This hitch manually slides to give you 14" of clearance for tight turns. Sturdy wraparound jaw has a locking bar for added security. Pivoting head allows easy hook up and helps limit chucking. Polyurethane bumpers ensure a smooth ride.
Features:
Specs:
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Male 1: Today on this 2015 Ford F-350, we'll be having a look at and showing you how to install the Demco under bed rail and installation kit for Demco Hijacker fifth wheel and gooseneck trailer hitches, part number DM8551000. Here's what a Demco under bed system looks like installed. These under bed rails allow us to have all of the mounting solutions for our fifth wheel and gooseneck trailers underneath the bed of our truck. This will allow us to maintain full access to our truck bed and not lose any of the valuable space in it. One of the great features about the Demco under bed system is how easy it is to remove our fifth wheel to gain full truck bed access. So I'll show you how to do that now.We'll pull our clips, pull our pins out, move our handles to the unlocked position.
We'll do this on both sides. Now with an extra set of hands we can grab the slider, pull it out. Now, you'll see once our fifth wheels out of our truck bed, we have complete access to our entire bed of our truck. There is nothing that sticks up above it at all since it's all underneath. It does come with these plugs that you can install in the holes that you drilled in your bed to help keep dirt and debris out of the rails.These under bed rails will allow you to tow a fifth wheel trailer or a gooseneck trailer with the right adapter.
Comparing these two other fifth wheel or gooseneck options, what's really nice about this is being completely under the bed yet there's nothing that sticks up. It does provide a very clean look in your truck when you aren't towing your trailer, and you want to have full bed access. Now that we've gone over some features, we'll show you how to get them installed.To begin our install, we've measured according to the instructions to find the four locations that we need to drill our pilot holes in our bed. When taking these measurements, it's critical that we take the initial measurement from the end of the bed and not the end of our tailgate. If you have a plastic drop-in bed liner, you want to make sure you move it before you make your initial pilot holes.
You can always reinstall it before you put the rails back in and drill up from underneath the bed to enlarge the plastic bed liner if you want to. So we'll have a pilot hole near where the factory dimple is for the factory under bed puck system. So make sure we don't drill into that temple, but we drill where you measured.Now, with our pilot holes made at all four corners, we can now enlarge it to the appropriate size using a hole saw. We'll continue doing the same process for all four holes. Now to help prevent rust on our truck, we're going to take some clear coat and go along the inside edge.
If you have a spray in bed liner, you can just use flat black spray paint as well because that will match your bed liner.Now, we find ourselves in our wheel well. We need to insert our rail over the frame underneath the bed. We'll start with our rear rail first. Make sure the holes are facing up. We'll slide this in position right here. We go all the way across, and then we'll start to slide it back. We'll slide this back over the rear set of holes. We have lined up pretty good on the driver's side, but we need to get it further back on the passenger side. So we may need to use a hammer to tap it into place.Now, we can do our front rail. We'll insert it in the same manner. Now, we'll slide it back and show what's underneath or holes. We've already went ahead and took our fifth wheel or slider, we're using a slider in this case, dropped it in place into our bed, down in our rails, and secured to our rails. We have insured where the legs of our slider go through the bed of the truck into rails that all four are centered into our hole in the bed of our truck.Now, we'll bolt our frame brackets to our rails. To do that, we'll use a half inch bolt with lock washer and a flat Washer. Now for the back hole on our frame bracket on the driver's side, we'll insert a half-inch diameter bolt through that hole into the frame. It will be capped on the inside of the frame with a flat washer and a lock nut. Both the front and the rear hole on the passenger side bracket are the exact same way as this. For our center hole here, we'll take a three-quarter inch diameter bolt, we'll go through that and into the frame. On the inside, we'll cap it with a nut. Now, we'll take our pull wire, we'll go through our forward attachment hole. It'll come about our frame, and we can just pull it around back towards us like this. And we'll thread on our knurled bolt, and we can pull that through the frame. We'll move the pull wire, and we're thread on our flange nut.Now, we can go repeat the same process for the passenger side. The only difference being we won't have a knurled bolt on the front on the passenger side. We'll have a standard bolt like this with a washer on the inside and the nylon lock nut.Now we can start to tighten down our hardware that secures our frame bracket to the frame. Now, we'll do the other ones. Now that we have our frame brackets tightened to the frame on the truck, we'll now tighten the rails to our frame bracket. Now, we'll torque all of our hardware to the amount specified in the instructions.And that completes our look at and showing you how to install the Demco under bed rail and installation kit for Demco Hijacker fifth wheel and gooseneck trailer hitches, part number DM8551000 on this 2015 Ford F-350.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Well it came in two pieces the head and the base not a big deal but they came A WEEK apart when I paid for expedited shipping. They tried to blame it on ups but I looked at the second tracking order after the first boxes arrived and it says the label had been made but not at ups so it shipped far after the other boxes. Then when I took the 5th wheel had out of the box the bolt that holds the handle on had a smaller size nut so you can’t even assemble the head. I went here hoping to get the stuff I needed for my 5th in a timely matter but got the opposite… not saying I will not order from here again but I will definitely think twice before I do.
