To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
This hitch slides automatically as you drive to give you 14" of additional clearance for tight turns. A wraparound jaw provides a smooth ride and a locking bar offers added security. Pivoting head allows easy hook up and helps to limit chucking.
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 is designed to attach to the included above-bed base rails. 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 above-bed rails, 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 attach the base to the rails with the included safety pins.
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" + 14" = 50". If your fifth-wheel trailer is 84" wide, take half (42"), then plug in: 50" - 42" = 8" 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.
Hello neighbors, it's Brad here from Etrailer and today I'm in Boyden, Iowa, at the Demco headquarters and manufacturing facility where we got to see Demco products made. And these are all products that I handle on a daily basis when doing flat tows, fifth wheels, or even couplers. They cover so many different towing products, and they have plenty of experts here to break down some of their products a little bit more to give you some understanding as well as allow me to ask those questions on products that I handle every day. So Verlin, if you have a short bed truck, you can tow with a fifth wheel all the same as a long bed, right Well. (laughs) Kind of It all depends on the trailer and how cab-friendly your corners are on the front of the trailer. But in most cases, if you've got a 6 1/2 foot bed or even a 5 1/2 foot bed, you're going to have to have on some type of sliding hitch to move that trailer back when you're making those tight corners.
So if I'm, you know, kind of in a situation where I see it getting close to my cab corner, how does the slider work Okay, so here we're standing in front of our manual slider. So in this particular instance, the driver would have to hop out, they're just gonna pull this lever here. And that disengages it from lock forward. They'd set the trailer brakes and then pull this truck forward and then it'll lock in its rear position. Now they can make any kind of maneuvers they want.
We went ahead and moved back 14 inches to give them extra cab clearance, is what we just did there. So that, with really any combo of fifth wheel trailer, that should give you the clearance. Yes. No damage should occur, right Correct. And then so after, you know, gas station or or the campsite where it's a tight turn, you make that turn, this needs to go back in its original position.
Yep, absolutely. Again, driver's gotta jump out and just kinda reversed what we just did. Flip the lever back this way, hold the trailer brakes again, and then just back up with the truck and it's gonna lock into the tow position is what we call this. Okay. And then as far as application, this is OEM prep Yeah, this happens to be OEM prep, but actually one of the key things that Demco does is, you know, people are trading trucks all the time.
So you'll notice these side plates are just bolted on. So we can actually go into a Demco rail mount, we can go into a Demco underbed mount, and then we can go into all the factory parts systems as well. It's just a matter of changing out these side plates. Okay, well say, you know, I don't want to get outta my truck, it's raining or whatever, to make that turn, there's ways to have, you can omit that. Absolutely. So then we hop into what we call our automatic sliding series hitch. So we'll move on over here. We actually have three different options there. We have a 13,000 pound tow capacity, and that one's really meant for your half ton pickups with the 5 1/2 foot bed. That's gonna move further faster. And then we have our 18,000 and 21,000 pound capacities. Those are more designed for your F-250, 350 and your 2500 series from Ram and GM. And okay, so how does it auto slide You know, that one has a handle obviously, but if I don't have to do anything, how does it mechanically work Alright, so you'll see on the top of the head of the hitch we have these, what we call capture plates. They're kind of built into the head of the hitch. And these are adjustable. So depending on the width of your pin box, when you hitch up, you're gonna adjust this to about 1/16 of an inch away from each side of the pin box. It's a one-time set unless you're pulling multiple trailers. But if you're pulling the same trailer, it's a one-time set, it allows you to be able to slide in and out. But what we do, then, is the pin box is captured here in the head of the hitch, and the head is actually gonna rotate with the trailer. And as the head rotates, it drops into a rack and pinion gear system. You'll see we've got three bolt heads on each side here, and there's a rack gear here, and then there's a big main gear here. And as that turns, the gear engages, and the more you turn, the more it slides, and it'll do that in forward or reverse. So as you're backing up, you're going, "How's my head gonna go forward when I'm backing up" But we're just gonna go right walking back down that gear track, and the head will return right back to the home position when you're straight. Now, these capture plates, obviously adjustability, are there limitations as far as what kingpin you can attach to We do have a few limitations. We try to mitigate that as much as possible, but some of our suspension style pin boxes, we do need a separate capture plate. And the reason for that is a suspension style pin box, your kingpin plate usually moves separately from the rest of the pin box. And so sometimes these will interfere with that movement action. So then we put a wedge behind the kingpin. But any of your standard non-suspension pin box, good to go right here. Nothing else needed. Okay. Now, the 13K you mentioned is for the half ton, and it it operates in a slightly different way. It does. So we'll talk a little bit about the 13K. You'll notice the head of the hitch is identical to the 18 and 21 K, but the base of the hitch is quite different. So what we learned, a lot of your half ton campers that are designed to be half ton tow built behind your pickup, they've got an extended pin box on them already. So as the head of the hitch turns, sometimes you can get the back of that pin box into the side of the pickup, especially if you've got like Tonneau cover rails, or you got the decorative rails on top of the bed. So what this hitch does is as you turn, it's going to select the correct track, and it'll move over 2 3/4 inches. And what it does is it pulls the back of that pin box away from your Tonneau cover rails or your decorative bed rails so you don't have a collision there. And this one's gonna slide back a little bit more. This one's 21 1/2 inches in slide. So it's gonna move back further faster than our 18 and 21 K hitch. Got the wraparound jaw system as well with a lock bar that goes across the side there to keep everything nice and secure. Brad Why is that something that someone want Verlin It's an extra added security for number one. And number two, we go fully around 360 degrees around that kingpin. So we help eliminate some of the chucking. You're probably familiar with some competitors, they've got more of a clam shell style, and that just gives a little more opportunity for chucking to begin rather than a full wraparound. Well, and we actually got the chance to see this manufactured today at their facility, and it's really cool the technology that goes into it. Great company, family owned. Lot of love put into this. Verlin Absolutely. Demco stands behind all their hitches, made right here in Boyden, Iowa. And that's another thing too. I mean you get people that have been in the industry for as long as they have, you know, again, family owned, American-made. It's really hard to beat. And the fact that it's an auto-slide, again, if you're gonna be towing a flat, a fifth wheel quite often, and you do have to make those sharp turns, everyone says, "Oh, I'll be fine." Well, you get yourself into one or two pickles and you don't want to get it out of the truck, you can solve that problem with the Autoslide. Absolutely. So huge thanks Verlin for taking the time to show us the Demco Autoslide as well as their sliding Recon.
Do you have a question about this 5th Wheel Hitch?
Info for this part was:
At etrailer.com we provide the best information available about the products we sell. We take the quality of our information seriously so that you can get the right part the first time. Let us know if anything is missing or if you have any questions.
Thank you! Your comment has been submitted successfully. You should be able to view your question/comment here within a few days.
Error submitting comment. Please try again momentarily.