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By "the ball" I mean a gooseneck ball in the bed. A friend tow's his 5-er with it and an extension to the kingpin. I was curious what others had experienced.
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It works, if done right. But most trailer manufacturers will void the warranty on a 5er if you convert the kingpin to a gooseneck. The frame of the trailer is not engineered to take the increased leverage of the gooseneck conversion.
If it were mine, I'd take the trailer to a cracker-jack welding shop and have them strengthen the frame under the overhang around the kingpin box (pin box). Then be sure the gooseneck converter is a good 'un. Colibert? But those puppies cost around $400 to $500.
http://kearbey.homestead.com/fwextensions.html
For just a hair more you could buy a Reese 16k 4-way 5er hitch, without having to worry about breaking your trailer frame.
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GVWR on trailer 12,200
Pin weight: 1480
Dry weight: 10,010
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Dry weights are meaningless. Assume the wet and loaded trailer will gross close to the GVWR, or about 12,000 pounds. And the wet and loaded hitch weight will be around 17 to 18 percent of gross trailer weight.
So if you can keep the weight of the wet and loaded tow vehicle down to 8,000 pounds, the 2,000 pounds hitch weight is reasonable, and you'll be right on the GVWR of the tow vehicle.
Of course, if you hook up the empty trainer on your empty F-250 while at the trailer dealer, you'll not be even close to the GVWR of the tow vehicle. But that's a fool's test. If you want a meaningful test, then get the pickup and trailer loaded for a long trip, including passengers, pets, fresh water, food, cooking utinsels, propane tanks full, fuel tank full, floor jack and plywood jack pad in the bed, tool box and coolers full of the normal stuff, etc. Then hit the CAT scale and see where you stand. If you're only a little over, then throw out some tools, fluids, maybe the floor jack, and weigh again.
Of course, if it's mine, I'm not going anywhere without a 3.5-ton floor jack. One flat on the trailer during a rainstorm with you on your back in a muddy barrow ditch should tell you why. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]
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