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[gamudslinger88]

When I read that story it makes me think that whoever built it didnt have enough welded area to support the weight. If the weld broke it was a poor weld but if the weld held together and tore the parent metal then he either didnt have enough weld or the flat bed he welded too was too thin for the weight. A good weld bead with 100% fusion and penitration should be stronger than the parent metal. I am designing and building my goose neck hitch right now. Its the width of the frame rails and 24" long. I am bolting it down to the 5th wheel brackets that go to the frame as well as 8 additional bolts that go through the frame, A total of 10 grade 8 bolts, four are 9/16 shank and 8 in the frame are 5/8 shank, all kits I seen came with 4 grade 5 1/2 to 7/16 bolts. The plate is 3/8 A572 grade 50 high tensil strength, it has 50,000 pounds shear strength and the welding method will be MIG with Flux with gas with .045 wire thats 70,000 tensil strength. I will brace the load area with another plate diamond shaped and add some other bracing as well. I think this will be overkill because every hitch I look at has been less than I feel safe towing with. I am a certified welder and fabricator for 9 years for a railcar repair company, I have welded on tank car vessels that held 500psi in and didnt burst so I feel comfortable doing this. I am curently a quality assurance inspector for the same company as well as a non destructive testing tech. and I still lay beads on a regular basis. I am not braging by no means but I am just letting the naysayers see that I am no "shade tree welder with a household welder", I have welded a few times