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
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.
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
Excellent product and customer service was outstanding. I just bought the product so I haven’t towed with it yet but after many many years of towing with other fifth wheel hitches, I can tell this is going to be an huge improvement!
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.
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.
very good product although when unhitching rv it wants to trip the latch. I had to address that problem by drilling a hole in the trip bar for the pin to hold it open.
This hitch met all my expectations and beyond. I have traveled over 10 thousand miles so far and it has worked very smoothly. Thanks JoAnn
The only issue I am having with the fifth wheel hitch is latch handle will not stay open (out) when hooking up or disconnecting from king Pin sometimes (and yes, I know how to work a fifth wheel hitch). If it wasn't for that I would give it 5 stars.
Easy to set up and use I borrowed a buddies cause I bought a camper and didn’t have a hitch set up in the bed of my truck just had the goose neck ball pulled real nice so I order o e just like it
I bought this to replace a Demco Autoslide hitch. The Autoslide was great but too heavy for me. Because of my bad back, this was a great choice! The hitch is awesome, easy to put in and out. Quiet and smooth towing. Thx E-Trailer!
Hitch works great and delivery from etrailer was fast.
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
So far so good pulling my fifth wheel around. I went this route so I could have dual purpose and not corner myself with just a drop in plate with my trucks factory fifth wheel package. No issues with this hitch, locks tight and no slop.
Hitch came in two boxes UPS. The head was stapled and secured in one box. The base and upright piece came, not in a box, but rolled up in cardboard and taped up with clear packing tape. I put it together so I could hook up and set the height and there is no hitch pin and lynch pin. I don’t know if it was rolled up in the cardboard and lost in shipping or wasn’t packed at all. I also didn’t get the instruction manual and had to go to Demcos website for it. The base and upright being rolled up together banged up the base or it was used and returned and that is why it was rolled up and not in a box. Now I have a hitch that I can’t use because I didn’t get all the parts. Called etrailer for the hitch pin and lynch pin and don’t know when it’ll arrive because it’s not an etrailer part. I can’t review the hitch because as of yet I can’t use it.
The product arrived as scheduled and all the parts and pieces were in the two boxes. It installed quickly in my pickup and I hooked it to the fifth wheel and moved it forward and back. Seems to work well, takes all the slop out of the hitch. The hitch seems to be well constructed and the double latch is what I was looking for.
This was an upgrade from the dealer installed hitch. Best purchase since I didn't know how much longer the old hitch would last. After purchase, I was at the dealership and saw they were now selling the same hitch. Solid and rattle free.
This was my first (and only, so far) fifth wheel hitch. I am towing a Jayco 25.5REOK Eagle HT, with a 2019 F150. (Before you all "go there", we ordered the truck especially for this purpose, with the max payload package, max tow package, FX4, etc. I've weighed the truck and trailer combination on certified scales, and actual payload, axle, and tow weights are under the rated capacities for t he truck. The truck sits perfectly level with the trailer loaded). Anyway, with a 6 1/2' bed, I wanted to use a rotating pin box, and the lightest hitch I could find that would satisfy that requirement. Enter the Demco Recon.
What I like: It is very light, as all steel construction hitches go - right at 100 lbs. And it breaks down easy into three primary component - the lower base, the head, and the thing in between. So not component is more than 40 lbs or so. Takes 5 minutes to break down and stow away, leaving the truck bed with only the standard hitch rails.
A few things I don't like (but have simple solutions for): The assembly has too much play, resulting in a very clunky operation and feel. The base assembly has too much play between the upper and lower parts of the base. There is a set bolt provided to take this play out, but the set bolt is located so that you can't access it with a socket, and it's tough to get to with an open end or box wrench as well. With some effort you can get it tight, but it loosens up after a couple hundred miles. My solution was to insert sheets of nylon (plastic) between the shaft of the upper part, and the tube of the lower part, so that the fit is tight, eliminating the play without use of the set bolt. Also the play between the lower base and the hitch rails are pretty generous. (I don't know how other hitches are, but this one has about 3/16" of play). My solution was to add leather pads as gaskets, between the base and the rails, which makes the J-pins a little tight, but eliminates the gap and play. Eliminating the play in these two areas makes the hitch much quieter and feel much better. The last complaint isn't an issue with the hitch per se, rather, the combination of the Sidewinder Pin Box and the hitch head. I am using the recommended locking wedge (SWW-05), but he hitch head has a rather steep ramp, and the wedge really doesn't "wedge" much of the head. That is, there isn't an abundance of contact between the wedge and the head. It's enough when the wedge is tight, but the the head will work the wedge back and out of the slot over time, even when tightened to the recommended 150 foot pounds. If the wedge moves more than a fraction of an inch, the trailer will start to handle poorly. You can feel it. And if you let this go, it will quickly become dangerous. So, I've leaned to recheck the wedge and retighten if necessary after every couple of trips, and I carry my torque wrench with the trailer.
Thanks for reading.
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
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.
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