenders with the hidden hitches. I just have a regular hitch plate like this, with bed rails.

Works fine for me. I can remove it with 4 pins if I need the bed space and the rails don't make much difference to loading something in the bed. Certainly a hidden hitch is easier and gives you a smoother bed to work with though. The only advantages of a plate and rails would be that if you get a new truck you can take the plate and only need new bed rails, and that you can easily install a 5th wheel plate if you want to be able to switch between the working trailer and the RV.

WRT short bed trucks, all short beds are not created equally. A 5.5 foot bed is going to be an issue without a pointed trailer and possibly some mods to get the hitch installed, or a ball adapter like someone else posted. A 6.5 foot bed on the other hand is perfectly fine with most GN's. My 6'10" bed can be jacknifed 90 degrees with my flat front horse trailer and have no clearance issues.

 

[Soundguy]

Wow, I am surprised at all of you big spenders with the hidden hitches. I just have a regular hitch plate like this, with bed rails.

Works fine for me. I can remove it with 4 pins if I need the bed space and the rails don't make much difference to loading something in the bed. Certainly a hidden hitch is easier and gives you a smoother bed to work with though. The only advantages of a plate and rails would be that if you get a new truck you can take the plate and only need new bed rails, and that you can easily install a 5th wheel plate if you want to be able to switch between the working trailer and the RV.

WRT short bed trucks, all short beds are not created equally. A 5.5 foot bed is going to be an issue without a pointed trailer and possibly some mods to get the hitch installed, or a ball adapter like someone else posted. A 6.5 foot bed on the other hand is perfectly fine with most GN's. My 6'10" bed can be jacknifed 90 degrees with my flat front horse trailer and have no clearance issues.

I have one of those as well, have it on my f450. works great too. If you like a 5th wheel plate like that but don't want to pay 'the goose' prices, some aftermarket company makes one about 50$ less too. I opeted for a goose myself. works good.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Wow, I am surprised at all of you big spenders with the hidden hitches. I just have a regular hitch plate like this, with bed rails.

Works fine for me. I can remove it with 4 pins if I need the bed space and the rails don't make much difference to loading something in the bed. Certainly a hidden hitch is easier and gives you a smoother bed to work with though. The only advantages of a plate and rails would be that if you get a new truck you can take the plate and only need new bed rails, and that you can easily install a 5th wheel plate if you want to be able to switch between the working trailer and the RV.

WRT short bed trucks, all short beds are not created equally. A 5.5 foot bed is going to be an issue without a pointed trailer and possibly some mods to get the hitch installed, or a ball adapter like someone else posted. A 6.5 foot bed on the other hand is perfectly fine with most GN's. My 6'10" bed can be jacknifed 90 degrees with my flat front horse trailer and have no clearance issues.

My FIL had one of those rail style hitches in the bed of his dually. I always thought it made the truck porpise when riding down the road. Well, he changed the bed out for a flatbed and a frame mounted ball, and WOW what a difference towing it made dropping that ball down 6" or so! It felt like a whole different truck to me with a similar load on each time (about 240 square bales)

 

[Soundguy]

Body lift?

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Body lift?

no there was no body lift on the truck. It was a factory 2007 chevy dually.

 

[zing]

My FIL had one of those rail style hitches in the bed of his dually. I always thought it made the truck porpise when riding down the road. Well, he changed the bed out for a flatbed and a frame mounted ball, and WOW what a difference towing it made dropping that ball down 6" or so! It felt like a whole different truck to me with a similar load on each time (about 240 square bales)

The rails and the height of the plate would definitely raise my hitch ball by 4-6" over the height of one hidden in the bed. If I dropped the ball though, I would have to extend the GN shaft accordingly in order to keep my trailer level when travelling. It never occurred to me that there would be a difference since the trailer height would still be the same, but maybe the lower pivot point makes a difference. No idea to be honest, interesting thought though.

 

[MikePA]

Wow, I am surprised at all of you big spenders with the hidden hitches. I just have a regular hitch plate like this, with bed rails.

We had a similar GN hitch. Hated it.

Over time;
1. The steel pins and the cotter pins became more and more difficult to install.
2. The rails became clogged with damps, rotting leaves and mulch.
3. The hitch plate had to be stomped on to get it to fit into the rails.
4. As other commented, it made the hitch several inches higher. Even with the gooseneck adjusted to its shortest length, this cause more weight to be shifted to the rear axle on the horse trailer.

 

[Soundguy]

yall have some real short gn trailers?

My gn trailer has 6-8" of up-tube adjustment left to fit my f450 on 19.5" rubber that has enough body lift for me to set under the truck easilly and have the 5th rails with the goose on it....

same trailer has enough down tube adjustment to fit my f350 on 16" rubber, less body lift, with a B&W ball.

Also fit my ( now sold ) dodge ram 1500 with pop up ball.

Could get an even trailer on all 3.

Must be some very low profile gooseneck trailers having problems adjusting for truck bed/ball heights?