This hitch is rated for 21,000 lbs gross towing weight and a 4,000 lbs vertical load limit. Its sturdy steel construction and solid locking bar give you strong, consistent coupling when pulling heavy 5th wheels. The rust-resistant black powder coat finish adds durability that stands up to regular towing.
When backing into tight campsites or making sharp turns, the manual slider gives you 14" of fore/aft travel to help keep the trailer clear of the cab. It moves smoothly at slow speeds so you can maneuver without worry. This setup is designed for use on truck beds shorter than 8' and not recommended for beds shorter than 6' long.
The single-piece wraparound jaw provides 360-degree contact around the king pin for less rattle and a more stable towing feel than slide-bar jaws. A 3/4" thick solid steel locking bar reinforces that hold once the jaw closes automatically. Polyurethane bumpers between components help absorb road shock and reduce noise for a smoother ride.
The double-pivot hitch head moves front-to-back and side-to-side to make lining up easier on uneven ground. You can set it at 18-3/8", 19-5/8", or 20-7/8" tall to fit your trailer’s needs and maintain level towing. The spring-loaded handle with a comfort grip and tethered safety pin let you lock it open or closed quickly when coupling or uncoupling.
The Demco Recon hitch itself can be assembled and installed in about 30 minutes. It connects to base rails that use a compatible installation kit (sold separately). The hitch breaks into two main sections—the head unit weighing about 55 lbs and the slider base about 165 lbs—making removal manageable when you need to clear your bed space.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi there, I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Today we're gonna take a quick look at this Demco Recon manual slide fifth wheel trailer hitch. Now this fifth wheel hitch is going to mount in your short bed truck so that you can tow your fifth wheel trailer. This does have the manual slide that will allow you to, when you are coming into a a tight situation where you're needing more clearance for your trailer, you can very simply get out of your truck, pull this into the slide position, and then that's going to allow this to slide up to 14 inches towards your tailgate, again, providing that additional clearance that you need so that you're not making contact between your trailer and your cab. And then once you get everything straightened back out, get back out, slide that back into the lock position so that the weight is distributed over your axle for your normal travel speeds. So this is designed for your six and a half foot truck beds.
This will work with your standard 12 to 14 inch wide pin box. It's not gonna work or be compatible with your rotating pin boxes because this is going to have kind of a its own pivot point. It's not gonna work with a rotating pin box. That would cause multiple pivot points, could end up causing a bind and safety issues. So definitely just want a standard pin box for this.
This is going to have a a very sturdy steel construction. It's made here in the USA. It does also have this rust resistant black powder coat finish, so that's gonna help prevent rust and corrosion. And that steel construction is going to give us the 21,000 pound gross towing weight. We also have a 5,250 pound vertical load limit.
Very simple to get this installed. The base rails and installation kit on your vehicle will allow you to very quickly and easily connect here. So we will take these pins and clips out when we're ready to get set up. That will free up our handles here so that we can open those in the unlocked position, set it down onto our above bed industry standard base rails and then move them back to the locked position and put in our pins again. So, because these are gonna work with your industry standard rails, they are gonna work with your Demco, B&W, Curt, Draw-Tite, Reese and other manufacturer's rails.
