Video Transcript for Breaking Down the Bulldog BX1 Gooseneck Coupler

Randy: Hey guys its Randy Hurdy, trailer.com. Today we're taking a look at a Gooseneck Coupler from Bulldog. This is the BX1 line. Now this is available as just the coupler insert or also with the outer tube, so you've got good options there. This is the long version, this coupler's gonna work out really well for your two wheeled drive trucks, your lowering trucks, any truck that sits a little bit lower to the ground. Once you get into bigger four wheel drive trucks, big F350's, 3500's or you get into lifted trucks you want to go with a short coupler.Now the latching mechanism here is really unique to this coupler.

It has a position here, it goes in, it locks in that place. We've got our nice, wide, rounded area here to help guide that Gooseneck bolt up an end. Once that's up and end, we just want to pull around the handle and pull rearward and place it in like that. I think this gives us a better grip, so if our trailer is pushed a little further forward, it gives us enough power or enough grip to be able to pull hard enough to get it latched into place there.Now the coupler is going to be serviceable in two locations as well. One's in our pivot handle, we've got a greaser grate down here.

The other's going to be over on our hinge. That keeps everything lubricated nicely and that paired with the already oil impregnated bushings that they use, means we should have years of great service out of this.We're also going to have a hole right here. We can run a lock down through there and that'll prevent anybody from disconnecting the coupler from the ball. Now as far as weight capacities go, there are several available, you just want to ensure that you pick one that matches what your load's going to be and what your trailer's rated for. It's okay to go over.

A Gooseneck that's overbuilt isn't going to necessarily take away from the performance of your trailer, but you certainly wouldn't want to go under your weight rating.The BX1 coupler's in the outer tube are all going to be unfinished when you receive them. This is going to allow you to paint it much more easily to match your trailer and also get it welded on easier, you won't have to grind off any of the old paint. All of the warning labels you can see, they've got a protective cover over them so once you paint it, you can peel that off and all your labels will look really nice.All in all, I really like this coupler, I like the design of the handle. I think that's going to be a little bit easier to use, than some of them that we have available out there. It's going to do a good job, it's going to connect easy with that place.

If I we're putting one on my trailer I think I would go with one that auto-connects, so as you're lowering your trailer down, it automatically latches. That saves you having to get up in the back of the truck but you've got to remember you've got safety chains and wiring that you still have to connect, so if you're going to be in the truck for that anyway, this would be a great way to connect your trailer to your truck.Now your installation process, of course that's going to depend on whether you're getting the outer tube with your coupler or not. If you are getting the outer tube, let's take a look at the front of the trailer here. This is going to be replaced whether you've damaged it, maybe the weld's have broke loose, whatever the situation is, or maybe you're building a new trailer, this is going to added on right to the front. You can see these are usually about the same size, about 20 inches or so outer tube diameter.This one happens to have two set bolts rather than the one that we more typically see, just a little bit more security. Well that's going to be welded on here and placed on so you can then add your coupler into it, paint it down and get it secure. The one thing we highly recommend, the tops on all these are always open, so what we recommend, just like they do in a factory set-up like what we've got here, you're going to weld on a steel plate, you want to cap that off, that prevents moisture from getting down in there, causing the outer tube and the inner tube to rust together.And once our outer tube is set, we'll bring our coupler, just slide that up and in and we'll slide our pin through. The pin's going to be provided. I like having that, this gives us a new fresh set to slide through. Now the bottom of your coupler as you set it, we've got four holes there to pick from so it gives us the eight inches of adjustment. You want the bottom side of the coupler here to most closely match what you had, or if you're trying to level your truck, or if you could just put on a new outer tube, you want to position this so that your trailer sits nice and level when couple.Next we'll have our set bolt, that needs to be run down to where it makes contact with our coupler, then we'll need to torque that down properly. Once that's done, we can get a little jam nut here and run that jam nut down, both of these are going to use an inch and an eighth wrench. That's most typical. So we're going to apply a little bit of torque to that, that'll prevent this bold from loosing up. At that point our coupler's going to be ready for use.That's going to complete our look at the BX1 line from Bulldog.