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heavy duty gooseneck

05rammer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2009
Messages
170
Location
Missouri
I am want to possibly take a pintle hitch trailer with air brakes and convert it to a gooseneck and was wondering if they made a hitch that was rated for 40,000lbs or more. wanting to haul a big skid steer and a decent size mini excavator. Any input would be great. thanks
 

Randy88

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2009
Messages
2,149
Location
iowa
Convert it to a fifth wheel hitch, have a local machine shop do the converstion for you, its not that hard to do, I'm not aware of any kits available that you can order to do the coversion.
 

johndeere123

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2012
Messages
176
Location
Nova Scotia
What are you hoping to gain by doing this swap? Are you overweight now with the mini and skid steer? What kind of trailer is it, Tandem or Tridem? would a trailer like this work for you?
float.jpg
 

05rammer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2009
Messages
170
Location
Missouri
I do not have the trailer or truck yet. I want to have a flat bed truck so the fifth wheels you guys are telling me to do are not going to work. I was trying to.figure out if anyone knew of a heavy duty gooseneck hitch because haven't found what I am looking for on the internet yet. I was planning on having a fab shop do the work.
 

mitch504

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2010
Messages
5,776
Location
Andrews SC
the only thing I've seen that would work is a fifth wheel. That said, I have seen what you want done 2 ways:

The first belonged to a big logging outfit around here. It was a converted road tractor that had tool boxes, vise, welder, etc. up behind the cab, a short flat deck, then a 5th wheel mounted just behind the axle. Most logging equipment around here weighed about 30,000 or less back then, so he would have been pulling less than 50,000 most of the time. I never drove this truck, but I knew several guys who did, and they said it drove fine for what it did.

The other one belonged to a big farmer. It looked like a regular flatbed, but it had a square plate inset into the deck. When you pulled the plate up and off, there was a 5th wheel mounted to the truck frame under it. He had a lowboy with a higher than normal goose neck, then the king pin was mounted to a boxed section that came down off of that.

OOps, I said 2, now I've thought of a couple more. A welding shop had a short tractor, and they had a flatbed with a king pin on the bottom that stood on 4 removable legs. They backed under it and hooked up like a trailer, then pinned it to brackets on the frame to keep it from rocking and turning.

Also, there is a thread on here trucks that are convertible from tractors to dump trucks. I'm sure you could do similar, but that is probably more trouble than you want to go to.

On another note, I would lean heavily toward the 8100. I have owned a couple of those, and a single axle 8100 would not be working to pull 40,000; where a 4900 probably would.

Good luck, and keep us posted,
Mitch
 

johndeere123

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2012
Messages
176
Location
Nova Scotia
We haul a skid steer and 5ton mini on a pintle hitch with no problems. If you got the right trailer, why wont a pintle hitch work?
 

hvy 1ton

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
1,945
Location
Lawrence, KS
The oilfield guys have addressed this problem a couple different ways, popup kingpins on the truck or flip over 5th wheels. Any way you go it's gonna take a good bit of fab work on the trailer, but if your starting with a tag anyway...

Oh, and there's some farm equipment that uses a 110mm ball hitch, but if DOT ever figured out where came from they'd prob throw a fit.
 

redneckracin

Senior Member
Joined
May 19, 2010
Messages
574
Location
Western PA
Occupation
Civil Engineer
ill 2nd going for a bigger truck than a 4900 unless you can find something better than the dt530E. I pull my 6 horse trailer and flatbed gooseneck with it and I can't tell its back their weight wise until it hits a hill. Then keeping speed is a pretty serious problem.
 

Andrew_D

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Messages
298
Location
Newdale, Manitoba, Canada
I've looked at going with a tag axle trailer and welding on an upper deck so I can pull it with the highway tractor. Why? Well, tag axles go dirt cheap around here, whereas tandem or tridem's with beavertails go fairly high...

Andrew
 

busy dad

Active Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Messages
26
Location
Stratford ON Canada
Occupation
Transportation
If you are set on a ball style coupler the only one that I know of is made by Holland Hitch and it is a 5" ball rated at 80,000 pull and 8,000 lbs tongue weight.. The advantage of a fifth wheel vs a ball is the tongue or vertical load... We used the 5" ball on a 2 axle "pony " grain box for years..A creative weld shop could make one into a goose neck style...BH-50 is the coupler number..
 

busy dad

Active Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Messages
26
Location
Stratford ON Canada
Occupation
Transportation
If you were to go with a fifthwheel set up , recess the fifth wheel and put a removable cover over it . Make the neck a bit higher to allow the king pin to go into the recessed area to grab the wheel.. You have flat bed still and a good strong coupling for trailer also..
 

PhilDirt

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2011
Messages
133
Location
Lancaster PA
You can use a 5th wheel upside down on the trailer, and put the king pin on the truck. I have this on my gooseneck. It's not full sized, it's a 30K holland 5th wheel, but there's no reason you can't do it with a full sized unit.
 
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