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.
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.
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (71 Customer Reviews)
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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 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
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
Hitch works great and delivery from etrailer was fast.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Seems to be a well built hitch and the 3 piece design is VERY nice in the load/unload space. Why this received 3 stars is that it was missing parts and the base was beat up badly (cosmetic) when received. Missing parts included the pins to connect the base to the rails and the pin to connect the neck to the base. Not usable at this point. Etrailer is sending out the parts, and I'll contact Demco for new stickers. Will update review and photos once I have used it.
The hitch arrived in four days was easy to install in truck not too heavy for a 70 year old man hooks up easy and I really like the double locking jaw the only issue I had was the wedge for my sidewinder the bolt holes did not line up took me about an hour making holes longer to be able to bolt up
Haven't used it yet but it's unlikely to be anything but 5 stars. I'll update review if so. The hitch came in 2 boxes. The head was packages in a HD box. The box that the base came in was battered pretty bad. But, no marks in the base. All hardware arrived. Took about 15 minutes to assemble and get set up.
Looks great
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.
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 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.
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