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Aluminum Gooseneck Trailer

gt1guy

gt1guy

Apparently a racist
Joined
May 19, 2020
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241
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3,316
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New Iberia, La.
What is the IBB view on aluminum gooseneck trailers? Worth the extra coin to save a few pounds?

I'm wanting to make a crawler hauler. Remove the axles from a 5th wheel trailer and slap it on the front of a flatbed gooseneck. Thinking of a 20-25ft "camper" on a 35-40ft gooseneck.

Without knowing anything about the life span of an alum trailer, all I can think of, is that it would be a bit more difficult to join the two together. Bolt together as opposed to weld together.

What are the cons to an aluminum trailer?
 
Basically cost but with steel prices where they are the difference is not that bad. I might be selling mine 40 Goosneck 20' garage with 20' living. Its a converted race trailer. Your big rig might not fit in one though. I have seen some like what you are talking about and would just go with a car hauler style steel trailer with the open ramps and put a camper on the front. You don't need the full width deck under the trailer or jeep.

A 20' airstream would be cool to do that with.
 
I always thought that aluminum trailers ended up being roughly the same weight as a comparable steel trailer, due to the extra material (aluminum) needed to meet the strength of the steel counterpart. Maybe 10% weight savings?

Aluminum enclosed trailer, sure, because you have the rigidity of the box to lean on, but not a flat deck trailer.
 
I don't think it pencils out unless you are going to run a million miles, tow your bmw track car with your audi SUV, or have a specific weight requirement, like the guy that home built a nice one on pbb, I asked him why, he used a specific tractor with a brush hog for his business, an aluminum trailer kept him under cdl restrictions and likely more expensive insurance, tags, etc
 
I'm also finding there's not a lot of 20-25ft 5th wheel style trailers out there. Everything seems to be land barge size.
 
gt1guy said:
I'm also finding there's not a lot of 20-25ft 5th wheel style trailers out there. Everything seems to be land barge size.
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same,

i just picked up a 25+5 GN and it wasnt easy. for every <30' trailer, there are a dozen 40' tandem duals


but i thought you were looking for a longer one?
 
LunchBoxFab said:
same,

i just picked up a 25+5 GN and it wasnt easy. for every <30' trailer, there are a dozen 40' tandem duals


but i thought you were looking for a longer one?
Click to expand...

I guess I worded my last post wrong. I'm not finding many 20-25 5th wheel camping trailers I could use to pull the axles and slap it on a bigger GN trailer.
 
I figured all the 40' tandem dual goosenecks were bought to hotshot with or were retired hotshot trailers.

On the subject of aluminum goosenecks though I had read/heard that aluminum works fine for road trailers but if it's on rough county roads or general contractor/farm use the aluminum will crack.

I can't afford an aluminum gooseneck so I never looked into it really.
 
Wades_76_cj7 said:
On the subject of aluminum goosenecks though I had read/heard that aluminum works fine for road trailers but if it's on rough county roads or general contractor/farm use the aluminum will crack.
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To greatly over simplify things, aluminum really really really really doesn't like flexing. That's why the weight savings on a trailer is so minimal vs the weight savings on something like a cylinder head or differential that won't flex much in normal use. You need to throw more AL at it to get the flex down to somewhere that will result in an acceptable product life.
 
Wades_76_cj7 said:
I figured all the 40' tandem dual goosenecks were bought to hotshot with or were retired hotshot trailers.
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thats been my experience. some of the 4-6 year old trailers looked like they had half a million miles on them.
 
YOU WONT SAVE MUCH IN WIEGHT OVER STEEL IN A GOOSNECK THE AMOUNT OF MATERIAL NEEDED TO MAKE THE NECK IS ALOT. OUT STOCK TRAILERS 20OR 24' ARE ONLY ABOUT 800# LIGHTER IN ALUMINUM AND REQUIRE MORE MAINTANENCE THAN THE STEEL TRAILERS
 
We put this together this spring so I have a couple of observations that may be helpful. First, as was stated above, smaller 5th wheel trailers are not that common anymore. There are older ones that can be had for cheap, but nothing that my wife would agree to stay in. Newer (nicer) ones were not to be found when we were looking. As you can see we ended up with an 1181 Lance. It has a slide and a dry bath and is very comfortable. I realize that this might not be an option if there are more than 2 of you staying in it. Secondly, the trailer is a 25 + 5 which works well for me. We live about 400 miles east of Denver, just off of I-70 in Kansas. When traveling we didn't have any trouble in the campgrounds along the interstate, which are mostly newer, as we were able to maneuver into our assigned spots easily. In the mountains however, it was a different story. Most of these campgrounds are older and we had a hard time just getting in and out of them. There are many that we simply would not have been able to get into with a 40 foot trailer. We quickly learned that while this trailer was sold to us as a 25 + 5, or 30 foot trailer, this does not include the length of the gooseneck. Camper trailers on the other hand are sized including the length of the gooseneck. We made a few reservations at campgrounds and when they asked the size of our trailer, we said 30 feet. When we got there, the sites assigned to us were not accessible to us so we started telling them 40 feet, then things worked better. With a 40 foot trailer such as you are talking about will be very difficult to work with in older campgrounds.
IMG_0923.JPG
 
jrb2 said:
We put this together this spring so I have a couple of observations that may be helpful. First, as was stated above, smaller 5th wheel trailers are not that common anymore. There are older ones that can be had for cheap, but nothing that my wife would agree to stay in. Newer (nicer) ones were not to be found when we were looking. As you can see we ended up with an 1181 Lance. It has a slide and a dry bath and is very comfortable. I realize that this might not be an option if there are more than 2 of you staying in it. Secondly, the trailer is a 25 + 5 which works well for me. We live about 400 miles east of Denver, just off of I-70 in Kansas. When traveling we didn't have any trouble in the campgrounds along the interstate, which are mostly newer, as we were able to maneuver into our assigned spots easily. In the mountains however, it was a different story. Most of these campgrounds are older and we had a hard time just getting in and out of them. There are many that we simply would not have been able to get into with a 40 foot trailer. We quickly learned that while this trailer was sold to us as a 25 + 5, or 30 foot trailer, this does not include the length of the gooseneck. Camper trailers on the other hand are sized including the length of the gooseneck. We made a few reservations at campgrounds and when they asked the size of our trailer, we said 30 feet. When we got there, the sites assigned to us were not accessible to us so we started telling them 40 feet, then things worked better. With a 40 foot trailer such as you are talking about will be very difficult to work with in older campgrounds.
IMG_0923.JPG
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So Junction City/Manhattan KS area?
 
I don't have a gooseneck, but have had a 24' Featherlite V-nose since 2016. The weight is very low at ~3600lbs. I love the all aluminum interior, including walls and floors. I do not live in salt country, so corrosion is not much of an issue.
 
Lincoln, Kansas - About 45 miles northwest of Salina
 
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