Hitch warning

[heymagic]

My Matco dealer has an '06 Diesel Ram with a 5th wheel trailer. The trailer is a triple axle and weighs about 15,500 loaded with inventory. He just un-hooked the trailer to haul some cardboard and noticed the hitch ball was crooked. Upon inspection the hitch framing was bent and cracked under the truck bed. No wrecks or incidents. This was a new ( 8 mos ago) Valley 30k hitch . He has 3100lbs on the hitch, rated for 7k. So he is basically at 1/2 the rated capacity and suffered stuctural failure. Valley is initially arguementative. The replacement hitch is a different brand, same rating, considerably heavier and better designed. In fact the Valley weighed 85 lbs and the new one is 197 lbs. Kinda scarey when you thnk about the number of 5th wheels on the road...

[Numbknots]

Dang!

It that failed, it could make my little incident look like a hic-up! Hope they recall all that they have already made and build them right!!

Tim

[SomeSailor]

Man... think of the mess of tools... :(

[gpspowell]

Where is the "hitch ball" on his fifth-wheel mount? This sounds more like a gooseneck problem. :?:

[heymagic]

The hitch ball sits down in the bed of the truck. The hitch itsself is under the bed between the frame rails. Hitch ball releases from the bed miunt and you have a regular truck, no table like in the old days. Problem was the frame of the hitch actually bending .

[gpspowell]

Thanks for the clarification. The mount you're describing is a gooseneck, not a fifth-wheel. Goosenecks are very common on stock trailers and utility trailers. No comfort here as these trailers are often designed to haul very heavy loads. Some fifth-wheel RV owners install a conversion kit to allow them to haul their RV with a Goosneck, feeling it is easier to remove the ball than to deal with an entire assembly.

[SomeSailor]

I used to build goosenecks as a kid in Oklahoma. They're very popular back there for stock trailers. They are really stable abd have a lot of "spring" in them by design. You don't see as many of them out here though. Must be a southern thing?

[heymagic]

I see...I have several customers with horse trailers with goosenecks then. Never thought about having a different name, I don't get out much ;) Gene

[SomeSailor]

Goosenecks are reaally nice to tow. They're just ahead of the rear axle and they load the whole truck with a large percentage of the trailer weight and track very nicely. Other than the extra length and cost, I'm surprised you don't see many gooseneck boat trailers.