Gooseneck hitch on dump body

VTSTEVE · Mar 3, 2001

I need possible solutions to the following challenge. I have an 18' gooseneck trailer. It came with the ball mounted on a 2' X 4' steel plate. Previous owner had the plate mounted on the bed of his p/u (transversely) - bolted through the bed and into the frame (w/spacers). I have an F-250 with a standard weight bed with a DUMP CYLINDER! The cylinder is located, of course, right smack in the center of the frame, right smack over the axle -- just where the ball (plate) would have to be mounted if I wanted to mount the ball "under" the bed and use a "trapdoor". It seems that my only choices are to ditch the trailer, get a second truck for hauling my rig, or removing the dump apparatus and bolting the bed down thus going back to a conventional setup. I know that with a more substantial steel dump body, there are ways to attach the ball to the body only (I have seen balls mounted somehow on the frame w/trapdoor but perhaps that is with twin cylinders leaving the middle open). Do I have enough strength in my stock bed to mount the plate only to the bed (with reinforcement underneath, of course? Are the pivot pins at the aft end enough to hold the body in place? Would I still have to figure a way to stabilize (bolt down?) the front end of the bed so the whole bed doesn't "lift up" as a load is being towed? I need to tow a NH TC35D w/ some implements = max total wt 7,000#? Tounge wt = ? HELP and thanks in advance.

john4nh · Mar 4, 2001

Hey Steve

I dont know if this will help or not, but alot of the guys around here are mounting the GN hitch on the top side of the bed. Instead of going underneath, they bolt them through the top side by the fender wells. So theres a aprox. 4" wide by 4' piece of plate in your bed with the ball(coupler) I dont know if this would work for you or not... It works for them but I didnt like it because of the difficulty in removing, ive got mine welded underneath.. By the way there is a new system or about two years old that they weld underside, it has a handle that you pull it to drop the ball and push it to pop it back up..

cowboydoc · Mar 4, 2001

Dont' even try to mount that trailer to your bed only even with reinforcement. I've seen the whole bed ripped off by trailer like that before. If you can't mount to the frame don't do it at all!!! The two biggest accident I saw this way was one was a gooseneck load of cattle. The guy went around the corner and the hitch tore right out of the bed. The coupler was still attached dragging the sheetmetal from the bed with it as as another car broadsided the cattle trailer. Trailer flipped and killed five cows and the guy in the car had two broken legs and a broken face. The other one I saw a horsetrailer with living quarters. Guy was traveling down the interstate and and the trailer pulled the bed away and the crashed through the side of the pickup and did about seven flips before it came to rest killing four horses. I might add when I talked to this guy he had reinforced the bed with steel underneath. Heard of alot of others this way too. Nope not worth it in my opinion unless you can bolt to the frame.

RobS · Mar 4, 2001

I gotta agree with Richard, mount to the frame! John brings up an interesting idea though. If you could afford a couple of trapdoors you could potentially rig something to span the frame above the bed and go down on either side of your dump cylinder. Maybe a bracket under the bed the hitch could pin to on each side. My fifth wheel hitch pins to brackets on each side leaving the middle open.

Whatever you end up doing, do it to the frame /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

VTSTEVE · Mar 4, 2001

Thanks Richard Rob & John! OK OK, I'm totally bought into the "bolt to the frame" necessity - thanks for the graphic rationale! I'm intrigued by the idea of bolting (or rather "pinning") the plate on either side of the cylinder. Please explain a little more about what you mean by "pin" and how you would envision it. Is it pins (bolts?) that are bolted/welded to the frame on the sides that stick through the bed with the plate attaching over them? Is it pins (bolts?) that stick down from the plate that attach somehow below the bed onto the frame? The latter would certainly be possible with a couple of trapdoors but short of bolting onto the frame (a real process) every time I attach the plate, I can't figure a way. Some kind of pins or quick-connects or ?? that make the connection between frame hardware (bolted/welded on) and plate & bolt/pin assembly up in the bed. Am I on the right track? Any thoughts on how? HELP!

john4nh · Mar 5, 2001

Richard thanks for pointing out my, Lack of descprection on the way to mount on top of the bed.. What I meant to say was they have the hictch mount bolted through the bed and through the frame next to the rear fender wells.. which is where the frame is.. I personnally dont like bolts for goose necks but some do.. I believe ford has a clause about no welding on the newer fords.. At least that is what the shops around here say..

john4nh · Mar 5, 2001

Richard thanks for pointing out my, Lack of descprection on the way to mount on top of the bed.. What I meant to say was they have the hictch mount bolted through the bed and through the frame next to the rear fender wells.. which is where the frame is.. I personnally dont like bolts for goose necks but some do.. I believe ford has a clause about no welding on the newer fords.. At least that is what the shops around here say.. Thinking about what the orginal post was about now this would not work for a dump bed,, obvious to me now..

RobS · Mar 5, 2001

VTSteve, I'll describe my fifth wheel hitch. It's a run-of-the-mill Reese. It has two rails that mount cross-wise in the bed. These bolt through the bed into some brackets that are bolted to the frame. They are always in my truck. The rest of my hitch sits on the rails and has ears that penetrate at the four corners. Through each of these ears is a 7/16" pin (like a reciever hitch pin) and clip. Makes it easy to remove, yet secure for towing. You might search on "Reese Hitches" for some pictures. Reese makes a Gooseneck adapter that mounts to the same rails.

It seems with some inginuity, you could come up with a similar arrangement that kept the mounts below the bed through some trapdoors. The hitch legs might have to be a little longer to reach, but the concept would be the same.

Hope this helps /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

cowboydoc · Mar 5, 2001

John,
Yes you are right Ford does say not to weld to the frame. I guess it has to do with tempering but am not sure.

Bird · Mar 5, 2001

Some of the big truck manufacturers even put stickers directly on the frame warning against welding on the frame, and yet it's done every day at the dealerships. Product liability CYA.

Bird