hey guys, i bought a used goose neck race car trailer...my truck is alot higher than the one the previous owner towed it with...i was trying to adjust the height but the screw refuses to turn, even with excessive amounts of force. it seemed to have play in the nut on top, as it would turn about 10-15 degrees loosely then suddenly stop...i was thinking it was just frozen from rust...in order to free it up and inspect it i cut plate off the front so i could access the screw threads. after getting a look at the screw itself, i realized it was not play in the nut at all, the screw was actually turning that 10-15 degrees....it was reaching a point where it locks, im starting to think its not rust stopping it from turning is there supposed to be some sort of locking mechanism that prevents the screw from turning? i dont see any locking device, but it does not appear to be rust stopping it from turning... i was going to heat it up with the oxy/acetelene torch to try and free it up, but now im afraid i might break something if there is a hidden lock in there somewhere
Suprant- Can't speak about race trailers, but I deal in horse trailers that sound to be the same. There's no hidden lock. If it is stuck, it is just stuck. As with many things, force it and fix what breaks.....
Hi suprant0010 .There may be a lock nut on the outside but you should be able to see it,or it may not use a lock nut at all & the threads are rusted .maybe share a picture if you can.This shows the set screws on our goose neck.Dose it look anything like yours?
thats exactly what I did....i pulled out the torch, heated it up and started turning...after some turning i hear a crack and the whole trailer falls down (until it bottomed out the height adjustment) turns out the threads inside got stripped from me turning them...they were simply just too far gone to be saved from the get go having access to a drill press i drilled a line of holes down the adjusting part of the hitch, along with 2 more holes on the goose neck itself...i got rid of the screw and now have a set pin type height adjustment, just have to pull out the pin and stick it in a different hole to adjust it...problem fixed
Sounds like it worked. By the way, I usually do that when it isn't connected to a truck. A much calmer experience... The cross pin is required on new trailers now anyway. But most are keeping a set screw to take up the slop & keep rattling down. When I've not seen a screw, the pin holes get wallowed and you can sometimes feel slop at take off or just about stop. Even 1 bolt seems to stop it, and the pins carry the weight.
Something to think about they build adjustable hitches with a crank,Put one on mine when i built it many moons ago