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Custom brackets reduce the amount of drilling and time required to install your fifth-wheel trailer hitch. Brackets, base rails and hardware included.
Features:
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi there Chevy owners, and here 2018 Chevrolet Silverado 1500. We're gonna be taking a look at and showing you how to install Reese's fifth wheel rail kit. And this is what our rail kit looks like when it's installed, it is gonna sit above the bed of your truck, but it is fairly flat, so it doesn't really take up too much of the room here in the bed of your truck. It will allow you to hook up a fifth wheel to the back here, and it does have multiple slots, so it should work with many different manufacturers, fifth wheels, but we do have a recent here today, and if you're going with a reset of rails, it makes sense to go with a Reese hitch, 'cause oftentimes when you stick with the same manufacturer the parts tend to fit a little better. That being said, the best fit I found here at etrailer, of our Reese is gonna be the BMW fifth wheel hitch and rails, and those ones just assembled together quite a bit easier, the machining on those is very top-notch, so if you're wanting something that is very high quality, I'd recommend that, but if you're just looking to get a set a fifth wheel in your truck, and you've got a Chevy Silverado, the Reese kit here does accomplish that for you, it's a semi custom fit kit, because it is custom fit for Chevy Silverados, but it does encompass a very large range of trucks, so you are gonna get a lot of extra hardware in this kit, that you're not gonna use, because it covers such a large range of Silverados. So just take your time and filter it through your hardware, definitely pay attention to your instructions, there's a pretty big monster of a booklet there, because there's so many variations between the years and all the hardware that you get, but if you wanna follow along with us, we'll show you how to get these rails installed, you get your side plates as well with the kit, that keeps everything clamped tightly to our frame and to our bed here, giving us that option to add that fifth wheel.
We'll begin our installation here at the back of the vehicle, by lowering down our spare tire, we just removed the key lock here at the back, and we're using our spare tire tool from the shop here, but you do have tools in your truck, you just wanna refer to your owner's manual, if you're unsure where those are located. So we get that spare tire out of the way, there is a heat shield down there that you may or may not need to remove, we're gonna wait and hold off until a later step, to see if we need to remove it, 'cause it looks like we've got plenty of clearance to get in there, to get our hardware where we need to. So next, we're gonna take our rail, and we're gonna position that, at the location indicated in your instructions, the distance here is gonna go from the edge of your bed, not the tailgate, so the actual bed right there to the front, or the rear edge here of our front rail, so we just went ahead and marked it, at the distance that it indicates in our instructions, based on the length of our bed, we have a six and a half foot bed here, so we use the measurement for that, we also centered it side to side, kind of made a little mark there to make it easy to line this back up at the center, so just make those marks as well, and then at this point now, we can start drilling out the holes for our rail here, we're gonna start with an eighth inch drill bit though, so we can just kind of verify, before we enlarge it to the full size. So now we're going to mark them, we're gonna use a little center punch here to do it, our rear center hole, we're going to mark here, we are gonna mark it right in the center of the hole, and then the outer two holes on each side we're also going to mark. Now, go ahead and just set our rail off to the side, grab our eighth inch drill bit, and we're gonna drill out each of those marks, I did want to go ahead and take a little bit of my paint stick, and just kind of tapped it on there to make it a little bit more visible, but that center punches is really, what's gonna determine that our drill bit lines up, where we had it marked.
So now we're gonna drill each of these out with that eighth inch drill bit, and we'll use our side plates then to verify that we did everything correctly here. So now we're just gonna verify that our holes line up with our side plate, we wanna make sure everything lines up properly before we drill some real big holes. So here we've got our side plate here, we're on the passenger side and this is our passenger side side plate, the longer portion here that angles more towards the bottom is going to be the front, and our ears here are gonna to ankle up over the frame rail, just like this. So we can go ahead and set this in position, drop it down here over the wheel, we can set it right up on top of the frame there, so here we're just double checking to make sure our holes line up with our side plate, so we'll just kind of angle in it here, just to make sure that those all line up where they need to line up, and everything's looking good here, so we should be good to go, and you also wanna make sure there's a rear hole on the side of the frame lines up with the hole in the side of the frame, to know that you got your frame bracket in the rough location it's supposed to be in, and you might be able to see better from underneath whether or not your holes are lining up properly. So now we're going to our nine 16th drill bit now that we verified our holes line up, and we're just gonna enlarge all these to that nine 16th size.
