Today on our 2011 GMC Sierra 2500 Short Bed, well be installing the Draw-Tite Hide-A-Goose Kit, part number 9465-56. Weve already removed the spare tire, two rear wheels and the exhaust for more working room. Our next step will be to cut the heat shield on the passengers side. At the rear side, well cut just in front of the hat channel here. Moving forward, well cut behind the hat channel here. Ill go ahead and make a mark on the heat shield to better illustrate where well be cutting.
To cut our shield, well be using a 4-inch cutting wheel. However, you can also use tin snips if need be. With the heat shield trimmed and out of the way, were ready to drill our gooseneck hole in the bed. Well need to measure out the point where well drill. Well measure from the edge of the bed as per the instructions for the short bed model.
Well also measure wheel well to wheel well to ensure were centered. At this point, weve already pre-drilled our pilot hole and well proceed with drilling our final hole. Now, were going to loosen the bed of the truck to help with clearance when installing our head assembly and crossrail. Well remove the four bed bolts on the passengers side and loosen them on the drivers side. Once thats done, well lift the bed up using a block of wood to hold it up while we slide our crossrails into place.
Before we do that though, well loosely assemble the crossrails and head assembly. Weve determined from our instruction that this is our front crossrail due to the location of the holes and that this is our rear crossrail due to the slotted holes here. We also know our head assembly is facing the proper direction due to the release mechanism location here which should be on the drivers side. After aligning our holes for the rear crossrail, well take our 5/8 by 2-1/2-inch carriage bolts and slide them into place. Well slide our front crossrail over the hitch after lining up the two square holes here well put the carriage bolts into place.
Well then use our conical toothed washers with the teeth of the washer facing the head assembly and the nuts. Now, we can slip the head assembly in between the bed and the frame of the truck, making sure that the head assembly lines up with the hole we drilled. Next, well remove the block and let the bed of the truck back down. Now, we can install our side brackets on the passengers side here. Well put them into place using the crossrail studs. Moving towards the rear of the bracket, well install our fastener there. Well use the 2-5/8 carriage bolt and spacer block with the fish wire and pull them into place. Well first take our fish wire and route it through the attachment point to the outside access hole on the other side of the frame. Well then slip on our block and thread in our bolt and pull them into place. Well then remove the fish wire and secure the bolt in place with the conical toothed washer and nut, again making sure that the teeth of the washer face the bracket. Now, for the front hole well take our 1/2-inch spacer block, feeding it between the frame and the bracket. Well then line it up with the front hole and thread our fish wire through to the access hole on the other side of the frame. Well then attach our 1 by 3-inch spacer block and thread on our bolt. Once this is done well pull them into position. Once in position, well again use a conical toothed washer and nut to loosely secure them into position. Now, we can put the two conical toothed washers over the studs of our crossrails and thread on the two nuts. With that done, well now proceed to the drivers side and repeat the same process with that bracket. Once this is accomplished, well tighten down the bolts for the side brackets first then the head assembly and torque them down to specifications as indicated in the instructions. Our next step is to install the handle for our gooseneck hitch. Push the handle through from the drivers side. We can then line up the holes on the head assembly and handle and then well install the cutter pin. Now, we can tighten the bed back down. With that done, well move on to the safety chain loops. Well drill our holes out for that at the lower side of the corrugation through the slotted holes in the head assembly. Well be using a step drill process starting with the pilot hole and gradually working our way up to the final size. Well drill our pilot hole underneath and then come up on top of the bed and finish drilling to the proper size. With the drilling finished, well take our U-bolts and drop them into position. Now, well venture back under the bed and install our fasteners and springs. Well start with the spring, then the washer and nut loosely fitting them into place. Well then tighten down the nuts until one to two threads of the U-bolt are protruding past the nut. We can the repeat this for the remaining U-bolt attachment point. And that will do it for the install of part number 9465-56, the Draw-Tite Hide-A-Goose Kit on our 2011 GMC Sierra.
Gooseneck Trailer Hitch Installation - 2012 GMC Sierra
Today on our 2011 GMC 2500, well be installing the Blue Ox Diamond Hitch part number DH1308. Now weve already gone ahead and removed our spare tire and the two rear wheels and tires from the vehicle. This truck has had some slight modifications with the exhaust so were gonna go ahead and drop it at each of the attachment points to the frame. Were gonna undo the flinch here with the two bolts then well remove the insulator from our pipe and work our way back on the truck, removing all six insulators holding our exhaust up. Now weve already removed our wheels and tires, weve dropped our spare tire and weve dropped our exhaust. Were now ready to begin our install.
Gooseneck Trailer Hitch Installation - 2002 GMC Sierra
Today on a 2002 GMC Sierra, were going to install Curts Double Lock Gooseneck Hitch using part number C600-652. Alright what we have done so far is remove the rear wheels and the spare tire. Now you dont have to remove the rear wheels, but it makes it easier to get access to the frame and get in there and see what is going on. So after that our first step is going to be to cut our a piece of heat shield. This is the section we are going to have to remove for the heat shield, from here to here, because our hitch is going to sit right in this spot. And to make things easier there, we will loosen up the truck bed, and tilt it up so that we can get to it.
Gooseneck Trailer Hitch Installation - 2006 GMC Sierra
Today we are going to be installing Hide-a-Goose part number 9465-4434 on a 2006 GMC Sierra 2500. The first thing we want to do is to go ahead and lower the spare tire. That will give us a lot more room to install the gooseneck system. The second step is to go ahead and cut out a section of the heat shield, which is basically forward of the axle in between the two hat channels, which is basically parallel to the gas tank as well. We need to go ahead and cut that section out to allow us to get the crossmembers into place. OK, with that section of the heat shield removed, we want to next go inside the bed. And we are going to go ahead and mark and then drill our hole for the opening in the Hide-a-Goose system. You want to check with your directions to verify the appropriate dimension that you are going to be drilling from. On this particular short-bed model, we are going to go ahead and mark from the end of the bed at 44-1/2 inches, and then we just want to center that in between the two wheel wells, which will land us right in the center of this rib here. And with my dimensions marked out, I am just going to go ahead and center punch that location, and then we are going to go ahead and drill out our 3-1/2 inch hole.
Gooseneck Trailer Hitch Installation - 2005 GMC Sierra
Today we are going to install part number 9465 our gooseneck head assembly. We will also be installing a rail kit which is part number 4434 for our 2005 GMC Sierra pickup 3500. The first step involved would be to make room for the install kit and rails. What happens is this heat shield needs to be removed. We are going to take it out from this section to this beam here. To make it easier maybe go all the way this far back. But for necessity purposes we need from here to here for the rails. We cut out our heat shield and left an inch or so hanging off. We took a rubber mallet and beat it back and keep it away from the sharp edges as much as possible. Our next step will be to loosen the bed so we can slide the rails underneath the truck. There are 2 options on how you will do this part.
