My 2500HD Chevy needs a gooseneck hitch. Unfortunately, there is a
heat shield that must be removed or a section cut out. Every shop I've
spoken with says the heat shield fasteners are installed with
something like Locktite and are almost impossible to remove.

Their parctice is to cut a section out with a plasma cutter. That
shield is 1.5" from the bottom of the bed which has a spray-in liner.
Should I be concerned about burning the paint off the bottom of the
bed or blistering the liner? I've only seen plasma cutters used on TV
or the internet.

Has anyone built their own gooseneck hitch for a pickup? I know a
flatbed is easy.

On Sat, 11 Sep 2010 00:12:36 -0500, wrote:


My 2500HD Chevy needs a gooseneck hitch. Unfortunately, there is a
heat shield that must be removed or a section cut out. Every shop I've
spoken with says the heat shield fasteners are installed with
something like Locktite and are almost impossible to remove.

Their parctice is to cut a section out with a plasma cutter. That
shield is 1.5" from the bottom of the bed which has a spray-in liner.
Should I be concerned about burning the paint off the bottom of the
bed or blistering the liner? I've only seen plasma cutters used on TV
or the internet.

1.5" is as good as a mile with plasma. Interpose a sheet-metal shield
or weld blanket between cut and bottom if severely anal.

Don Foreman wrote:

On Sat, 11 Sep 2010 00:12:36 -0500, wrote:


My 2500HD Chevy needs a gooseneck hitch. Unfortunately, there is a
heat shield that must be removed or a section cut out. Every shop I've
spoken with says the heat shield fasteners are installed with
something like Locktite and are almost impossible to remove.

Their parctice is to cut a section out with a plasma cutter. That
shield is 1.5" from the bottom of the bed which has a spray-in liner.
Should I be concerned about burning the paint off the bottom of the
bed or blistering the liner? I've only seen plasma cutters used on TV
or the internet.

1.5" is as good as a mile with plasma. Interpose a sheet-metal shield
or weld blanket between cut and bottom if severely anal.

Agreed. One of the benefits of a plasma cutter is their very low total
heat input. They give you a super hot plasma stream, but it is small
diameter and cuts so fast that you don't dwell in any area very long so
the piece being cut doesn't get very hot, and the thinner the material
the faster you go. On painted sheet metal, the paint gets burned back
less than 1/8" on either side of the cut line, and that's on the piece
being cut. A surface 1.5" away from the cut will just get sprayed with
the vaporized metal and that spray will have lost most of it's heat in
that 1.5" of travel.

On Sat, 11 Sep 2010 00:12:36 -0500, wrote:


My 2500HD Chevy needs a gooseneck hitch. Unfortunately, there is a
heat shield that must be removed or a section cut out. Every shop I've
spoken with says the heat shield fasteners are installed with
something like Locktite and are almost impossible to remove.

When i did my gooseneck hitch, I removed the bed. There's only eight
bolts holding it on the frame.

Then I bolted in a serious plate between the frame rails and made the
ball hitch drop in a pocket. Then there was only a small hole in the
bed for the ball. made it real nice when using the pickup for
something else.

Karl

On Sat, 11 Sep 2010 00:36:27 -0500, Don Foreman
wrote:

On Sat, 11 Sep 2010 00:12:36 -0500, wrote:


My 2500HD Chevy needs a gooseneck hitch. Unfortunately, there is a
heat shield that must be removed or a section cut out. Every shop I've
spoken with says the heat shield fasteners are installed with
something like Locktite and are almost impossible to remove.

Their parctice is to cut a section out with a plasma cutter. That
shield is 1.5" from the bottom of the bed which has a spray-in liner.
Should I be concerned about burning the paint off the bottom of the
bed or blistering the liner? I've only seen plasma cutters used on TV
or the internet.

1.5" is as good as a mile with plasma. Interpose a sheet-metal shield
or weld blanket between cut and bottom if severely anal.
I've got some 2' x 4' x 1/2" sheets of asbestos cement boards that
might be handy here.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

On Sat, 11 Sep 2010 14:43:08 -0500, Karl Townsend
wrote:

On Sat, 11 Sep 2010 00:12:36 -0500, wrote:


My 2500HD Chevy needs a gooseneck hitch. Unfortunately, there is a
heat shield that must be removed or a section cut out. Every shop I've
spoken with says the heat shield fasteners are installed with
something like Locktite and are almost impossible to remove.

When i did my gooseneck hitch, I removed the bed. There's only eight
bolts holding it on the frame.

Then I bolted in a serious plate between the frame rails and made the
ball hitch drop in a pocket. Then there was only a small hole in the
bed for the ball. made it real nice when using the pickup for
something else.

Karl

Thanks for everyone's replies.

Normally, I would do as you did, Karl. But I'm in a rush. I just
bought the truck and need it in a week. How did you handle the safety
chain issue? I've never seen a gooseneck ball/hitch fail; even a few
that should have with the truck and trailer turned over.

Here is the one I've chosen. http://turnoverball.com/ Everything is
below/between the ribs in the bed. There is one drawback, though. They
caution that the inverted ball may contact the differential on two
wheel drive trucks with heavy loads. Kind of negates the feature of
storing the ball in the hitch.