And we're just gonna move on to the next holes, and get the rest of those drilled out. Now we'll just take our vacuum and clean up our metal shavings here, and then at each hole, we're gonna take a little bit of clear coat to just seal that up, so we don't have any corrosion issues, and then we'll repeat that at the remaining holes. So now we've got our rail back in place over the holes we just drilled, we've got our hardware here, that we're gonna put into place, these are your carriage bolts, you get 10 of these in your kit, and all of these are gonna drop down through the holes, also included in your kit, you're gonna get two of these button head bolts, and we're gonna put flat washers on them as well, you can use these if you want, you don't have to, you can use carriage bolts in these holes, but these two side holes here on the driver's side for the front rail, are pretty difficult to access underneath, so they give you these buttons head ones, and you can stick an island key in here and tighten it down from a top, 'cause it's very difficult to tighten the nuts from down below, so we're gonna use these, again this is your option, and you're just gonna drop down into the hole. The other piece of hardware here is our spacer plates and these ones are used if you have any gaps in between your components. So our rail here, you can see on these outer holes, we can almost fit our finger between the rail and the bed, we want to take up that space here, so we're just gonna drop, our little spacer down in place there, and then our bolt here just drops down over it, we're gonna do the same thing here on this side, up that on there, and then drop our bolt down in it, now I'm gonna head towards the center, our middle bolt, since it has a raised part of the bed here, we don't have any gap, we're just gonna drop our bolt down through it, and we're switching over to the carriage bolts now for the rest of them, and towards the other end, we're gonna use carriage bolts in the spaces, because there's a gap over there.
So we're just on the other side of the frame, and if you follow your frame from where that hole is, towards the rear you'll see it kind of opens up back here, where this cross tube is, so that's where our, fish wire came out, we're gonna take the large flat washer that comes in our kit, slide it over the fish wire and push that over the top of the, this crossing. and if you can, when you're pivoting this back, fit it over the top of the crossbeam and not down below, it's a lot harder to get the hard spring down below, if you can, even get it to fit, we'll then take the bolt, we're gonna thread it onto our coil in here, and then just take that and drop it down, over the cross tube, and we'll take our fish wire here back on the other side, line up our washer there with our bolt and pull our bolt through. Now, leave your fish wire on here for now, you're gonna probably need this to, allow you to push this bolt kind of in and out, 'cause when we go to feed our side plate up here, the bolt might be in the way, so you might have to drop it down just inside like that, feed your fish wire through and then pull it, so, we'll let it sit kind of right there. We can also go over to the other side and prepare the bolt in the same way, just like this over there, so now we're gonna drop our side plate back down on here, kind of get this repositioned, take our coiled wire here, and we're gonna line it up on our vehicle, it lines up with the higher hole here, this one right there, so you got three holes there, the easiest ways when you we're holding up before to see where everything lined up, you should see then where this hole, which hole lines up with the hole in your frame, and for us it's this one. Slide that through there, I'm just kind of just, set on top of the frame just for a second, there's a little hooks for it, and then we can grab our bolt, pull it through just like that, you're also gonna need now, flat washer, lock washer and nut, of the same size for our larger bolt. We can then take our fish wire off, you can just pull it off of there, I do like to try to unthread it though, just in case you need it again for the other side, you get two of these in your kit, one for each side, but you never know when you might accidentally damage one, you might need to reuse it. So we're just trying to kick it off there carefully, if you get a bunch of extra of these, you know, for your other sizes and stuff, you may not need to be so careful, but when you only got a couple to work with, it's not a bad idea to try not to damage it. And then we're just gonna slide our rest of our hardware on there, flat washer first followed by the lock washer and the nut, and just get this loosely installed for now. We have these side plates, like side clamps, like hold our side plate on, this is our top hole, and then we've got two bottom holes, the holes here are gonna vary slightly on your vehicle, so you have to see which one lines up best, and then you'll also gonna get two different length, carriage bolts, and just choose whichever one's best for your vehicle. I kind of just held it up there to test fit, to see which one was gonna be long enough, this one is long enough to pass through, but we don't have a lot sticking out on the other side, so I wanna make sure I got enough threads to fully tighten down the nut and all of our hardware, so we're not gonna use the shorter ones, we're gonna use the longer ones to ensure that we've got enough there, to actually tighten it down. So we'll need to have these, two for each side, we're gonna take it and drop it down, through the top hole here and then we'll head underneath, so we can