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Goosenecks
I have pulled a lot of trailers in my time. I will have nothing other than a gooseneck now. When you are pulling a near capacity load, a gooseneck is much more forgiving. Sure, ya' gotta put the plate in the truckbed, but it is well worth it. When you just consider the physics of a gooseneck vs a bumper pull, the GN wins hands down!
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Goosenecks
Although I've never owned a gooseneck I have to agree. Because a receiver hitch is 5-6' behind the rear axle it causes the trailer to first move in the opposite direction before it can follow on any change of direction by the truck. It's a more unstable geometry and should be more susceptable to a whipsawing motion.
Dave
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Goosenecks
I have logged thousands of miles pulling small 5th wheel travel trailers on even smaller trucks.
You are right. There is no comparison.
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Dave, I have to disagrre with the statement that 'bumper pull' (tag-along) trailers are "a more unstable geometry".
The reality of it is that a gooseneck or 5th wheel trailer has a longer distance from the center of the suspension to the center of the hitch, that's all, the rest of the 'geometry' is basically the same. This added length means that input from the towing vehicle changes the direction of the trailer proportionately less.
That however can also work against you.
If you were to for instance put 2 identical trucks side by side, each hitched to a similar trailer, an 18' flatbed, one a gooseneck, the other a tag-along, and you took them through a slalom type course, or tried to follow each other through relatively narrow city streets, you would find a BIG difference in the tracking.
The fact that the trucks hitch swings out slightly, and follows the rear end, the trucks pivot, by a few feet, means that in a given corner, the tag-along trailer will not track to the inside as much as a gooseneck will.
In our fleet we have both types, in various lengths. If for instance, I want to take one of my units to my cottage, I cannot take a gooseneck trailer, it won't go in our narrow winding road, a tag goes in just fine, it's a little close in places, but it goes. In the spots that are a tight fit, the gooseneck would have 2 wheels completely in the ditch. I know, I've tried it. The only way I can do it is with my big TLB behind, forks down, and pick the back of the trailer up and shift it over.
The difference between a tag-along and a gooseneck also diminshes as the size of the tow vehicle goes up. My pickup doesn't handle a 5 ton load on a gooseneck as well as my big truck handles 10 tons on a tag trailer.
Best of luck.
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Murf, here's my point. If you take the rear axle to hitch distance to the extreme, there is a point at which small direction changes to the truck will cause large initial direction changes to the trailer in the opposite direction before it finally follows the truck. This would create an unstable condition. So at normal axle to hitch distances there would still be this opposing motion but at reduced effect. Thus my statement of "more unstable."
As a practical matter it's not a problem or I would have ended up in the ditch many times. 
Dave
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A properly set up 5th wheel/gooseneck hitch has the towing point just ahead of the rear axle.
I have always thought that it was this positioning that created the added stability.
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Dave, I understand what you are saying, but I think you are missing a few critical details.
Using my truck as an example, becuase it's here and I know it well, I have about 38" from the centerline (C/L) of the rear axle to the C/L of the hitch, but the wheelbase is 172" so the hitch to axle length is about 1/5th (for arguements sake only) of the wheelbase, the length of the pivot. So to move the hitch 1", the front of the truck has to pivot 5" in the opposite direction.
If we take a forward speed of 50mph, if the front of my truck moved 1" suddenly, the hitch would move far less than 1/5" (becuase it's moving so it sort of slides over, it doesn't pivot like it was sitting on a turntable.
That movement gets even further diminished by the distance from the hitch of the trailer to the C/L of the trailers suspension, it's pivot point.
This doesn't make any unstability show up, the undulation caused by over-correction does that. A little touch of the trailer brakes soon ends that though.
I still agree that a 5th wheel is better overall, but it's also got it's drawbacks, some are big ones.
The hitch position ahead of the axle also helps by adding weight to the front axle instead of lightening it like a tag along does.
Best of luck.
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Here's another disadvantage. Generally speaking goosenecks are for BIGer stuff and need a bigger vehicle to tow them - read "costs more money", also at fuel approaching $3.00 a gal, I would rather have a tiny bumper hitch pulling a single axle toy from HD that cost $300. Oh and plus $85 for the bumper hitch, but then again I am a minimizer prefering to sock it away for retirement / college etc.
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These threads seem to go far from the original point quickly. Sure, if you are pulling a little or nothing load a "toy" trailer is fine. You do indeed need a sizeable truck to pull a sizeable load. I use mine in my business, and need to haul a lot of material at one time. How much rock, mulch, soil and sod do you think I can haul on a tiny trailer at a time. The lack of high fuel mileage is a part of heavy equipment hauling heavy loads.
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I need to install a gooseneck hitch in the bed of my truck. I looked at a B and W hitch but my truck has a 3" body lift and it will not work. Does anybody have any ideas?
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