homemade gooseneck conversion

[notamustang]

Swap the axles to 5ks and re-distrube the weight. Pull the plate of and reregister it as a custom built trailer. Heck of a lot less work than adding a goose conversion to it. You have to swap the axles anyway, so place them further up on the trailer to get your distrabution JMO

 

[bdog]

I guess I am misunderstanding something here. If the two axles are rated at 3500 lbs each they can CARRY 7000 lbs right? With a gooseneck it is comon to have 25% of the weight on the tongue so the way I am understanding it you could have 7000 lbs on the axles, and then 2000lbs on the tongue for a gross weight of 9000lbs and not be overloading your axles.

I mean just because your axles can only carry 7k it does not mean your trailer can not weigh more than 7k, it just means you can not put more than 7k on the axles or am I wrong?

I looked into buying axles but I would need new springs, hangers, axles, fenders, tires and this comes out to $1500. The gooseneck conversion costs about $300 and really is about the same amount of work if you consider moving the fenders, etc. Also at 7680 gross I an still over the 7500lb rating of my ball.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( am I wrong? )</font>

Nope, bdog, you're right. There's lots of misunderstanding about trailer weights, but I think you've got a pretty good handle on it. The one thing I may have missed, or overlooked, in this thread is the capacity of the truck. When you mention 25% pin weight, will that be too much for the truck? I used to have a 32' fifth-wheel travel trailer that came with two 3,500# axles and I had no problems with it until I made a trip to Alaska and ruined a couple of tires and broke one shock mount. Should have weighed it earlier, of course, but didn't and we had added every option you could get, including a generator and washer/dryer, so when I weighed it, I had 7,300# on the axles and 2,500 on the pin. So I did upgrade to custom built 5,200# axles (but using the axle tubes for the 7,000# axles), larger brakes, new wheels and higher capacity tires. Of course, with the one ton dually truck I had, 2,500# on the pin was no problem, and I was still well within the GCVWR (Gross Combined Vehicle Weight Rating).

 

[Darren]

I used that method to determine the tongue weight of a car hauler that had a safe stowed all the way forward. The tongue weight was way beyond the allowable. Even after relocating and securing the safe to a position between the dual axles, one of the axles bent 200 miles down the road. The tires were splayed so badly the inside top of the tires was rubbing against the wheel well.

 

[aardvark]

In your first post you said the tractor was in the only location on the trailer where it would fit. To me this means it will be in the same spot after the gooseneck conversion relative to where it is now with the ball hitch. If you add, say, four feet of length in front of where the ball hitch is now, so the gooseneck can go into the truck bed, the lever arm has gotten longer and the ball socket will have less load sitting on it due to the additional lever arm length. If you plan on adding alot of extra steel, then maybe the tongue weight change will be a wash. However, even if the tongue weight is a wash, the axle weight still goes up by the ratio of the change in distances of the new gooseneck hitch relative to the old ball hitch. This is only true if the tractor remains in the same spot relative to the rear axles after the gooseneck is done. If you want to measure the distance from the middle of the two axles to the center of the hitch socket, and estimate the additional distance from the current hitch to the gooseneck hitch socket, I can calculate the additional load on the tires from pushing the hitch forward, assuming the tractor remains in the same place relative to the tires.

 

[bdog]

Bird,
Thanks for reassuring me. I was pretty sure that is how it worked but the others had me wondering.

Aardvark,

You bring up a good point that I thought about a while ago after I already starrted the constructiion. The tractor was all the way forward with the bucket even with the front of the trailer for the weights I gave earlier. Going to a goose neck I can drive the tractor further forward if need be and rest the bucket on top of the gooseneck which should offset the longer lever arm. I am about halfway through the conversion and will finish it tomorrow hopefully. I plan on loading it in the same location as before and weighing it see how I did.

 

[drmiller100]

a 7000 pound gooseneck is a JOKE. good grief. why bother? a decent gooseneck hitch for the truck is 400 bucks.

sell the trailer, and find a bigger one is the cheapest. move the axles on what you have is the second cheapest.

what is wrong with 1500 pounds tongue weight?

Goosenecks are waaaay cool for towing, but the norm is a minimum of 12k, many are 14k or a lot more. They are easier to hook up, easier to tow, safer then bumper pulls. If you look around, you should be able to find a used gooseneck for 2000-2500 bucks. A decent bumper pull is worth 1500. You'd be money, time, and safety ahead to just step up to the right sized trailer for your application.

 

[bdog]

Well I am almost done with the conversion. So it is too late for anything else. I already have a good BW hitch in my truck I use on my 20' cattle trailer. Building the gooseneck is cheaper than doing the axles. I can not just move the ones I have as they are only 3500 lbs and would be overloaded if I did not have so much weight on the tongue. I would need to buy heavier axles, new tires and wheels, new fenders, etc. which would be well over a grand.

I priced new and used trailers and could not find a gooseneck for less than three grand. I really was hoping to just sell mine and buy a gooseneck but I figure mine is only worth around $1200 and I did not want to spend $1800 on a new trailer right now.

Sure a gooseneck can handle a lot more than this trialer will weigh but it is better to be way under capacity than over. Plus I get all the benefits you mentioned of better towing, etc.

The 1760 tongue weight is was over the ratings of the tongue pull hitch setup. The strongest 2" ball is rated at 7500# gross, 750# tongue weight. My draw bar is 10k gross/1k tongue. My receiver hitch on my truck is rated at 7500 lb gross/ 750 lb tongue weight. I know they over design these things and if I had 800lb or so of tongue weight I would not be worried but at 1760 I am more than double the maximum rated tongue weight on both the ball and receiver hitch.

Like some others have posted I am concerned about the what ifs. Assume some disater does happen and then it comes to light that I was more than twice the rated weight. Not a good thing. Aside from liabilty issues I am nervous all the time when pulling knowing I am way overloaded. Also I do not just use this trialer every now and then. I am pulling it everyday. I do commercial work and pull the trailer close to 500 miles a week.

I will post up some pics of the conversion when done. It is looking good.

 

[cleatus]

Your on the right track and when your finished all you have to do is regeister it as home made, at the weight you want.
Thank God we live in Texas where it's that easy, except that we do have to have tags, unlike Tenn. none is needed under certain gross.

 

[Joey-D]

I know this is way old but if you have pictures I would love to see them. I have a car hauler trailer that I love and bought years ago for $1200 but I live in the city and have an extended cab longbed and want to convert it for the sake of parking my trailer. My email is JoeyDi84@msn.com Thanks in advance.