slide this over top of our frame rail into our side plate. So now we're underneath the vehicle, we're on the inside of the frame here on the passenger side, we've got our little prepared piece here, here's our side plate, and these are the lower holes here that it will line up with these, so you can kind of use us as a guide to know straight up vertically, is where this upper bolt is gonna line up. So, there's also a gap here between our side plate and our frame, the other clamp bracket we've got here, it's gonna go in between, the side plate and the frame, so we're gonna fit this up on top now, just like that, we'll then take our other piece here, we're gonna go up between the two pieces and slide our carriage bolt through the upper hole. Okay, we'll get that one hang in there, now, we need to take that same carriage bolt, that's going through the spacer and go through the upper hole in our side plate. And there we go, we got our, all of our bolts to slide through, so what we'll do now, is we're gonna actually take this out just a little bit, just to give us enough clearance, to get our hardware on there, and then we're gonna place on a flat washer, followed by a lock washer, and finally the nut. All right, and now here back under the frame again, we're gonna take our other carriage bolt, we're gonna go through our hole here, if you can, use the upper one, 'cause we wanna try to keep our bolts as close to the frame as possible, by getting the thickness very CMAT to use the lower one, but on ours, we're gonna be using this upper one here, and then after we get it slid through the space on the other side and the side plate, we're gonna use the same hardware, flat washer, lock washer and nut to secure this one. We'll then repeat the same steps over on the other side to get that side plate installed, so now we're underneath our truck and the bolts that we had passed down, through our rails here, you can see sticking out the bottom, our center one here, we're gonna go ahead and start at the hardware on each of these, the center one is gonna get a conical tooth washer with the teeth facing towards the bed, followed by a nut, and for our outside hardware, we're gonna use a spacer first, slide that, up over your bolt, and these ones can be a little difficult, 'cause the frame rail here is, doesn't give you a lot of room to work with, and then from there we're gonna place on a lock washer, followed by a nut, and we're just gonna repeat that, for the other bolt here on this side and the two over on the opposite side. Now we can go ahead and take our fifth wheel here, we're gonna set the back side, towards the front of vehicle here, into the front rail, and then we'll drop the other legs here for the back rail into place as well, and that's gonna line up our back rail and the location we needed to be in, for drilling out the holes, there we go. And then after we get it in there, I'd like to be kind of a little bit of a shake, and then we'll just double check our measurements side to side, make sure it's fairly even, and at that point, if everything looks good there, we'll mark our holes and drill them out, it's gonna be very similar to this rail, except rather than being the outside set of holes, we're gonna move in one set on each side, so, there'd be that set and this set, and then it'll be the middle hole towards the front of the vehicle. And just like before, we're gonna start with our eighth inch drill bit, we'll double-check to make sure that it did line up with our side plates and if everything looks good there, we'll step it up to that nine 16th size. And once again, we're gonna vacuum up any mess we made here, and put a little bit of clear coat on those. All right, after we got all those holes drilled out, we put our rail back into place, drop the fifth wheel back down in here, and then I also slid the pins in, you don't need to clip them all the way and I just slide them in there, just so when we go to tighten down our hardware here, it keeps out all of our holes lined up, making it easy for those pins to come in and out. We are gonna take our carriage bolts, this rail is gonna get all carriage bolts and drop those down, and we'll drop these down, right through the holes that we drilled and we'll do that with all the holes, and then once we have those drop down, we'll head underneath, so we can get the hardware attached to the other side. So now we're underneath the vehicle here, our center bolt, it's gonna be the same as our front rail center bolts, it's gonna get a conical tooth and a nut. All right, and then our side hardware is gonna be very similar to the front hardware, the only difference here is, the bed is raised where our rail is, so we're gonna be sliding these on top in between the side plate and our bed, so it sits in the channel kind of like this, but it's gonna be up there. But our heat shield here is kind of in the way, we shouldn't need to remove it though, I mean, I can get to the hardware right here, it's gonna be a little bit difficult to get through the hardware like this, so we're just gonna use our pry bar here and just kind of bend this down out of the way, we should be able to access this fairly easily, if we just get that side of the way. After we get it mostly started with the pry bar, we can go up in here with our channel locks and we're just gonna take this whole section here and just kind of put a 90 in it. I kind of like that, that should be plenty good for us to be able to access our hardware, and we'll double check this, before we wrap everything up, and if we think the exhaust is going to touch or vibrate on anything, we can straighten it back out away from it, but yeah, I