I dunno I put as much in the title to get the responce i wanted. ANyway lookin at a new trailer very nice 44ft car hauler enclosed gen area heat and ac. everything i could want but i never thought about this issue as all i towed with previous short bed trucks was horse trailers

They showed me the back of one of the sales guys trucks and it had a nice dent in the corner. turned to short. like i said paying good attention making a left hand turn and still hit it. They gave me some options. a 4" drop back hitch which sounded alright but they said that pry wouldnt be enough, Said that they can extend the "tounge" of the gooseneck to the very front of the trailer, gaining me around 9" of clearance. BUT i could still hit the cab. I dont wanna hit my mega cab with a trailer, no fun in that. So what have you all done? what are my options?


First question is this. the short bed on a dodge is 6.5 ft right? and the long is 8?

One thing is its all aluminum and i dont have a aluminum welder. I was thinkin of extending the hitch myself past the trailer. Before any flamming im a diesel tech. Ive streched truck frames and everything else on class 8 trucks im well aware of how to do it safly, just dont have the equipment

But a simpler idea would be make a extention onto the ball joint of the trailer. maybe replaced the round tube with a square one then . The reason for the trailer and not the hitch in the bed is thing. Im thinking pivot points

If the truck hitch is "extended " back thats going to put leverage on the hitch thats bolted to the frame, causing very bad twist probably breaking the hitch off of the truck eventually. cause were talking a good 10" ot set back. so thats some good leverage. If you put this on the trailer though i dont see any ill leverages. The pulling leverage would still be the same because the total length between bed floor and trailer would not change. there would be some sitting leverage changes. like at stand still the trailer would still have some pull on the tounge but i thikn it could stand it. What do you all think?

by the way This isa pace american 44 fter

 

Our short bed Dodges have the shortest distance between the cab and axle, so that makes towing any square front gooseneck a challenge no matter what. As far as extending the the the trailers hitch forward no matter how good you are you will be creating a higher stress point where the trailers frame makes a 90 degree turn. I have spent many years in the rv/trailer industry in both the dealer side and now the transport side and seen severalunits develope structural problems fro extending pin boxes and such.

The best solution is to get a trailer that better fits our trucks. Featherlight makes them along with some others. I found this one on ebay new for under $11,000.

 

B&W goosneck hitch has an adaptor that puts the ball farther back. if u have their hitch

 

But not enough for a flat front car hauler to make a tight turn.

 

thats a nice trailer for $11,000.I personally would'nt modify trailer or hitch to pull that kind weight and money

 

yeah i didnt think the extention would work. the trialer is rated at 18k. If i did the calculation correct it would be somewhere in the ball park of a 32k lb strain constantly at full load of 7500 pin weight. So imagine hanging the trailer from a cliff or something like in the toyota comercials by the reciever at 32k haha. yeah wont last long i dont suspect.

So no what im trying to figure out is how to make a sliding goosneck. I know the v trailer is the best idea and i did find one. Very nice too. BUT im thinkin future time what if i wanna haul this time thing. sure it works for MY trailer but what if you use someone elses of your neighbor asks you hey will you. or the oh duh you let someone stupid use your truck and now the cab is broke yak now. So im working on that as well

 

they make power and manual slide hitch's that are for a 5'er so it can not be to hard to modify one of them.??????????????

 

Now we're thinkin'!

Just get the 5th pin and install it into the goosneck. Then use a sliding 5th hitch.

 

First question for haulin rv. Can one of those trailers make a 90 degree or closer to that turn? esecially thats what im after i hear you cant get very tight the square set up


next on the sliding 5th wheel thinger. I thought about that as well. BUT I dunnow how they work, if I could modify it and so on. What weights there really rated at. after all i am getting a gooseneck not a 5th wheel i think the goose is stronger am i correct? just a bit more um jarry(meh its whati come up with) ride?

 

I have a freind that just got a RV with the power hitch...he said he LOVES it. and can make any turn he wants. BUT he drives a Chevy short bed????

 

Can you modify the thing so it's a Fiver? then just buy one of these?
http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/r...superglide.htm

 

I have a QC and I have a nice dent from making a uturn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sucks too cause that is a hard spot to pop out. Gotta glue on a peice and hopefully a few times it will pop out better then it looks, it came within a fraction of a inch of busstin my rear window. LOL. gosh that sucks when I saw that, there goes my brand new truck!!!!!!

 

Pop Up Industries makes a 16" GN offset. I have on on my square nose GN, works like a champ, rating will exceed your needs. I use their 9" offsets on all my other trailers with a tapered nose. NO more worries about tight turns with any of my trailers. The air cushioned ones are really great!

CD

 

I bought one of thoes roadmaster trailers from the guy on e-bay, good to deal with, and the trailer was very well built for what your paying. agian it was not a featherlight but well worth the money you save. I towed it back form Mich. to NY and it towed fine and you can do almost a 90* turn with a QC and not have it hit. I will post agian in a few weeks letting youall know how it works moveing all my house hold items across the country.
Jeff

 

You get the clearance, but you are putting all the weight behind the axle.

Thats where I found it too.