Got gooseneck done!!!!

finished it up this weekend. Only thing really left is to put the battery on it for hooking a winch and camper too and put some red/white reflective tape on the sides.

 

WOW, looks cherry!
What is your plans with it?
Looks like you could haul one helov a load on there waytogo imp:

 

Dang man, nice deck!!! If you made it enclosed I'd be rolling my couch and TV into it...rotfl :doah:

 

Looks sweet! How much does it weigh? (that is a scale it's sitting on right?)

 

Very nice!

 

it weights 5800 lbs. Plan are to either haul 2 rigs on it or a slide in camper on the front over the tongue and my 4X rig on the back. I just got the slide in home so time to start setting up for trailer mounting.

 

Looks great! Very nice work

 

That could be the nicest deck I've ever seen on a trailer. Great job. The flames on top of the neck are cool as well. Keep us updated on the camper.waytogo

 

Matt,

Nice job on the gooseneck. I really like it. I am jealous, I have a 20'er with an additional 5' of dovetail plus ramps, and wish I had the length you have. I'm still looking. The longer the better when mounting a camper on the trailer.

If you are serious about mounting the camper on the tounge of the goose, let me know and we can talk sometime, I have done this twice and can share some pointers if you like, no offense taken if your not intested.

I'm truely jealous, congradulations, and it looks great!!!!

Rob

 

some tips on camper mounting would be awesome. I need to get the camper up about 6" off the deck to clear the tounge and also there are some plumbing under the back of camper to clear too. I was thinking of trying to find 4 tall camper jacks amd mount them to each corner with removable pins then just jack it up and back under the trailer and set on maybe a wooden sub frame then turnbuckle it down to the stake pockets. Pro/Cons or any other ideas? Thanks.

 

that deck is tooooo pretty to put anything on

 

Matt,

Yes, build a wooden platform on top of the deck of the trailer. Overbuild the platform double sheet the top of the platform. Build it 16" on center maxium. Do not use nails on building the platform. Screw everything together. Ask me how I know?

Only build the platform the size of the bottom of the camper, that was going to rest on the bed of your pickup truck. This will keep the weight distribution of the camper correct. Remember the camper weight is based on how it sat in the bed of the pickup truck.

Fasten the camper down to the gooseneck with either turnbuckles or with long lags screws that go through the floor of the camper into the actual platform you built. Make sure if you use the long lag screws you predrill the holes.

After I attached the camper to the platform, I had to replum the plumbing for the black water tank and the gray water tank, it's easy, just make sure that he plumbing goes thru the gooseneck platform.

On my camper, I framed up both sides of the camper to be even with the gooseneck width, then added two door per side and then had doors made for the openings. It added an enormous amout of storage space and also worked to stabilize the camper on the gooseneck deck. It it the absolute bomb. I have done this twice on both camper/gooseneck setups.

I framed up both sides of the camper to help distribute the weight of the overhang of the camper and then tied them to the deck of the gooseneck.

On my gooseneck I had to do a springover to get the correct clearances between the gooseneck tounge and the tailgate. It raised the center of gravity quite a bit, but once I tied the campers overhand into the gooseneck deck, it does not sway at all.

You mentioned getting higher camper jacks to get the camper over the gooseneck so you can lower it onto the gooseneck. I used two sets of forklifts. One on each side of the camper with the forks spread to the widest position. (I have 4 forklifts at work) Then I pulled the truck out from under the camper, then raised each side of the camper enought to clear the gooseneck. Then backed the gooseneck under the camper and lowered it onto the platform I built. My platform was 11" tall on top of the gooseneck deck. It dropped on to the platform perfectly. I did not use turnbuckles as I was concerned with the abilty of the turnbuckles to hold all the weight that high up on the center of gravity.

I then extened the lengths of the plumbing pipes and valves, and added an extension for my generator muffler that is built into my camper and it was done.

In my opinion my setup it the perfect setup. The nice thing is normally the campers have the drinking water tanks at the front of the campers, when they are full it helps with the tounge weight of the gooseneck. remember, goosenecks need more tounge weight than bumper pulls.

My company works with sheet metal and prefinished metals, so the exterior storage boxes and the front of my connection of the gooseneck to camper was all done in either alum diamonplate or galvaneal paintable metals. It looks almost like it was designed this way.

On both sides of the overhand of the camper that I closed in, I have my 6volt rv batteries, my power inverter and the other items that normally cramp the space of the camper. I can also store my grill, grill propane tanks, extra cots for other campers, more spare parts than you can even imagine and drinks, dirty clothes, camping chairs, guns, more drinks, ice, coolers, honda generators, cords, firewood, chainsaws, etc.. I don't leave home without it. Normally it all stays in the camper between trips.

I will try to snap some pictures this week to give you an idea on how it looks etc..

I will post up some as I have a chance this week.

Check out my readers rides shots at CK5, there are some pictures of the trailer with the boxes.

Rob

 

some pics would be sweet. Is your pretty much permanent? I want to make this so I can jack up camper and pull out from under prety easy kinda deal

 

thats a bad ass trailer man. did you use plans or jsut go with you imagination?

 

i started with a cheap trailer I picked up for $626 and built a new tongue and fixed it up. I work for a ranch truck division and we have been rebuilding some flatbes we bought that started as dump box trailers so I had tons of material and lots of know how after all those.

 

You should post up a before pic.... that thing was pretty beat when you got it.

 

here is the before

 

OMG thats one sexy trailer I'm so envious

 

well got to haul 2 vehicles on it for the first time. Pulled nice. A friend pulled it with my truck threw the parade yesterday and I drove my truggy. I pulled my vacuum actuator hose off and put the truck in low range to make it easier on the clutch going parade speeds. He would stop the trailer and I would pull up and flex on it too, was a bnig crowd pleaser.

 

Should would like to pull that trailer for a while....

Rick