Gooseneck Trailer Hitch Installation - 2001 Dodge Ram Pickup 2500

Installation of a Gooseneck Trailer Hitch on a 2001 Dodge Ram Pickup 2500

Today on this 2001 Dodge Ram eight foot bed 2500 series we are going to install gooseneck hitch part number 9460-39. We need to do a couple of things first to get ready to install this hitch. First off we need to lower the spare tire so we have room to work underneath. Second, the fender well has a plastic cover on the inside. We need to remove that so we can get room for the side brackets to install those into the frame. First we will take off the mud flap and then we will take out the fender liner. After you drill out these two rivets you are going to need a right angle drill. These rivets never seem to do too much work so they just pop right off. This will be reinstalled once we get done. Next we are going to lower our exhaust. We are going to just take these rubber hangers, spray them down with some lubricant, and slide them off and push them off to the side. Also to take note this is an after market exhaust, basically the hitch is designed for stock exhaust in figurations. 01:16

Sometimes the after market, the bend is not quite the same and it may interfere with the hitch. In that case that you do run into that the second stop after getting the hitch installed will be to the exhaust shop and have the exhaust modified so you have plenty of clearance. We have got our cross members out of the kit. Before we install these in the truck we are going to take some time out and run the nuts on these threads. The threads have been painted up with a powder coat too so it is kind of a bear to get them on there with a powder coat on there so it easier to get them started and cleaned off first and then install the rails. Do this on all four of the bolts. We have got our two cross members here laid out on the ramp and just to give you an idea of how they are getting installed in on top of the frame is it is going to look like this. This vertical severance here is going to point towards the back and this flat surface with these holes will point towards the top. Then on the front one it is going to be the same thing again but the vertical surface is going to go towards the front of the vehicle and of course the holes and the slots will be facing towards the top of the vehicle. 02:28

They are pretty much identical so you can flip flop these around and we will mark this one as our front and we will claim this one as our back. We will start with the rear cross member. Again make sure this is pointing out towards the back of the truck. So we are going to take the driver side, put it up first, next to this front hat channel and take the other half and push it towards the back hat channel and just drag it back in position. Do the same thing again with the front one. This is where it helps to have the exhaust out of the way too. Next we will install our side bracket. The cross members will go in these two holes here and this hole and this hole are going line up with the existing holes that are in the frame of the vehicle. The cross members are laying flat on the frame so when you push it up in position and have the cross members in the right spot, you can see how the frame bracket will line up with the hole in the frame. Loosely put the hardware on the cross member and then we will work on the bolts that go into the side of the frame. We are going to install the flat washer, lock washer, and the nut. We are going to get these on the best we can finger tight. Once we have got those started we will push the bracket against the frame and we will start installing the hardware into the bracket and frame. From the inside of the frame pointing out we are going to install the 1/ 2 inch bolt and the flat washer. Then we will do a conical tooth washer and then the nut and we are going to run those together finger tight. Do the same thing going towards the front of the vehicle. With that, that finishes the passenger side of the vehicle. 04:25

Now we are going to go over to the driver side and repeat that same process all over again. We will measure for the hole in the bed. We will go up to the center rib, get the tape pointing down and we will measure back as described in the instructions. In this case it is going to be 45-1/ 2 inches. Always refer to your instructions. Once we find that mark we will go side to side to find the exact center. Measure across to find the center is going to be about 50 inches between the fender wells so mark that. Now we will drill it out and compare it to the brackets underneath and make sure it is in the proper placing. This is the pilot hole we just drilled. You notice between the rails here and here it is actually off set toward the front. That is okay because the head assembly is off set towards the front too. We have got that checked out okay so now we will drill out our larger sized hole. Next we can install our hitchs head assembly. So we are going to install the five inch carriage bolts into the slots. When we put everything up it is going to be sitting up like so. Then our hitch head assembly is going to use these four holes here. Also an idea is to keep your bolts pointing straight down. It is going to use a socket and then we are going to put it between the frame and a cross member to hold it in its approximate position. Then it will be a little easier to install the head assembly. Now we have got it held up by two nuts and the other two will be easier to put on the flat washer and nut. Now go back to the first two and put the flat washers in. Next we are going to snug up the bolts part of the way so we still have some room to move it back and forth and then we will align it with the hole and then we will tighten it down. We have still got it loose but pretty close so lets move it back and forth and center up the way we want it. You might have to make a couple of trips back and forth to make sure you have it straight. 06:47

Once you have the head assembly snugged up to the cross bar it should come through the bottom of the bed as we see here. The next thing we can do is snug down the bolts that go from the frame into the frame brackets. Then after you have them snugged down we can torque the 1/ 2 inch bolts down as specified in the instructions. Then we will move on to the cross members that go to the frame bracket. These bolts that go from the frame brackets to the cross members, snug those and torque those down too. Lastly we can torque down our bolts to our connector head assembly to the cross bars. Next we can install our handles which is pretty easy. We are just going to slide it over the frame rail, we are going to install it back to the handle assembly, this is the handle assembly right here, and we are going to install a small little hitch pin and that clips it together. Next what we need to do is drill holes for the U bolts. Just to show you where the U bolts are going to go, they are going to go in these two slots right here where you have got the U bolt upside down. What we want to do is look for a corrugation that comes down. We are going to drill through that so on the top side this will fit down into the corrugation. We will test fit with some U bolts. One of these U bolts has one leg longer than the other. The intent is that if you have something underneath the truck that is in the way, you can use the shorter leg to compensate to that so it does not bounce off the exhaust or the gas tank for example. It looks pretty good, we will go back underneath the truck and install the hardware for the U bolts. To install our hardware we are going to install the spring first and then the flat washer and then the lock nut. Do the same thing on the other side. To tighten this lock nut we will have about two to three threads past and that is all we need. With that our hitch is completely installed and the next thing we need to do is reinstall the exhaust, put the spare tire in, and reinstall the fender wells.