I am looking at a couple of the 5th wheel to gooseneck converters / adaptors out on the market and wanted to know if there were any pros / cons to using the adaptor.

The reason I'm leaning this way is my truck has the GN hitch already and it keeps the bed open not having the 5th wheel hitch installed. I will haul with the 5th wheel far less than gooseneck as well.

 

If the 5th wheel trailer is an RV, many reports on this site and elsewhere about voided warranties, too much stress on the trailer, etc from these conversions. As the connection point is narrow, greater force is exerted on the shaft of a gooseneck, instead of disbursed with the large plate/pin arrangement of the 5th wheel (even the smaller RV ones). The pin on the 5th wheel is the lock, put it is the plate that carries the weight. Kind of like the difference between holding something on the flat palm of your hand VS balancing the same thing on two of your fingers. I would be cautious, even for "far less" use - and if it is an RV, and it has a warranty, I would check with the MFG. Best of luck.

 

Hello here in Finland. Does anybody knows good place in internet were RV:s and Trailers are sold? How the brakes work? Electronically and is it good system to use?

 

I use the Pop Up 5th wheel to GN adapter, mine is the RV2 model. I researched all the manufacturers products and chose the RV2 because of it's design. Most adapters secure around the pin, and with the same basic diameter of that attachment run down to the GN ball. The Pop Up secures both at the pin with a clamping device and also secures to your pin's box structure. So, besides attachment at the pin you also are securely attached to the pin box. Normally the 5th wheel hitch DOES take some of the side-to-side action out of the overall pin movement, meaning that the stress is on the hitch attachment at the plate/mount. This also puts stress at a diagonal angle towards your trailer's structure at the corner mounts/framework just under your bunk/nose area and the front bulkhead. 5er's framework IS DESIGNED for the overall stresses at that point for distribution of the stress to the chassis. The other issue of side-to-side is about clearance and articulations at the bedrail. A GN attachment will allow more side-to-side articulation toward the bed rail in an off-road use, so you will need a little more bed rail clearance using the GN adapter. Normally the standard 5th wheel hitch stops this articulation toward the bed. That was actually why the 5th wheel industry chose to use that type of hitch over the GN.

I toured a couple of 5th wheel manufacturing plants a couple years ago. The 5th wheel manufacturers started offering both the standard 5th hitch and the GN hitches on their 2006 models and up on special ordered trailers. The structure of the mountings for hitches on 5th wheels has remained the same for both types of hitches in manufacturing has remained the same, they made NO changes for different types of hitches in the nose/bulkhead structures. The industry is responding to the consumers demand by manufacturing with both. Where most all people had warranty issues had to do with the side-to-side articulations and bed rail interference and also some with tailgate interferences when the truck was lower than the trailer in a butt up position, again those damages were caused by articulation and the need for more height and distance between the truck and trailer at the bedrail. Others that actually had hitch warranty issues over the GN adapters had to do with an inadequately rated adapter for their trailers gross weight. Think here like someone adapting a 1-1/4" box tube hitch on a Subaru UP to a 2" box tube hitch and trying to pull a 10K trailer. Besides the fact that the vehcle was inadequate to pull, my real point here is that the stresses would have played out in the adaptation at the hitch.

The 2006 and up 5er's now have a suspension/frame adjustment (taller frame) which has them sitting taller off the ground and the nose/bunk area is attached a couple inches higher at the front bulkhead, that gives the needed clearance for the GN articulations. Actually those who attach with the standard 5er hitch with the new trailers have a new style pin box that takes a slight drop for pin attachement, they also now have more bed clearance, so it is a win-win for them to have a little more off-roading capabilities without articulation interferences either.

If you have an older 5th wheel, you may have to raise the frame to compensate for the needed bed rail clearance. I re-did my trailer frame/suspension to raise the trailer and gain the distance. It was a fairly straight forward modification, a little labor intensive and time consuming, but now I have much more structural ground clearance and bed rail clearance and can take my trailer off road.

CD