I've been kind of kicking around various possibilites for a different truck that will pull a larger toyhauler 5th wheel.

A flatbed would be more practical for me, but most come set up for goose neck ball and I'm not too keen on the trailer adapters. If I did a flatbed, it would be a fairly plain steel bed w/skirting, tool boxes and stake pockets around 8'6".

I know B&W makes a flatbed that accepts a special version of their companion hitch , but are there other options? Hitch would need to be fairly easy to remove...

 

I've seen a lot of flatbeds that have had fifth wheel hitches mounted on a plate that flips into the bed on heavy steel hinges. It has some pin mechanism (or something) to hold it in either position.

 

Would like to do a flatbed conversion too. Have you tried asking the flatbed manufacturers their thoughts?

 

No, I don't really know how folks set them up...

I saw one rig that appeared to have a big removeable trap door, and it looked like the air ride hitch was bolted to a heavy steel plate attached to the truck frame.

It appeared to be set up so the hitch could be unbolted from the plate and the section of flatbed latched back down easily.

Something like that, with one of the air ride hitches might be really slick.

Browsing on line at various flat beds, none seem to have a provision for use with a 5th wheel (except B&W) so I posted here to see if someone has set one up like that... I don't know if that's something that has to be custom built, or if there is a flatbed maker that markets them like that...

 

Look up www.800toolbox.com. They've got flatbeds and provisions/options to put in a regular 5th wheel hitch in.

 

That was the type of setup I was wondering about, except those beds are super-snazzy.

I wonder what those cost?

 

I should have mentioned the price. I too thought they were super-snazzy, I was so curious that I called them up last Friday and got a quote of ~ $4600 before all the neat options.

Next truck I'm going to order it without a factory truck bed and right off the bat get a flatbed put on before I have a chance to suffer total sticker shock.

 

That's not nearly as bad as I thought. I'm sure adding the tool boxes, clipped corners, and hitch pocket would bump it up a touch...

 

You can also get it with a matching Transfer Flow aux fuel tank. That was a $1950 option. Of course at today's fuel prices I couldn't afford to fill it up both tanks!!

 

to convert a 5th wheel trailer to a gooseneck causes extra strain on the pinbox and neck of the trailer. to convert a gooseneck to a 5th wheel causes less stress on the neck and pinbox. All you need to do to convert a gooseneck to a 5th wheel is get the adjustable pin insert that goes into the sleve on the front of the trailer where the gooseneck coupler is now.

 

Yeah, I'm not willing to do one of the 5th wheel to goose neck adapters.

They work like a pipe/cheater bar over the end of a wrench, multiplying the force on the trailer's frame.

One of these flatbeds set up with a trap door big enough for a 5th wheel hitch I think would work much better.