So very simple to get installed on those above-bed rails. And this is gonna be lighter weight than other models. It is approximately 220 pounds. So definitely not super lightweight. You'll definitely want a second set of hands at least helping you take this in and out. But this will allow you to remove easier so you can have access to your truck bed again and then put it back in place when you're ready to tow your trailer. Talking about the specific features here, we do have the wraparound single piece jaw that's gonna provide a nice secure connection for your kingpin. That's a 360 degree jaw to kingpin contact. So if I open that up there, you can see your kingpin's gonna slide back here. I'll use a screwdriver to demonstrate. Once your kingpin slides back, it's gonna hit that plate, it's going to trigger it to close and it will snap shut. So having that 360 degree contact is going to ensure less rattle and more security than your slide bar jaws. And you can see we also have this 3/4 inch thick solid steel locking bar that's gonna reinforce that connection with your trailer coupler. It's going to automatically lock in place when the jaw closes. To operate that, we do have our spring loaded handle here with the comfort grip that's going to allow for your simple coupling. And we also have the tethered safety pin here that's going to allow you to securely latch the handle in place. And it does have that tether on there so you don't have to worry about losing it. The head itself is a double pivot head that's going to ease your hookup and help to limit chucking. Pivots front to back and side to side. If I turn it on the side here you can see we do have these cushioned polyurethane dampeners that are gonna help to reduce your noise and absorb road shock. So it's going to give you a nice smooth ride. We also have the adjustable height setting. So as we're moving down here you can see we've got this pin that we can pull out and adjust the head to different positions to make sure that we're gonna have adequate clearance over your side bed rails. So at our highest point, we're gonna be about 20 and 7/8 of an inch. If we move down to the middle pinhole there, it'll be 19 and 5/8 of an inch. And our lowest is gonna be 18 and 3/8 of an inch. So lots of adjustability there. Make sure that it's gonna work for your setup. So if you are wanting to have the convenience of a slide hitch so that you can make those tighter turns with your short bed pickup truck, this is gonna be a great way to go. I personally think that an auto slide is gonna be worth the money so that you don't have to worry about getting out and manually putting this into the slide mode. But they are significantly more expensive. So if that doesn't quite fit into your price range, this is gonna give you that same clearance that you need for a much better price. And that completes our look for today. Again, I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Thanks for watching.
Ratings & Reviews
works every time has never failed, replaced a curt 20k that i used for 10 years,lots of times it wouldnt click and lock .easy to use no chucking.very happy with this hitch.3 years ago i installed air lift air bags ,love them too!!etrailer is a great place to buy from
Hitch works awesome easy to install showed up a week before expected. I give it a 10 out of 10 so far. I have used it three times so far.
Part was delivered vey damaged. Looks like a couple thousand miles has already been put on it and it’s not even installed yet! Missing Lynch pin .313 is missing! Not happy at all.
Excellent product. Easy to assemble and install. Easir to hitch to my trailer than my previous product. Trailer was awesome to work with when I purchased the wrong item to begin with. They took the item back sent me a return slip and back it went. They did ask that I pay shipping back, which was a pretty good value considering the weight of the product. Would purchase again.
Looks great nice workmanship. Easy to install.
Packaging on large components should be changed??? Need custom molded styrofoam to slide on two sieds and hold product in shipping box. Will include pictures of delivered packages
This is a really nice hitch for the money. Extremely easy to installl for one person. I can’t wait to pull my camper with it. The only problem I had was how badly damaged the package was when delivered. Fortunately the hitch was not damaged. The picture shows how it was when I got it.
The hitch took about 45 minutes to put together. Including putting on the side plates. I wanted the extra two inches of travel that the Recon gives you over the competitors. I would have gone with the auto slide but there was not a adapter plate to fit my old nine inch wide pin box.
Ordered hitch late Wednesday evening and received early afternoon on Friday, that is super fast delivery. Two cartons received with no damage and all parts were there as expected. It looks exactly as advertised online and it was at a great price. AND FREE SHIPPING.
Also made in the USA.
I am replacing my Demco Hi Jacker Auto Slider that weighs approximately 300 lbs with the Demco Recon that according to the shipping labels weighs 91 lbs. It will be installed on a Ford F150 with 5 1/2 ft bed and fiver with a Lippert Turning Point Pin box.
Shipping was fast and installation was easy.
Customer service was excellent
Rugged product, easy to install, quick latch system. easy to remove. Purchased the Reese adapter with this hitch, and installation was easy. Some minor adjustments with the cam over lugs, and setting the hitch posts into the adapter. Overall very easy set up. Looks good, and can be taken apart in pieces, for ease of removal and installation, after set up. Ordering was simple and all parts came in about a week.
The Demco Recon 5th Wheel Hitch w/ Slider – Single Jaw – Chevrolet/GMC Prep Package – 21K (#DM97YV) is a fantastic addition for my Chevy! It fits perfectly into the Chevy puck system, latches securely, and unhooks with ease. I love how quietly it pulls—no annoying rattles or noise. It’s definitely heavy, so plan for a two-person lift, but the quality and performance make it well worth it. Highly recommend for anyone needing a reliable 5th wheel hitch!
