Short Bed Pickup + Gooseneck?

[Fairview_Horse_Cente]

Axtually, I have not even gotten close, and I have had the trailer for almost 2 years. If you are used to a bumper pull that can also jackknife and damage your vehicle, you won’t have a problem. I am always watching how much I tightly jackknife, but it is pretty rare that you need to go that tight anyway.

I was riding with a person with a full size truck bed, and she was showing me how great a gooseneck was. tried to turn it around on a 2 lane country road. Well, it ended up being so tight almost into one of the side ditches, that she had to jackknife and did major damage to the truck, high up, just behnd the driver’s door - really crunched it in. No truck is safe if you don’t pay attention, except for those turnaround rigs. Then you just turn to face the trailer, and drive forward.

[tabula_rashah]

When I bought my truck (long bed- never understood why you’d want a short bed anyway:lol: ) the dealership told me if I got a short bed and installed a GN hitch it would void my warranties- so might want to check into that

[Fairview_Horse_Cente]

[QUOTE=tabula rashah;5514266]
When I bought my truck (long bed- never understood why you’d want a short bed anyway:lol: ) [/QUOTE]

Well, um, parking around town with a long bed and extended cab can be rather challenging. I chose a short bed as I needed the extra seating for my everyday, only vehicle. Around a farm though, if all I needed my truck for was farm stuff, I would definitely go with the 8’ bed. Hay (both square and round bales), lumber, farm gates, moving homes, packing for shows, etc., become much more challenging to move with a 6 1/2’ bed.

< I gave up my wonderful back slider window too when I bought an extended cab>

[camohn]

we have a shortbed F350 and a 4H gooseneck trailer. There is 1 small dent in the rear cab corner. Shortly after getting it (not used to the small bed) and having to try to park the trailer in a slot with very little room to maneuver the rig I did do that backing/turning very sharply…but have never done it again and have had the truck since 1999. So once used to the space you have to work with…it is not a problem. I purposely got the short bed due to the parking problems big trucks present…did drive it for work and farm at the time and had to do city parking at times.

[spook1]

Anyone pull a GN with a 5 1/2 short bed? Truck in question have more then enough power train to pull the weight. Its the bed size I am concerned with. BTW its to late not to concider …other half have already brought the truck…lol
T.I.A

[fordtraktor]

[QUOTE=spook1;6102249]
Anyone pull a GN with a 5 1/2 short bed? Truck in question have more then enough power train to pull the weight. Its the bed size I am concerned with. BTW its to late not to concider …other half have already brought the truck…lol
T.I.A[/QUOTE]

Yes, my truck has a 5.5’ bed. I use this in a 9 inch on my Hawk: http://popuphitch.com/sb1coupl.htm. It is awesome, super easy to hook up alone which is pretty much always me.

My trailer guy tried to jackknife it to make sure it would work when I bought the trailer. He said he couldn’t get it in a place where it would crunch the cab. I have not tested it that much but I have not had any problems and I do have to turn pretty sharply to get my trailer parked on my farm. Good luck!

[airhorse]

Short or long bed can always crunch the cab…

[China_Doll]

[QUOTE=technopony;5510771]
Thanks for all the replies! Sounds like it should work fine - and this one is actually 6 1/2 ft rather than 5 1/2, so added bonus there.[/QUOTE] I have never heard of a 5.5 bed in a regular truck. By regular I mean a 3/4 ton Chevy, ford or something standard.
They are 6.5 or 8’

[fordtraktor]

China Doll, I have an F150 crew cab and it most certainly has a 5.5 bed. It is rated to 9600 lbs. and has no problem pulling my 4200 lb. Hawk 2H GN. The newer F150s are pretty much like having an older F250.

[katyb]

< I gave up my wonderful back slider window too when I bought an extended cab>

My F350 crew cab has a power back slider window. It’s one of my favorite features.

[mpsbarnmanager]

@deltawave

I have a short bed F350 and a brand new Merhow gooseneck. The dealer (our own Tobruk) had me purposely manhandle the rig into a near-jackknife situation (and showed me how to extricate myself, LOL) and the gooseneck portion was in NO danger of walloping the truck, ever. The trailer does have a slightly tapered nose, which I believe makes a difference. If there is any potential for collision, you can buy an extension for the ball that moves the trailer back 6-8".

Does anyone know if an extender is any less safe than the usual ball? I have a B&W gn hitch in my shortbed now. Works fine for my gore with a pointed nose but looking at an adams with a big ole square nose and it makes me a little nervous. Don’t want to be shattering my back window with 2 small children in the back seat!!! :eek:

[beau159]

Zombie thread.

@mpsbarnmanager

Does anyone know if an extender is any less safe than the usual ball? I have a B&W gn hitch in my shortbed now. Works fine for my gore with a pointed nose but looking at an adams with a big ole square nose and it makes me a little nervous. Don’t want to be shattering my back window with 2 small children in the back seat!!! :eek:

I don’t know why it would be any less safe. It attaches the same.

When I used hubby’s short box pickup with my squarenose gooseneck, the 6" extender made a world of difference. I still watched that back window closely, but was able to maneuvar in pretty tight quarters. If you’ve got a short box on your pickup, I would recommend it.

We too had the B&W turnover hitch on it.

[moving_to_dc]

@mpsbarnmanager

Does anyone know if an extender is any less safe than the usual ball? I have a B&W gn hitch in my shortbed now. Works fine for my gore with a pointed nose but looking at an adams with a big ole square nose and it makes me a little nervous. Don’t want to be shattering my back window with 2 small children in the back seat!!! :eek:

Get a B&W extender and don’t worry about it. If B&W makes it, then it is engineered out the whazoo and is completely safe. B&W will not manufacture anything that is crap.

[Hinderella]

I’m following along here because my Dodge 2500 is now 18 years old and will probably need replacement, and I have a 2h GN. I’ve been looking everywhere for a decent used truck with an 8’ bed but they’re really hard to find. It’s good to know that it’s possible to haul with a short bed if I get really stuck.
But for the life of me I don’t understand the short bed thing, especially the 5 1/2’. It’s basically a minivan with an open back! We use the full 8’ of our bed too many time to willingly give it up.