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Backing into campsites or maneuvering around pumps is easy with the automatic 14" slider. The hitch head glides toward the tailgate when you turn and back toward the cab when you straighten, giving you the clearance needed for short-bed setups without ever leaving the driver’s seat. The rack-and-pinion gears create smooth, controlled motion every time, so slow-speed turns feel natural and stress-free.
The premium single-hook jaw wraps completely around the king pin for 360-degree contact, cutting down on rattle and providing a rock-solid link to your trailer. A 3/4" thick solid steel locking bar reinforces that connection and automatically locks in place when the jaw closes. It’s a heavy-duty setup that feels tight and steady when you pull out on the highway.
Inside the double-pivot hitch head are three polyurethane dampeners that absorb road shock and tone down towing noise. The head pivots both front to back and side to side, helping your trailer follow smoothly over uneven pavement while easing hookup by tilting naturally as you back in. The result is a quieter, more controlled ride with less chucking through the truck frame.
Dial in your height for a level trailer setup using one of three hitch-head positions—15-1/2", 16-3/4", or 18-1/4". The side plates bolt directly to the base to hold your chosen height firmly, keeping bed rail clearance right where you need it. Once set, the hitch stays locked into its underbed receivers for towing and lifts out cleanly when you want full bed space.
This all-steel hitch is rated for 18,000 lbs gross towing weight and a 4,500 lbs vertical load limit. The black powder coat adds rust resistance to that strength, giving you consistent performance on big hauls trip after trip. It’s a dependable base for anyone pulling heavy fifth wheels who wants both stability and confidence mile after mile.
This fifth-wheel trailer hitch is not compatible with Sidewinder or Revolution king pins. Do not use any device that changes the pivot point of your trailer’s king pin with this hitch.
Alternate Instructions
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi there Silverado owners. Today on our 2018 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 we're going to be installing Demco's Underbed Rail Installation Kit for the Demco Hijacker 5th Wheel or Gooseneck. If have a gooseneck trailer, the underbed rail kit will also work with Demco's Hijacker Gooseneck Hitches. This underbed rail kit is going to allow you to install a Demco 5th wheel or a gooseneck hitch on your Silverado.With your new 5th wheel or gooseneck hitch installed you can haul that toy hauler, or 5th wheel trailer that you've been wanting to haul, or you can go ahead and put it to work out at the job site. The rails will work with any Demco Hijacker 5th wheel or gooseneck hitch. You'll want to make sure you pick the appropriate hitch for your needs.One of the things that I really like about this kit is that it installs underneath your bed so when you take your 5th wheel or gooseneck out you have a nice clean look.
Unlike raised rails that will stick up above your bed.I also like how easy it is to install. You use the existing holes in your frame so there's no drilling required, which really cuts down on the install time and the amount of fatigue you're going to have putting it in.Another thing I really like about this kit is that it'll allow you to use the Demco Hijacker 5th wheel, which works out great for tighter turns than you'll get with other ones. Especially if you have a short bed truck due to it's auto slide feature.We'll begin our installation in the bed of our truck by marking out the locations where we're going to drill to install our underbed rails. These measurements are going to vary depending on the length of the bed of your truck so you'll want to closely look at those measurements and mark it out like we've got here. You'll find specific measurements for your truck in your instructions.Well now I need to drill four holes using a two-inch hole saw.
We're going to do it at each corner where we marked. You can see this in the diagram in your instructions. We'll now repeat that for the three remaining holes. With all of our holes drilled out we can clean up the metal shavings now. Then we'll use some clear coat to prevent any rust and corrosion around our exposed metal where we drilled.
You can use some general purpose cleaner to clean off any of the markings that you made when determining where your hole location should be.Now that we've completed all the cutting we need to do in the bed, we can begin mounting our underbed rails. We're going to start with the side rails that are going to mount onto our frame here. Your rails are going to be labeled. We're on the passenger side. We've grabbed our passenger side side rail here.
