Hitchzilla

[Arbo]

My best friend recently bought a single screw Volvo semi truck to pull his horse trailer. Keep in mind that the trailer is 43 feet long and GVW fully loaded is around 20K. Anyway, he needed a gooseneck hitch custom built to bolt on the frame rails. A combination of some machining and welding, and the pics below show what I came up with. The area where the ball shank passes through is a full 1.5 inches. The skeleton framework on the botom is 2x2x.25 square tube.

 

[brain55]

Very nice, I would have tried to over built that piece as much as I could have too.

 

[Groo]

I hope those bolt holes are to line up the the factory 5th wheel mount bolt holes and not for newly drilled holes in the frame.

 

[Arbo]

I hope those bolt holes are to line up the the factory 5th wheel mount bolt holes and not for newly drilled holes in the frame.

Correct. I am not interested in drilling any new holes in frame rails.

 

[Groo]

just making sure. I've seen people make super heavy duty hitches, then weld them to heat treated sections of the truck frame in 4 spots. :confused2:
For anyone else looking at this thread, just don't mess with the flanges of a heavy truck frame. no drilling, no welding.