My dad has a 16' gooseneck that was made from a bumperpull. the guy that did the conversion did a great job on the gooseneck part of it, very heavy made. My question is this, when I pull something like a tractor it pulls fine but if I haul wood or something that is stacked on the whole trailer my truck acts odd when I take off. If I try to take off in first gear it feels like it wants to wheel hop or something, almost like the springs in the back are bouncing. I'm thinking the trailer might not be balanced very well and pulling the tractor towards the front puts more weight on the truck so it doesn't do it like when I put a load of wood on there. I still don't understand the hard shudder spring bounce thing because it doesn't break loose and spin, it just shudders bad. If I take off in 2nd it acts like it wants to start doing it but quits and takes off. It tries to do this in reverse backing the loaded trailer too unless I put it in 4WD. I have a 16' inclosed bumper pull and I've never had this happen with it, any ideas or suggestions? Sorry for the long post..LCH

 

I am guessing that it is a tandem axle trailer. How much floor space do you have behind the axles compared to in front of the axles. If you have more space behind it is putting more weight on the rear of the trailer , which is giving you less tounge weight. The weight on the rear is actually picking up on the truck axle which could cause the problem you are having. You really don't pull a gooseneck you push it, because the ball sets 3" forward of the axle, and if there is not enough tounge weight I can see where you might have that problem. just my .02

 

It almost has to be lack of weight on the tongue. I have several trailers including an 18' gooseneck, you need tongue weight on all of them. I have a 12' hydraulic dump trailer that will pick the back tires off the ground when loaded if your not carefull on how it is loaded.

 

Looking at another trailer the same length I think your right about the trailer. It has more length in the front than the rear but not as much as most that length. I try to load the most weight to the front. When it's empty I hear it bounce on the ball like the trailer is almost balanced and there's not much weight on the tounge.
My main concern is making sure there's nothing wrong with my truck. My dad has an 88 chevy dually gasser and I haven't seen it do what my truck is doing. If anything it will spin but not shudder. Thanks for the reply LCH

 

Thats what I'm thinking. If you load your dump trailer like you discribe, have you ever experienced anything like the shudder I've had? Thanks, LCH