We'll be using four of the longer bolts that come in your kit with hex heads. We'll then prepare these by placing lock washers and flat washers on them. We'll have four like this, for each side, prepared to install the rail onto the side of the frame by setting it on there and matching up the holes that's already existing in your frame, with the holes on our side rail. You'll see it's already got weld nuts in it. You simply take your bolt, slide it through and thread it into the frame. We're going to do this with the remaining three holes that have weld nuts. We'll repeat this on the other side.For our third holes that don't have weld nuts, we'll use the fish wire provided in the kit. We're going to go through the hole until it comes out the other side of the frame. You might have to finagle it around to get it through the other side. Then on the other side of your frame, we're going to slide a spacer over our fish wire. Then thread one of the carriage bolts, that come in the kit, onto the fish wire. First you'll feed in your spacer, then your bolt, then we'll just pull them through till it comes out the other side. Once you've got it pulled through, we'll place a nut on this side. We're going to repeat this with the other hole on this side and the two on the other side.You'll receive blue Loctite in your kit. You want to make sure you put some of that on all of your bolts.Next we'll be sliding our cross rails from one side of the frame across to the other but in order to get them to fit you are going to have to cut out a small section here. You don't need to cut it completely out. We're actually just going to cut it straight up. We're just going to go up like this. We're going to just be doing this around the section where you see the slits in your side rail. You want to make sure it's wide enough to fit your cross rail in. It's about three and a half inches. If you cut it there you could check to see if it'll fit. You may need to notch the sheet metal here at the bottom as well, in order to get it to fit.Now if it does get tight when pushing it in, you may need to loosen the bolts to your truck bed to get the extra clearance or if it's really close, like ours is, you could just take a piece of wood or a rubber mallet and tap it in. We're going to do the exact same process for our front rail. With both of our rails in place we can take the hardware that comes in our kit. We're going to be using the shorter large diameter hex head bolts with a flat washer on it. This is going to slide up through our slide rail. We're going to place a spacer plate underneath the rail. This has got to go through the front most hole, through the side rail, through your spacer plate and then into your cross rail. On the top we're going to place a nut. We're going to repeat that for the three remaining holes for both of your cross rails.We'll now tighten down all of our hardware using a one-inch socket. You may need a one-inch wrench to hold the nuts on some of them. Before you torque everything down, it's not a bad idea to take your 5th wheel, set it onto your base rails, to make sure that it's going to line up properly. If everything then you can go back and torque all the hardware to the specifications found in your instructions. If your 5th wheel doesn't fit you may need to loosen the hardware and slightly shift the rails until it lines up. Now with your rails torqued down you can install your Demco 5th wheel or gooseneck and hit the road.That completes our installation of Demco's Underbed Rail Installation Kit for the Demco Hijacker 5th Wheel and Gooseneck on your 2018 Chevrolet Silverado.
Ratings & Reviews
Arrived quickly. Heavy duty hitch. Folks at E-trailer kept me updated and were polite and professional when I spoke with them on the phone. Installing myself so going slow but I have the time.
When you use google chrome it does not move you to the next page to custom fit.
So it just tells you your truck shows you the product and I order 6k worth of items without putting in the custom specs that you don't know to hit. Somehow with the info I put in my two other products work but this one doesn't and I have to pay for shipping to this to fix it. Wish if you ordered 6k worth of Items they would be a little more understanding that their site does not walk you what needs to be done and help you fix the problem without charging you more. Prep and Puck systems are two different things now I know.
First package was destroyed in shipping, all hardware was missing, called etrailer forgot her name ( sorry ) very polite. she ordered all the correct hardware needed and had it shipped out. Except for the shipping was very pleased with etrailer.
2003 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD 4x4 extended bed Duramax
Kit made for my rig and fit as described. Installation a little on the difficult side for your typical DIY'er.
Hitch works perfectly. The auto slide is awesome! Very well built. Very heavy. Not something you want to be taking in and out of your bed all the time. My only complaint is that you have to be pretty straight when you hook or unhook the camper.
Seems to be very well made and high quality. Definitely takes two to lift up and into position. Minimal work required to get this slider running as it’s nearly all preassembled from the factory. Just needs the locking pin rails installed. I installed mine on the medium height setting and it has worked out very well so far with my 2020 F-250 shortbed.
Merchandise arrived in good condition. Nothing missing. The shipping carton was in terrible condition. It was torn open from shipping, however nothing was missing or damaged . The product will fill my needs to replace the above bed rails that don't leave a clean bed when fifth wheel is removed. This will fill the bill. Thanks to Etrailer this will work perfectly for my Demco hijacker fifth wheel. Shipment was quick delivery.
The star rating is a 5, Review for etrailer is the date promised on delivery was right on, delivered direct to installer and the Product Demco slide hitch is all that Demco claims it does.
Smooth operation and being a auto slider you just hook up and don’t have to worry about sending the trailer through the cab of your short bed truck because you forgot to unlock your slider. It’s pretty awesome.
Very good fifth wheel. No problems works good. have used it alot since installed cannot hook up to trail air with out plate being installed on trailer hitch
The Demco Autoslide is the only way to go for a 5th wheel hitch for a short bed truck. The extra 14" of travel is great. Left me truck almost 90 degrees. It was even easy to install by yourself with a lot help from another person.
