On Wed, 12 Feb 2014 05:22:48 -0600, Karl Townsend wrote:

I'm looking at hauling a heavy boat (7K with the standard trailer) 2000
miles twice a year...

A perfectly designed 5th wheel or gooseneck would be far more stable
than the standard bumper hitch. I've been looking and can't find one to
copy (my best design method)

Does anyone know of an engineering design service for this project? I'm
very willing to pay for a great design.

Karl

AFAIK, when it comes to gooseneck trailers and good stability, more
weight on the hitch is better. Consider a semi truck & trailer as the
"ultimate gooseneck" and you'll see what I mean.

So maybe the approach to take is to design the thing so that it puts
about half of your truck's rated load on the hitch, with the rest of the
weight going on the tires. The tires _will_ be further back with such a
setup than with a tag-along.

I drove a 3/4 ton pickup with a gooseneck trailer for my dad for several
years in the summers, going to car shows. For a while we were pulling
out of the parking lot with 20,000 combined GVW -- I think that when I
was driving it we were at 14,000 or something like that. The combination
pretty much handled like the trailer wasn't there, except for the getting
up to speed and going up the hills parts.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com