Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Bennett
My gooseneck hitch has U-bolts that mount through the bed to the hitch for chains. When not in use, they drop between the corrugations of the floor, leaving the bed flush.
I would think that on the extremely slim chance they would even come in to play, it would be a lot stronger than on the hitch, like on the Anderson rail mount version.
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That's the arrangement I was thinking of (and which Andersen shows in the safety chain installation guide), and I agree it's much stronger.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Bennett
While I see reason for a wee bit of concern there, how likely is that to happen, and even if it did, how likely is the 600ish pound pin weight to bounce of too. Do others with the standard [gooseneck] mount, lock the hitch closed?
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Most ball couplers (conventional or gooseneck) have a positive latch of some sort. With Andersen's setup, the pin position isn't even obviously visible so it might be more of a concern; you can see how far the handle protrudes from the cable housing, but it doesn't have the clear "latched or not" appearance of most latches. Even the
simplest gooseneck ball coupler in existence has a simple pin... with a spring retainer that is clearly in place or not.
No trailer - even conventional - should bounce off of the ball, but somehow occasionally they do. The 5.0TA pin weight is higher than the tongue weight of a 21', but only by a couple hundred pounds and it's still only about 15% of the trailer weight (rather than the 12% typical of conventional Escapes). Gooseneck trailers typically run 20% or more pin weight, and those chains are required for them. Think "incident", rather than "regular bump in the road"...
Not a huge deal anyway, I suppose. You could run without safety chains, and not bother latching the coupler at all, and likely never have an issue. It would be interesting know how often someone notices while unhitching that the coupler was never latched at hitching time, with either conventional or in-bed ball location. I'll bet it happens, although most people would blame some vandal for opening the latch at a stop rather than admit they just forgot to close the latch at all.