Gooseneck hitch in a Tacoma

Ok guys. Ive done a lot of searching for gooseneck hitches in tacomas. Mostly what I have found is one guy asking about them and many others bashing on him. I am a graduating in may with a BS in mechanical engineering. I have spent my whole life around trailers and have seen many stupid ideas. This idea is far from stupid. Having a gooseneck hitch in a truck is not necessarily to haul more weight. A gooseneck is easier to back up, tows better, allows access into tighter spaces such as turning around on a normal street, and it distributes the weight throughout the truck much better. All trucks still have a max GVWR and should not be exceeded. This being said, if you are towing a trailer that is (in the case of a 1st gen tacoma) 3500 lbs, why wouldn't you want to do it with a gooseneck so all of the above mentioned was involved. I have run some calculations on the set up that I built and it is rated much lower than the standard B&W turnover ball gooseneck, but it still exceeds the towing limits of the tacoma. If anyone has any serous questions, I would be more than happy to answer them. Please keep in mind when looking at the pic that this is not rated to the original manufacturers weight ratings. If anyone is interested, I can snap some pics of the bed installed.

 

I have been one of those guys that people laugh at when I ask about building a gooseneck system for my truck. I love my truck and it has 250k miles on it without an issue.
My only problem is when out with my two hunting dogs...we get into some tight places and it just doesn't have the turning radius I'd like. I don't haul heavy but I like all the many positive things that towing a gooseneck trailer offers. Can you give me some advice as to who might convert my truck. Once that is done the Big TeX place here will build a trailer for me.

 

One of the kickers would be the weight. Most gneck's I've seen weight more than their bumper pull counterpart. Plus the weight of the hitch eats into your payload a bit.

After that for shops I'd say liability will keep them from doing it. If someone asked me to put a hitch that allows them to tow 40billion pounds onto their truck rated for 16 oz, even though they 'promise' not to do it, I'd be hesitant to say the least.

 

I have seen a red Tacoma around my hometown that has a gooseneck and the truck pulls a 20' gooseneck trailer. I have always wanted to catch the truck stopped so I could check it out. That said - like was mentioned earlier; most gooseneck trailers are built heavy so your custom build would need to focus on staying on a diet so as to not quickly overload the truck.

I'm not saying you cannot do it; just asking you to document it really well for anyone in the future that might want to. As for me; I have an old 3/4 ton that I am going to use for towing.

 

Your reasons are certainly valid, but I guess my question is what is the trailer you are going to haul? Since we are talking a truck with a very low 6500lb tow rating, what trailers are you going to haul? I mean no recreational boat trailer is going to be a gooseneck, you aren't going to find a 5th wheel camper that is light enough for your rig (they are a 5th wheel for a reason), you aren't going to haul a 40' low boy 5th wheel flatbed which exceeds your tow rating empty... so I guess I am confused as to what you will tow? Just seems like a lot of effort to tow something that doesn't really exist, but maybe I just don't know?

 

Check out Scamp 5th wheel campers. Generally, I can definitely see and agree with your point but that's just one example of a 5th wheel trailer that can be towed behind a small truck. Any others I'd imagine would have to be custom?

 

Well whaddya know? And a Tacoma pulling it! Actually an awesome trailer, kick ass setup!

 

If you have that particular set up, I can see the reason behind installing a gooseneck. Otherwise, as you mentioned, most goosenecks are much heavier than what you'd tow behind a Tacoma. The OP has all the pros of a gooseneck correct, it's just that most are heavy sum-biches.

 

In the case of the Scamp I don't believe it is a true "gooseneck" hitch either. Pretty sure it is just a standard 2 inch ball mounted on a frame located in the bed. Might even be easily removable when not camping.

The Scamps of that style weigh around $2500 or so dry weight if I am not mistake.

 

Seems kind of pointless to me to be towing a gooseneck in a Tacoma. But I think there are local companies around here that will do a 7k gvw gooseneck.

With the Tacoma's already low payload rating and added hitch weight of the gooseneck (and the hitch itself) it's already getting close to overload. The Tacoma's little rear end and bearings weren't made for that. Sure there are people who might do it but lets call them what they are, morons.

The Scamp picture is cute. I own a Scamp 16 foot and it scales at ~2250 pounds. the Scamp fifth wheel is 3000 easy, I don't care what the Scamp site says. And my 2.7L Tacoma tows it like...well...not that good. The fifth wheel for it is not a "real" fifth wheel hitch. Its just 2 elevated bars running across the bed with a 2 inch ball.

Toyota does not recommend fifth wheel or gooseneck towing and the whole gooseneck thing can be done so much easier in a 1st or 2nd gen Tundra (B&W makes hitches for both) so besides trying to "impress" people on the forum, whats the point?

 

I guess the point some others had made before is the Scamp 19 footer is the ONLY trailer of that type (that I know of) that is OK for the Tacoma. 3000 trailer weight is fine for the Tacoma and the tounge weight is say 400 pounds or so. Much easier load handling and towing if you can center that 400 lb tounge weight in the bed (over the axle) instead of way back at the hitch.

Look at it, the Scamp only has one axle so that puts it in the lowest weight class for trailers.

The traditional bigger/heavier 5th wheel style trailers, definitely NOT suitable.

 

Escape Trailer Industries makes a light weight 5th wheel trailer that uses a standard 5th wheel hitch that falls in the Taco weight limit.

 

I installed a Scamp "gooseneck" in my 2007 TRD. It was a Delux model with wood interior making it weigh over 3000# w/ a 500# tongue weight. It was a pain to install the hitch through the fiberglass bed using machined spacers drilled and bolted to the frame. I sold it and went to the Scamp 16 pull behind.