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No more getting in and out of your truck to mess around with a manual slider. This hitch slides automatically to give you 14" of additional clearance for tight turns whenever you need it. Custom underbed installation kit included.
Features:
Specs:
Note: 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.
Most often used on trucks with 6-1/2' beds, a slider helps to eliminate clearance problems during slow-speed turns. When you are towing a fifth-wheel trailer, your hitch must be situated on the cab side of your truck's rear axle. However, at slow speeds you can use a slider to slide the fifth-wheel hitch (and the trailer) toward your truck's tailgate and past the rear axle, creating enough space between the cab of your truck and the trailer to permit less-restricted turning.
Normally, you'd have to get out of your truck and pull a lever to release the slider before every turn, but what if there was an automatic system? Imagine having 14" of extra clearance while towing your fifth-wheel trailer. Now imagine having this without needing get out of the truck to move your slider. The Demco Autoslide makes this fantasy a reality. The Autoslide automatically glides back smoothly when you make a sharp turn so you can maneuver effortlessly around tight corners within campsites and parking lots.
The base of the Autoslide has a built-in rack-and-pinion gear system that operates automatically. As your truck turns, the pinion in the base also turns. This activates the rack gear, which causes the rotational force of the truck to be converted into the linear sliding action of the hitch. So, when your truck makes a sharp, slow-speed turn, the gears inside the Autoslide force the hitch head to slide down toward your truck's tailgate in a smooth, controlled motion. This way, any time that your truck turns more than 10 to 15 degrees, the Autoslide will ensure that there is enough clearance for your trailer to complete the turn as well, and it will do so without any jerking or binding.
In order for the rack-and-pinion assembly to function as designed, the pin box must be stabilized on the hitch head. Normally in a fifth-wheel hitch, the king pin moves inside of the hitch head so that the trailer can turn. With the Autoslide, the king pin remains fixed inside of the jaws of the hitch and it is the hitch head itself that turns. This is thanks to the capture brackets on the sides of the head that brace the pin box from both sides to hold it in place on top of the hitch head. This is done to ensure that there is enough resistance within the hitch when your truck turns to properly activate the rack-and-pinion gear mechanism.
To stabilize your pin box on the hitch head, simply push the capture brackets up against your pin box once the trailer is coupled and tighten the outer bolts and the inner jam nuts. The Autoslide head and brackets will fit standard pin boxes that are between 12" and 14" wide. If you have a Glide Ride, Mor Ryde, Trailair Tri Glide, Rota Flex, Lippert Road Armor, or 5th Airborne pin box, you must install a special locking plate (sold separately) as well.
When you straighten your rig out again and your trailer moves back in line, the hitch head will rotate back to center and slide back toward the cab into the straight towing position.
The single-piece, strong wraparound jaw completely surrounds your trailer's king pin for 360 degrees of contact. This wraparound jaw provides a more secure connection than standard 2-piece jaws that close in on the king pin from the sides. The increased jaw-to-king-pin contact on the Autoslide offers tighter tolerances around the king pin, which minimizes both rattle and chucking, for a smooth, quiet ride.
A 3/4" solid steel locking bar spans the area in front of the jaw. This bar provides an added barrier of protection against accidental disconnection so you can have peace of mind that your trailer is secure. The locking bar is attached to the jaw and to the spring-loaded handle. The bar automatically locks when the jaw closes around your king pin.
The double pivoting, cushioned head improves your towing experience dramatically by helping to reduce jarring and unwanted noise. Built-in pins allow the hitch head to pivot back and forth and side to side. And hooking up is easy because the hitch head will automatically pivot to the proper angle when it comes into contact with your pin box.
Three polyurethane dampeners help to cushion the movement from the pivoting head and to reduce towing noise. Two of these dampeners are built into the head assembly to cushion the head's side-to-side pivoting. The third dampener cushions the back-and-forth motion and must be installed in the hitch prior to use. Installation of this third dampener is easy - simply press the dampener up into the pre-drilled hole underneath the hitch head.
Easy Installation
The Autoslide hitch installs using the included UMS custom underbed mounting kit. The hitch comes pre-assembled for an easy installation. All you have to do is bolt on the side plates and attach the head to the hitch base.
The side plates have 2 functions. They contain the feet that fit into the receivers in your truck bed, and they allow you to raise or lower the hitch head to better match your pin box height. After you choose your desired height setting, simply bolt the side plates to the hitch base with the included hardware. Then lower the hitch into the 4 UMS receivers in your truck bed. Turn the handles to lock the feet into the receivers and secure the handles with the included safety pins. The hitch can be removed to give you full truck bed access. Simply remove the safety pins, turn the handles to unlock the feet, and lift the hitch out of the receivers.
Clearance Formula for Short Bed Trucks
Use the formula below to ensure there will be enough space between your truck cab and trailer when executing a 90-degree turn.
(A+B) - C = Clearance
A = Distance from the center of fifth-wheel hitch jaw to truck cab
B = Length of Travel (14")
C = Width of trailer divided by 2 (to get half)
For example: If the distance from the center of the hitch to the cab is 36", 36" + 22" = 58". If your fifth-wheel trailer is 102" wide, take half (51"), then plug in: 58" - 51" = 7" of clearance.
Note: At least 4 inches of clearance is recommended to safely execute a 90-degree turn.
Alternate Instructions
California residents: click here
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.
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