Community Forums

heySkippy · 08-09-2021, 02:10 PM

I've had a Goosebox for 2 years now. It did take me a while to get good at centering the ball under the hitch, but I got it now. No camera needed. It may be harder than a traditional 5th wheel hitch (don't know, never had anything else) but I absolutely love that I can clear the truck bed entirely in about 10 seconds.

joespring · 08-09-2021, 02:53 PM

[QUOTE=JHinman;5855823]I
Most of our camping is short trips to national forests, so we wind up in tight quarters and on uneven ground.

Not trying to change the direction of this post but another thing to consider when going to a 5th wheel is the clearance. The clearance between the top of your pickup’s bed and the overhang of the trailer. Don’t know what tire size you have or four wheel drive. But the later model trucks are tall. Better to check now before you purchase a new trailer.

hookjockey · 08-09-2021, 07:43 PM

The length of the gooseneck extension going from the king pin to the Bali in the bed can act as a lever to flex the overhang and damage the frame of the trailer. I would recommend the Andersen Ultimate hitch. YouTube has lots of good reviews of it and it only weighs 35 pounds and is easy to install and remove.

Nlambert · 08-10-2021, 05:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hookjockey

The length of the gooseneck extension going from the king pin to the Bali in the bed can act as a lever to flex the overhang and damage the frame of the trailer. I would recommend the Andersen Ultimate hitch. YouTube has lots of good reviews of it and it only weighs 35 pounds and is easy to install and remove.

A Gooseneck extension is bad. A Goosebox is not. Two totally different animals.

A lot of people swear by Andersen, and if that's your bag then go for it. One of the things that makes me leery is that they stand on the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act and say they don't need a frame manufacturer to approve their hitch. They also say that they carry a $5M insurance policy in case damage did occur (paraphrasing) and the frame manufacturer won't honor the warranty.

Seems to me that's exactly who you want to approve the usage... the company that designed the frame. I don't know that any other hitch manufacturer carries an insurance policy because LCI approves use of their hitch already.

To each his own though.

TXiceman · 08-10-2021, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nlambert

A Gooseneck extension is bad. A Goosebox is not. Two totally different animals.

.

Not quiet true. They are pretty much one in the same, except the GB has added an air bag. In pulling and stopping the trailer, it applies the same forces to the pinbox attachment area of the frame.

Remember that Lippert owns Reese and naturally they will approve it for use on their frames. Lippert is the same company that supplies substandard frames in my opinion. But what does a retire mechanical engineer know about statics, dynamics and physics?

Ken

Nlambert · 08-10-2021, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TXiceman

Not quiet true. They are pretty much one in the same, except the GB has added an air bag. In pulling and stopping the trailer, it applies the same forces to the pinbox attachment area of the frame.

Remember that Lippert owns Reese and naturally they will approve it for use on their frames. Lippert is the same company that supplies substandard frames in my opinion. But what does a retire mechanical engineer know about statics, dynamics and physics?

Ken

LCI doesn't own Reese. Reese is owned by Cequent Performance Products. I believe they're just the supplier for the Goosebox for Reese since they approve its use on their frames. They approved the hitch, and then became the supplier of it.

No offense intended, but I'll go with the engineers at LCI. Not saying that any frame manufacturer won't have issues at one point in time or another, but they warranty it so I'll go with their expertise.

4x4ord · 08-10-2021, 10:39 PM

^^^^ You can go with whatever you want but claiming the Goosebox does not put the same torsion on the frame of the fiver as any other ball adapter is false. The air bag on the Goosebox offers some cushioning which is a good thing that many pin boxes don’t offer.

goldwing18 · 08-11-2021, 06:46 AM

I have to agree Nlambert. The extension puts a lot of leverage, like using a pri bar vertically. Lippert calls it extreme stress!

DocHaley · 08-11-2021, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goldwing18

I have to agree Nlambert. The extension puts a lot of leverage, like using a pri bar vertically. Lippert calls it extreme stress!