Parts arrived for the DM 8550043, received only the hitch base plate and adjustable shaft for the hitch head. Have been told that the hitch head is shipped separately. Now have a problem with the hitch plate fitting the bed rails. The holes for the pin that secures the hitch plate to the rails are to close to the bottom of the hitch plate photos are given of the problem a pencil was used for reference. There is NO WAY the pin will go through the rail and hitch plate. Waiting on a solution from etrailer. The hole that you can barely see the pencil is tailgate rails pin fits fine.
This hitch with the Airbourne Sidewinder worked great with the 2018 Ram 2500 Mega cab short bed with Ram boxes. Can maneuver a 90 degree turn without issue. Still have to get trailer lifted higher to get the trailer nose lowered, but for the complicated research we had on the right combo, this is tested and verified
Already pulled the rv with it. I like the design. Literally ripped open the box and put it together in a matter of minutes. The three pieces come apart fast lightening it up to remove it from the bed
Fit was spot on, built in USA a big plus, handles smoothly.
I like it’s design and how it sits in the bed. It seems to want to rotate some while pulling. I see some reviews that other people are having this problem also. Some have put a bolt down through the base into the truck bed. I haven’t wanted to do that as of yet. Otherwise I like the hitch.
This was a perfect fit into my 2500 Ram. It was delivered in perfect condition. I had a hard time finding the correct torque for some of the Bolts, for example the Bolts for attaching the Ram puk system to the hitch frame. It all worked out well. It took me one hour to put it together and install it in my Ram.
I had a Demco Recon 5th Wheel Hitch in the past I liked how easy it was to operate and the get in and out of the truck bed. I also like how compacted it is compared to most of the other brands. Go with what you know works for you.
The truck that got the install is a 2002 Ford F350 Super Duty 7.3 L Diesel dually. The Demco Recon 5th wheel hitch (DM8550043) looks like a well made, heavy duty hitch. All the welds are precise and well done. I like the single wrap around jaw with the real thick bar that backs that up. The handle that pulls out to unlock the jaw moves with ease and locks in the out position when the jaw opens. When the king pin comes in contact with the back of jaw, the jaw wraps around the king pin, the handle closes, you put in the safety pin and your ready to go RVing. I chose the Husky Custom Rails and installation kit (HT31405-686) for my install. The reason I chose these rails over the ones that etrailer had matched up for the hitch is, I had previously installed a set of Airlift Airbags and I didn't want the rail install to interfere with the airbags. It was a good choice, there was no interference at all. If I had not had the bags, I would have chose the rails and install kit that require no drilling. Drilling the holes went very fast and easy, it was torking the rear bolts down that was very difficult. There was not enough room to get a wrench of any kind around the nut. I wound up using a set of vise grips on the nut while a friend of mine torked the bolt slowly from above.
All and all I'm happy with the product and I'll give another review in a year.
I did have a problem the first time using the hitch with it unexpectedly sliding rearward and bending the locking pins. Kudos to Michael with Demco products for sending a replacement part and no issues since.
Purchased for my 2021 Ford F-250. Arrived 3 days ahead of schedule with excellent communication. Was professionally delivered in 1 shipment on 1 pallet in perfect condition.
Great instructions. Is easy to install for the mechanically minded. Will take a novice longer but they will have no issues if they follow the instructions. All I needed was a 3/4" wrench/socket, a 1 1/8" wrench, and a torque wrench. Puck handles were on upside down from factory but didn't matter you will need to take them off in step 1 to add or remove washers for the perfect fit on your OEM puck setup. Excited to hook up and start using it!
Putting the OEM package together for the puck system was very easy. All components look and move as they should. So far so good! Thanks etrailer.com
Very satisfied with this product! A bolt on Teflon plate would be awesome instead of the round disks that wear out and become hard to keep in place during the hitching process.
I'm not real impressed with this hitch i had the trailer lifted bought taller tires and wheels and have all adjustments at lowest settings and still not level
Good quality hitch, light weight, easy to slide . Got about 1500 miles pulling 17000lb trailer with no problems
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