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Tell him to buy a manufactured one or at least add a 200% overbuilt safety factor to anything he's thinking about building.
When I was about 18 my family owned a feedstore. After school I would drive to the purina mill and pick up feed with 1979 f350 flatbed and 30 gooseneck. The flatbed had a custom dropdown ball that was welded to the bottom of the bed. My dad had some shadetree welder design it. It looked great and it even had a coverplate when it wasn't pulling a trailer.
Anyways, it worked for about 6 months. That is until i hit a bump on some lousiana highway and it ripped out the welds. I think I was pulling about 14k lbs in feed. The neck of the trailer dropped through the hole the dropdown hitch and in front of the axle of the truck. Thus ripping the wires to the trailer and the brake lines on the truck. Thankfully, the truck was a granny 4 and not an auto so I had some stopping capability. That truck always smelled like poop from that day forward.
Sorry for the long story, but take it from my expience that could have been much worse had it not been on a rural road. Don't go cheap on your gooseneck hitches
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06 F-250 CC 6.0 PSD
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