Fifth Wheel Base Rail Kit Installation - 2004 Ford F-150

Installation of a Fifth Wheel Base Rail Kit on a 2004 Ford F-150

Today on this 2004 Ford F-150 we are going to install part number RP30080, we are also going to install part number 49080 from Draw-Tite. This is their Pro Series 25K gooseneck plate for fifth wheel rails. The first thing we need to do is get the vehicle up in the air a little bit to lower the suspension so it will be easier to get to the frame and tighten the bolts. We also lowered the spare tire too to give us a little extra room if we need to. The first thing we are going to do is mark our location for our rail that goes towards the back of the bed and we are going to measure from the back edge of the bed itself up to the back edge of the rail as described in the instructions. We are going to take our rail and line it up with those two marks and then you want to even it out left and right. 00:44

Once we have the rails set then we will mark and drill out our pilot holes. Now we will center punch our marks to make it easier for us to drill into the steel. Lets give it a test fit for our bracket. When we hold the bracket up one of these two holes, it does not matter which one, is going to line up with this hole here. Then do that and see which lines up the best, it looks like it is going to be this one here and we are going to check with our alignment with our hole we drilled in the bed. Now we are going to drill out our holes to their final size. We are going to start off with a 3/ 8 bit and then work our way up to a 17/ 32. Set the rail back into place, we will put these U shaped spacers underneath there around the hole to help keep from crushing the bed. 01:40

This one here will sit up a little bit because it is on an angle so probably put it as far as you can up there and then it actually will press into the bed a little bit as it is tightened down. We will slide the bracket on to the bolt and we will secure it with a conical tooth washer and then a lock washer on top of that and then the nut. What we need to do next is run the hardware from the inside of the frame to the bracket. To do that in the access hole there is one further up in the frame towards the tail gate we can also take off this jounce stop here and that will give us access for both brackets on the side of the vehicle. When we install our hardware we are going to fish wire it through and normally that is going to be the block and carriage bolt however on this application there are special washers we have to add in addition. That special washer is going to fit inside the hole just like this and it is going to take up the gap for the bolts so it does not move around. There are two different sizes, there is a small one for the back here and there is a large one that goes up towards the front of the vehicle. We are going to take our wire pull which comes with the kit and we are going to put it through the hole that we are going to use. We are going to run it towards the access hole, the jounce stop. We are going to put the washer on first, then the block, then thread on the bolt. We will push one in at a time. 03:03

On the bolt it is probably easier to put it in head first, pull it on through. You can move the bracket around and see how the washer gets into place and then we will slide on a lock washer and thread on the nut. Then just repeat for the other side. If you end up having a hard time keeping that special washer inside of the frame and not between the bracket and the frame try clamping it in place, the whole bracket to keep it from moving around and then pull it on through and then put your hardware into place. We can snug this bolt down just enough to hold everything together so we can take the clamp back off and repeat it for the other side. On the other bolt lets put the flat washer and a lock washer and nut with that. Now set the second rail into place. We are going to use the hitch to do that with. We have got it loosely installed and you have some movement with it. You want to make sure it is square with the front rail so we will take some measurements to make sure everything is correct. Just like before we will mark the holes to find the center. We will punch it and then drill it out. Lets put the two set kits back in to help us guide it down to install the brackets and snug them down as well. Now we will start installing our brackets like we did for the back rail. We will clamp it to hold everything together while we run the hardware into place. Then we will do just like before and run the hardware in with a fish wire and out the access hole at the bottom of the frame. 04:44

We will move to the bolt on the other side of the hat channel and then install the flat washer, lock washer, and nut. We have got the bracket done on the driver side and now we will go back over to the passenger side and repeat the same process. That will do it for fasteners for now and we will end up having to drill out a couple of more holes here and here and installing more hardware but we can leave that step for one of the last steps. We will now start snugging down the frame brackets to the rails on the top. We will snug them down and we will keep checking the hitch for fit as we go along. Next we will torque down the bolts as specified in the instructions and now that we have got our base rails tightened down to the frame brackets properly now we will tighten down the frame brackets to the frame. On each bracket we are going to drill out another hole and install the hardware. We are going to use the hole that is farthest away from the bolt that has previously been installed. We are going to use our 17/ 32 drill bit, use that to mark the center of the hole and do that on both of them and then we will drill out our pilot hole and come back through with the 17/ 32. Run the bolt leader in and out the access hole at the bottom here. This time it is just going to be the block, no special washer, and carriage bolt. Go on to the next bracket. Now you can reinstall the jounce stops. With that last part reinstalled we are finished and there you have it for part number RP30080.