So pleased with this hitch! Works great on my 2015 F250 short bed. Works well with my retractable tonneau cover, fits under perfectly on the low adjustment points. If you have a short bed this hitch is the one to have.
etrailer customer service was awesome as usual!
The instructions provided with the hitch were very detailed and provided enough information for me to install it myself. I love having the mounting rails below the bed. the auto slide worked flawlessly. For the winter I left the hitch coupled with the trailer to keep my bed clear.
Hello,
This hitch has been awesome. It works perfectly all the time. My only gripe would be that the head doesn’t fall down automatically. I have to get out of the truck to tilt it down when connecting to my trailer. Other than that, I’m very satisfied with the design and operation of the hitch.
Thank You
Really like our Demco hitch, had some issues with chunking when turning, took to Demco in Iowa when passing through and they completely refurbished and readjusted to bring up to their new specs. Would deffenately buy another Demco Autoslider!
Love this hitch! Works great in 2019 F250 CC w/short bed, I can turn 90 degrees and still miss cab of truck. No problems latching and unlatching as long as everything is fairly level. I installed hitch with under bed kit by myself, wasn't too bad. I've had hitch for a year now with no problems. I would recommend Demco Hijacker Autoslide hitch.
INVOLVED INSTALLATION BUT VERY STURDY. COMES OUT EASY BUT A LITTLE
DIFFICULT TO DROP INTO THE RECEIVER HOLES IN EXTREME TEMPERATURES
DUE TO DIFFERENTIAL METAL EXPANSION IN MY AREA , NORTHERN NH
Thomas S.
2/7/2019
THE BEST FUNCTIONAL SHORT BED 5th WHEEL HITCH OUT THERE BUT ALSO THE HEAVIEST AND THE MOST DIFFICULT TO REMOVE AND REINSTALL. I HAD TO TAKE IT TO A GARAGE TO REMOVE IT AND AGAIN TO REINSTALL IT. I JUST LEAVE IT IN THE TRUCK BED NOW RATHER THAN FIGHT WITH IT.
Overall I love the auto slider mount and it works as advertised. Easy to hook up and unhook. Just have to make sure your truck is in a straight line with the RV when unhooking because you don’t want to leave this thing turned or it can be very hard to hook back up. I learned this the hard way. Turning it by hand does not work either.
The plastic inserts to cover the holes when the mount is removed don’t work because the holes are too shallow on my F250,, but that makes no difference to me because the mount is way to heavy to remove anyway. The only thing that does bother me is the rust. I have used a wire brush and rustoleum paint on several spots now. Perhaps better rust proofing would be something the company could look into for future mounts. I mounted mine in a 2017 F250 with the 6.5’ bed and added a toolbox in front of it. Had to go with the in-bed box because my rv would have hit one of the boxes that sits on top of the bed. When backing up and turning my RV (Grand Design Reflection 307MKS) misses the cab by a good 3 inches. Installation of the mount rails that go under the bed was time consuming, not much room to use a wrench under there so each bolt took a while to tighten into place. The slider is big and heavy so it was a chore getting it dropped into the holes, I got 3 big guys to help out with that part. If I had to do it again I would not have done this install myself, I would have found a shop to do it prior to buying the RV. But I already bought the RV and could not wait for a shop to get it done.
I ordered the Demco autoslide and underbed rail kit for a 2018 Silverado 2500HD. The entire thing is a very solid build quality. There is a YouTube video for the underbed rail instalation kit. Follow that step by step and with some mechanical knowledge you should be good to go. Overall I am very satisfied with etrailer's customer service and their products.
this hitch works as advertised.was a great suggestion. very heavy duty and well constructed! never have to leave the cab to release the slide just drive! custom fit under bed rails worked perfect on my 2016 f 250.no drilling frame rails. installed it myself. i am a.s.e. master auto / truck mechanic.every one at e trailer was very help full when i called with questions.they did as they said they would.was so pleased with every thing.i purchased a hitch for the front of the same truck.it to works as as it should also. thanks!
Buddy
Buddy R.
3/24/2019
good happy with the whole set up.had a small issue that demco remedied swiftly.only other thing is the finish does not seam to last.it is covered when not in use and it chips and rust,s easily
This was the best solution for my Dodge RAM 2500 towing my Alliance 340RL 38' 5th Wheel. My son helped me install the rails under the bed and now it is very easy to remove the hitch when I am not using it. It is very strong and I highly recommend this for anyone with a short bed truck.
Arrived right on time, Sales associate very knowledgeable and completed my order with Ease.
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Andy
3/15/2022
The Demco hijacker 18 K I think is the best hedge out there by far three different height settings and the auto slider part of it is awesome haven’t had an issue at all