I just bought a 3500 with a tonneau cover. I am adding a gooseneck hitch this week. Can I have a canvas shop cut a hole in the cover and tow my horsetrailer?

I am worried that the wind and suction may cause the cover to exit stage left????

Anyone try this.

Thanks
I Stand Alone

 

You CAN, and I'm sure any of them will be glad to do it for a fee. How will it work???? Let us know.

 

Some things to consider before you do this

How much of neck of your trailer goes below the bed rails? I'm guessing it's more than just the pipe, so you'll need a bigger hole to make room for the neck to arc left and right while turning.

Is it just a canvas cover, or are there ribs underneath for support? If there are ribs, you would probably have to alter them to fit around the hitch.

How are you going to close the hole when the trailer isn't connected? The cover doesn't do much good if it has a big hole in the top.

I'm thinking you'd be better off removing the cover whenever you're planning to tow a trailer, then replace it when you're done.

 

X2
why have a cover with a hole?

 

A good upholstery place could make you a cover (with a hole) to use with your 5th wheel. I have had to get covers made to haul my boats in the past, the last one a 26’ cuddy cabin. My guess would be around $600-800. If you really want to a cover just ask around, probably around boat dealers or marinas, to find a good quality upolstery place.

It would not be water tight but would at least cover the bed. Just an idea ….good luck.

 

I have a tonneau cover on my truck and when I haul my 5th wheel I can fold it up to the front.

 

If you are going to experiment why not try it like the 2010 winter fronts. They have four holes cut out but they only cut on three sides. On the three sides that are cut they put velcro to hold them closed and then there is a strip on the inside to hold them open. If it does not work you will just end up with a hole.

 

One of the problems towing a goosneck is the wind sucks lighter stuff out of the bed. You really can not put any light stuff in or it will not be there when you arrive. The cover would not be to keep it water tight but would allow me to haul more in the bed without worrying about it blowing away.

I Stand Alone

 

Agreed. When I pull the 5'er, the wind inside the bed does some crazy stuff. I've it it lift a step box made of 2X12's and it almost went over the edge of the tailgate.

 

I stand corrected! Great point

 

Over the years I've seen a few different options but all have been hard material with a fabric piece around the swivel that snapped on and when no trailer a hard piece that fit over the hole. I haven't seen any in a year or two tho. FIL has the roll up kind and has a wall across the bed just forward of the hitch. He locks the cover at the wall creating a large enclosed storage area and when no trailer the cover comes all the way to the end of the bed.

 

I did this to my 01 yrs ago. I had the cover split and we uses a combination of Velcro and snaps to close it up once the truck was under the trailer. The opening was 3/4" larger diameter then the size of the coupler and we used a piece of flexible thick wall plastic tubing stitched inside to maintain the 'circle'. It worked 'ok'. I say 'ok' because of what you mentioned in a post...the wind still tried to buffet the cover up and down on the 5th wheel stinger going through it. It wore the vinyl through fairly fast. Perhaps a larger diameter hole would have solved it but I elected to take the cover off when using the trailer after that.

 

Maybe try a net instead of a cover to keep the lighter stuff in the bed.

 

I have a 3 section vinyl cover, it folds up in 3 sections. When I tow the gooseneck I fold it up to the last "section" of the cover, which covers an area approx width of bed x 2 ft long.

http://www.tonnopro.com/