Gooseneck vs 5th wheel

NeXuS1 · July 6, 2001

is either one better? do they have some speical advantage i cant see?

my dad's new/used 3/4 ton has a gooseneck and his old half ton has a 5th wheel and i cant see why the gooseneck is so popular.

didnt know where this should go.....

Jpshostr · July 6, 2001

Quote: from NeXuS1 on 5:01 pm on July 6, 2001
is either one better? do they have some speical advantage i cant see?

my dad's new/used 3/4 ton has a gooseneck and his old half ton has a 5th wheel and i cant see why the gooseneck is so popular.

didnt know where this should go.....

It all depends on what kind of trailer you will be pulling. Most travel trailers come with a fifth wheel, while most stock or flatbed trailers have the gooseneck. I would personally choose the gooseneck because of how ours is used. We pull our stock trailer off-road quite often (actually everytime we have to load cattle) and with the gooseneck ball we get the sideways and front-back movement that we need, a fifth wheel couldn't provide that nearly as well. Also, you can get a turnover gooseneck hitch like we have, that leaves you with a perfectly flat bed to use when you aren't towing, all the fifth wheel hitches I have seen are either very difficult to remove each time or leave pieces in the bed, eating up space that we need to have.

Polaris Man · July 9, 2001

I agree with jphostr, gooseneck is a lot more flexible and easier to use. Like he said, if you put a turnover ball in,( a vertical reese) just flip it over and you have a flat bed again. All the fifth wheels I have seen are bolted in or have two brackrets bolted to the floor and you set the fifth wheel in and put four pins in. They should have a fifth wheel that goes in a turnover ball system and then has brackrets on the wheel wells(out of the way) to stabalize it.

NeXuS1 · July 9, 2001

well the 95 2500 we have has the gooseneck hitch that folds down into the bed. (just a week ago figured out how it worked) the rails in the 95 1500 doesnt really take up much space. only problem with the 5th wheel is trying to remember where the pins went. (till we look at the hitch and there they are)