These hitch mfgrs (fifth wheel and GN) all spend hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars through the years and do not build systems that they know will fail. This is basic business ethics 101.

GN's have been around far longer than fifth wheel connectors so they have more experience.

A person than misuses or over loads or uses a product is a dangerous manner could in fact have a problem regardless of it being a fifth or a GN. But I hope there are not a bunch of knuckle draggers on this website posting.

Get what you want, enjoy, and go rv-ing.

Doc

TXiceman · 08-11-2021, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4x4ord

^^^^ You can go with whatever you want but claiming the Goosebox does not put the same torsion on the frame of the fiver as any other ball adapter is false. The air bag on the Goosebox offers some cushioning which is a good thing that many pin boxes don’t offer.

The cushioning is in the vertical plane, not the horizontal plane. Believe what you want, but I will not touch a Goose Box on a trailer. In order to move the trailer forward, the sane horizontal force is applied to the trailer and the longer lever arm exerts more stress on the frame.

As for Lippert, I doubt if they have any engineers working for them.

I checked and Reese is currently owned by Horizon Global (my mistake) which also owns Draw-Tite. Reese is being rebranded under Draw-Tite and are being built in Mexico. I would certainly want a USA made hitch.

Ken

Rev. Roy · 08-11-2021, 12:03 PM

Having hauled with both, I prefer the gooseneck for handling. Plus I discovered that on some trucks, if not all, the gooseneck tow rating is higher than for the fifth wheel hitch. Probably because of the gooseneck ball being located over the rear axle. Here's something else I don't know if it was mentioned. Someone looking to steal a fifth wheel isn't as likely to have a gooseneck set up.

jrollf · 08-12-2021, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nlambert

Sounds like you should go be an engineer for Reese and/or LCI. It sounds like they don't know how to engineer their trailer frames.

4x4ord is correct. Torsion (torque) is a simple math equation... length of moment arm x force. the only way to reduce torsion is to reduce one or both, moment arm length and/or force. Basic Newtonian physics. Given "x" weight trailer and "y" length of moment arm, you have a fixed amount of torsion... but the part that is missing is this is "perfect world" with no shock loads.

What they can do (and looks like Goose Box does) is design in methods to absorb shock loads, which would reduce peak torsional loads. But there is no way around it, torsional loads just driving down a glass smooth highway are higher on a gooseneck vs a 5th wheel given the same weight and aerodynamic drag.

TMyers17 · 08-12-2021, 08:28 AM

These adapter threads bring out the opinions. There's several different hitch options available for our 5th Wheels. Next time you are in a campground, look around and you'll see that lots of folks didn't get the memo about adapters being bad for their frame.

I've searched the net for damage and I've found only a few. One was using the standard 5th Wheel hitch. The owner had removed the front cap and shows where the welds gave way. He mentions seeing the gap decrease between his truck bed and camper over time. Owner is blaming poor welds. Next, this owner was using a Reese Goosebox. He was clear that he hit a major pothole at highway speed. Lastly, there are pictures of the Andersen Hitch folding up. The same picture(s) travel the net so much that nobody knows the "real" story behind them.

I know one thing for sure. If you hit a pothole, curb or anything else at speed, something is going to give, welds, tires, hitches or axels.

hookjockey · 08-12-2021, 10:27 AM

When I got my first 5th wheel I was going to go the GN route because I already the hitch ball in my truck bed. I stopped by a camper parts/ repair place and spoke to the owner. I told him what I was planning to do and he advised against it. He said smaller 5th wheels can use a GN without problem because of the lower weight. I think he said 30 feet or less. He had seen larger 5th wheels so bad that the outer walls of the overhang were cracked. He said this usually totals the camper due to the repair costs to remove the walls, repair the welds, and reskin it. He recommended the Andersen Ultimate and I've used it since. Though one can find a rare picture of a damaged one, the Andersen hitch does not have a record of failure. No, I don't have anything to do with Andersen, other than using their Ultimate hitch for 6 years.