Gooseneck Trailer Hitch Installation - 2006 Dodge Ram

Installation of a Gooseneck Trailer Hitch on a 2006 Dodge Ram

First thing to do is lower the spare tire. The next step involved is to go ahead and sliding the rails into the bed of the pickup truck. They will fit in between the bed and the frame. What we will do is slide them sideways and once we get them in place we will flip them up to the right side up. We also installed one bolt loosely in the rail because we will use that when we want to attach the head assembly on. The bolt has to be facing this way because once we have it in place we will not be able to tighten it down or get to it very well. Also there are two different lengths as well. The short one goes in the front and long one goes towards the rear. Next we will go ahead, since we have the rails in there, we will flip them up into position. The stickers will tell you which way to go with it. Next step involved is to go ahead and mark the bed so we can drill our hole in the center of the bed. The instructions will tell you exactly what to do, basically you will get a measurement from the rear of the bed to right above the axle and center it left to right. Once you do that, you go ahead and make a punch mark and get ready to drill it out. In this case were going to go ahead and punch it out and drill a small hole just to make sure this is a spray on bed liner.

We will save drilling our 4 inch hole for last just to make sure we have centered it with the rails underneath first. Next we will install the side brackets temporarily on the cross members. Get them into the position they are supposed to be in on its final assembly then we will double check the spacing on the bars with the hole we drilled in the bed of the pickup. That way we know everything is in its right place and it is safe to drill out our 4 inch hole. Now we will go to the other side and do the same thing. Now that we have our brackets in place, you get a good idea on how things are falling together now. Now we will go ahead and go under the truck and compare the hole we drilled to the placement on the bars. Alright, we have our rails in place, were going to take a look at how the drilled hole ends up between the rails. It looks like its offset. A measurement shows its approximately about 2 1/8 inches from center to the side here. Which is going to be okay because upon inspection of the head assembly, its offset towards the rear of the vehicle too, compared to the instructions. So we will go ahead and measure the head assembly just to verify it. We have the head assembly on the floor here positioned as it would be on the truck. This is the front and this is the rear, as you can see its offset. We measured from here to here and it comes to about 2 1/8 inches. So it looks like it is going to be in the right spot. What we did next is we went ahead and moved the bars out of the way before we drill our hole out. We are going to use a 4 inch hole saw and drill the hole out. What were going to do now is go ahead and the head assembly it helps to have someone up on top. What is good about that is that you can put this in, he can grab it by the hitch ball and help pull it up while you put the bolts in.

Once you have it set up in there, you can go ahead and run the rest of your bolts in and check for alignment. Once you have the bolts set in, make sure they are all seated like they are supposed to be. Then get them all hand tight, snug them up and make sure everything is as it should be and then we can finish the install on our side brackets. What we need to do next is go ahead and installing the straps that hold the brackets in place. The wiring is going to be in the way so were going to move that first then sneak our bracket underneath it. The wire will get tied back into place. We will go ahead and move over to the passenger side and install the brackets there. Once you have your brackets installed with the clamps and the bolts all inside and everything, finger tight maybe to them for one or two turns just to snug them up. What will happen is we will have it practically together, but you still have room for adjustment. The bracket will move a little from left to right, and you want to have it even on both sides. If you notice on the bracket it will not straddle the cut out on the frame perfect on each side. Every model is just a little bit different. In this case it sits towards the back a little bit. All you can do is center it on both sides as best as you can, just by wrapping it with a mallet. You just need to find the happy medium. Then you go to the other side to make sure the spacing is even on both sides. Now let us start tightening our bolts down.

Once we have the side brackets torqued down, then we move on to the cross members with the head assembly and torque those down next. The last thing we have to tighten down is the cross members to the frame brackets. Next thing we will do is go ahead and the handle for the locking mechanism. It simply just goes in and threads in to a tube, which actually pulls the pin out to release the ball. It just threads in and then we will lock it to hold it in place. Once you have your handle run in about half way, you might want to take a couple tests with it to make sure it is working the way you have it. Make sure you have enough clearance to pull it out and enough clearance for the tire too. One thing also this would be a good time to install the sticker that tells you when it is in the locked or unlocked position. Once you get your handle threaded in, ran in about half way or so, make note of the pin position going into the ball. Right now it is in the unlocked position so set your handle accordingly to where the sticker says it is in the unlocked position. When you have set like that go ahead and tighten down these nuts here to set it in position and give a couple of tries to see that you have plenty of clearance to work the handle. Next is to install the safety chain kit. By following the instructions that came with the rail kit, four holes need to be drilled out and we use the ones closest to the ball on this particular occasion. The head assembly will act as a template, so we just drill right through the bed.

Once you have your holes drilled from the bottom, it would be a good idea to go from the top down now just to even it out a bit. Sometimes your angle of the drill will not be quite accurate up and down so you go from top down and straighten them out that way maybe go in a circular motion that will give you a little extra play in there so the bolts will work up and down easier like they should. Once we have our U-bolts fed into place we will go ahead and put the tension springs on. It is pretty simple, we put them on there and thread the nut on turn them about two or three turns showing and that is all it takes. Once you get your U-bolts installed, it is a good idea to go ahead and check over the operation one more time. So let us go ahead and unlock the ball and see if it works. Now lock it back up, and it looks like it works. One nice thing about it, when you are not using the hitch, you can take the ball and store it back upside down inside. Which is fine as long as you do not put any weight there to mash down the suspension because of course your differential is down there. Another nice thing about that is it comes with a little cover that will keep most of the dust, dirt and grime out of there when you are not using it. It kind of gives it a nice trim finish to it. Or you can just simply leave it like that and keep the ball inside the truck at all times which is your better option. That concludes our install of this hitch. It went pretty smoothly, one thing you can think about is if you have a in bed liner, all the principles stay the same except for measuring the hole you probably want to uninstall it, make your measurement and then drill your holes out in your bed liner as your last option.