Gooseneck & Fifth Wheel Hitches in Terrell, TX

Gooseneck hitches

A gooseneck puts a ball in the bed, directly over or just ahead of the rear axle, and the trailer's coupler drops onto it. Because the load sits on the axle instead of levering off the back of the frame, the truck stays level, the steering stays honest and the whole rig behaves in a crosswind.

The practical advantage for a work truck is that the bed goes back to being a bed. A B&W ball turns over and sits flush with the bed floor, or comes out entirely, so on the days you are hauling pipe instead of pulling a trailer there is nothing in the way. That matters if the same truck does both jobs in the same week.

Goosenecks suit stock trailers, equipment trailers, dump trailers and flatbeds. That is most of what gets pulled around Kaufman County. We fit B&W and Curt.

Fifth Wheel hitches

A Fifth Wheel uses a plate and a kingpin rather than a ball and coupler. It is the same arrangement a semi uses. The larger bearing surface and pivoting head give a smoother, quieter ride, which is why nearly every towable RV is built for one.

The trade-off is bed space. The plate is large, and most people leave it in. If the truck tows an RV on weekends and works during the week, a companion unit is worth looking at. It gives you a Fifth Wheel head that drops into the gooseneck ball and lifts straight back out, so you get both without two permanent installations.

Puck systems and frame mounts

How the hitch attaches depends on what the truck came with. A growing number of trucks have factory pucks — reinforced sockets molded into the bed floor and tied to the frame. A hitch built for that system drops in, locks, and lifts out again. No drilling, no under-bed rails, and the truck is unmodified underneath.

Without pucks, the hitch mounts to a frame kit that runs under the bed. That is a bigger job. On some trucks, the bed has to come off to do it properly, and there is drilling and bracing involved. It is still the right way to do it. A gooseneck bolted to anything other than the frame is not a gooseneck. It is a leave-the-truck-with-us job, not a morning job.

Before you tow

Two things go with a hitch this size. One is a brake controller, which is not optional at these weights. The other is dealing with squat. A loaded gooseneck puts weight on the rear axle, and air bags bring the truck back to level so the headlights point at the road instead of the trees.

Tell us the truck, the trailer and whether the bed has pucks. If you are not sure about the pucks, we can tell from the year, make and model, or you can look for four round covers set into the bed floor.