Towing a goose neck trailer

Buying a trailer

If that's "pouchside" Chapparal, you might want to check the floor width - to see if it will
accomodate the width of your slicks. I had an altered and bought a pouchie sight unseen
and had to build ramps over the inside wheels tubs to get the damn thing in. I got rid of it 2 weeks after I bought it. Also, I don't think there is any adjustment on the pin. It's just a solid steel cylinder if I remember correctly. I'm not diss'ing Brendan at all....If I'm wrong about this particular trailer.....I'm wrong...just worth checking. Also, I will put it delicately......lose the lowrider...It simply will not work. You need vertical suspension travel when going over railway tracks and rough roads.....up and DOWN! Just sayin'

 

here is what i have as to truck;;the back is still stock 1 ton dulley just took rearend from mounted bottom of leaf springs and put it on top of leaf springs then added a 2" longer shacklers so rear rear still works same as as it did untoched..i did remove the overload spring and it's replaced with 5000lb air bags;
my truck is static lowered but i do have 5000 lb air bags in rear with the stand. stock 1 ton leaf springs still on it..with no load in rear of truck i can change ride height in rear almost 6" to 7" by putting more air in bags..i'm still running stock size dulley tires and ratings that came on it stock;;believe they are 8 ply or maybe even 10ply[i forgot] i stayed with them because i'm not stock under hood or trans...under hood is a industrial cummins disel out of a blue-bird buss[had to lean it over to keep turbo from hitting hood and had to cut and modified firewall back another 4" to clear rear rocker box and manifold]the trans is a 4 speed out of a 2 ton wreaker and then added a over/under US gear venders AUX TRANS BEHIND IT..PUT 3;55 GEARS IN REAR END TO KEEP RPM DOWN IN POWER CURVE RANGE OF THE ENGINE...then had turbo modified[they went with a smaller housing but added modifed rotors that has more fins then stock ones..brings boost in sooner and longer and runs cooler..have a EGT gauge that showed a 25 degree drop;;then had pump matched to turbo..last road trip i made towing i got 24.5 gpm;;that was pulling a 2200lb open car trailer with my pro/street el camino[heavy car]running average of 78mph;;
forgot to mention i also fabicated heavy duty sway bars front and rear..towing that comb. it handle almost as good as my monte carlo SS. haven't tried it with enclosed trailer..sure going be some differance..do plain on building myself a wing[like use to see on top of semi trucks years back befor they went with the fiberglass wind deflectors now on them]and mount on top of cab to help deflect the air up and over trailer..think it will help..won't know till i tray it.

as to trailer size Brendan gave me 96" outside measurement and 77" rear ramp door wide..wouldn/t the inside floor be at least same wide as the door opening?he states it is a pretty standard touring Funny Car trailer ;;thanks for information on the gooseneck..it's a old trailer and i was wondering other night if it was adjustable or not..i sort of thinking it wouldn't be because age of it..

 

just did a neck for a guy all you have to do is cut it into sleve it and make it adjustable very simple and very fast

 

that has crosed my mind also..been picking a lock of rancher brains around here and a lot has been saying they perfer the fifth wheel over the goosenecks on the highway..what i'm thinking since most likly the trailer i'm getting isn't adjustabl gooseneck then why not just convert over to a fifth wheel..i already have a fifth wheel plate to mount in my truck and it is up flush with top of wheelwells..so that aready gets me up higher to compsate for the low bed hight..also found on line can buy a fifth wheel assy that slides inplace of the goose neeck[on the adj. ones according to pics you just pull pins drop out the bottom piecec and slide in the fifth wheel assy..]...i still feel be better with trailer home first then can see what best way to make it work safe and tow good..

 

Don, this is the answer to the issue----------- I have one on our tow rig, it is a lifesaver !!!!

http://www.shockerhitch.com/


It was about 800.00 it is adjustable with air pressure, it takes the big hits off the trailer, stops the buggy-buckboard ride on the rough interstates .

 

The big Tow -

This is not rocket science , I towed this trailer 75 miles - and it tows as nice as mine -
I have a lowered 2006 Chevrolet 3500 with air bags nothing way out of the ordinary .
I sent Don a photo Of my truck with trailer to compare to what he has

The truck we were going to use was a late model Dodge with helper springs in the rear it looked like - so it had a slight (funny car)rake to it
... and when it went up or down a driveway it lost all clearance between the trailer and tailgate -that is the problem
a level truck should haul this easy as there are hundreds of trailers just like this .
I was tied up with business this week so I could not haul it for him - no problem just bad timing
I am confident this will not be a problem .

Brendan