can get right to it now, much easier than having to remove this entire heat shield, 'cause it was pretty long, you have to, really difficult to hang in to some of the hardware, and cutting it out it's really not that easy either, so, you can just bend it like that, that's probably the easiest method for getting this done. So now we'll take that spacer like we talked about, then we bring it up here, set it on top of our side plate, just like that, and from here it's the same hardware that we used for the front rail, it's gonna be the spacer first, followed by the lock washer and then the nut, it's gonna be pretty difficult to see up on this side here, but that's kind of the same order as the other hardware we had installed. We can now go back and tighten down our hardware, we're gonna tighten down all the bolts that drop through the bed first, and then we'll do the side plates after we've gotten all those done. We'll use a three quarter inch socket or wrench, for all of the hardware that drops down through the bed here. And now we've got those that hardware tightened down, we can go back and torque it in the same order, may need an extension for some of your bolts as well as potentially crow's foot, 'cause some of these are difficult to get you over the frame. All right, and now we can torque down our side bolts here, we're gonna use an inch and an eighth to do that, and you're gonna need a pretty big wrench 'cause the torque is pretty high, I'd also recommend an assistant to hold the bolt as you're torquing it down, so it doesn't spin inside the frame. Once you finish tightening down your hardware and getting everything torqued, at that point we can reinstall our spare tire, secure our fifth wheel and ready to hook up to our trailer and hit the road. And that completes our installation of Reese's 5th wheel rail kit on our 2018 Chevrolet Silverado 1500..
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (116 Customer Reviews)
Custom brackets reduce the amount of drilling and time required to install your fifth-wheel trailer hitch. Brackets, base rails and hardware included.I was a little leery of installing a fifth wheel hitch to begin with, but after watching the videos from etrailer a few times and reading the instructions a couple of times, I decided I could do it. I installed the RP50064-58 kit for fifth wheel hitches and the Reese 30083 Fifth Wheel 20K w/Round Slider Unit on my 2006 GMC 2500HD short-bed. I had my three grandsons, ages 2, 3, and 7, helping me. The installation went really smooth (other than the younger children occasionally running off with tools) and I am very impressed by how sturdy it is. Now I am looking forward to receiving the Stromberg Carlson 100 Series 5th Wheel Tailgate with Open Design that I ordered. Thank you etrailer! You make it fun and easy!
I was a bit nervous at first installing the rails that would eventually hold the weight of a 16,000lb camper, however after reading the instructions and looking at the quality of the parts, I felt alot more comfortable. The installation was very easy, and with the large side plates, I feel alot better knowing the rails and hitch are secured to the frame with more than those small pieces of L steel that normally come with the kit. Install only took me about an hour and the hitch is very solid!
I have a 2006 2500HD with an existing gooseneck hitch that is welded in place between the frame. I had thought the "custom-fit 5th wheel" brackets would still fit so I ordered them so as to not have to drill in the truck frame. Unfortunately, the gooseneck channel is in the way of where the "U" bolt needed to go on the back side of the frame so I have to return this and get the "universal" install kit / rails. It will still be fine but I was trying to not drill in the frame any more than necessary.
I just wanted to pass this along incase anyone else had the same setup. It will save you some time, frustration, and shipping money :-). It was my fault (not etrailer's) .
I attached a picture showing where the bracket is with the gooseneck channel behind it (in the way). Hope it helps someone else.
Not as easy as the online videos would lead you to believe. However I did manage to get it installed. Getting the spacers nuts and lock washers on the bolts over the gas tank on my 2014 Silverado were a real SOB. Dropped 3 lock washer into the shroud over the gas tank while trying to accomplish this. Ended up taping the nut and lock washer to my wrench to get them in position while someone turned the bolt from inside the truck bed.
Poorly packaged at the warehouse which caused a box failure enroute to my house. I REALLY needed this for the weekend and will now have to either borrow a truck with a hitch or find a kit locally. Customer service blamed UPS. I disagree. Had the box been secured properly from etrailer to begin with, I wouldn’t be writing this review. I will not order anything heavy from them again.
Very fast shipping for the 5th wheel sliding hitch, rails and wiring ! Installation was very straight forward although the instructions were a bit vague. Watched the installation videos a couple of times which was a big help. Took about 4 hours for everything including wiring. Could have been quicker if I took off the rear wheels and lowered the exhaust but just worked around them. Picked up my new 5th wheel a week later and was very happy with the hitch - No problems at all. This was installed on a 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD.
Matthew W.
2/9/2018
Still very happy after thousands of miles !
Instructions leave something to be desired.. and every bolt needed for every variation of truck this kit can go on is included, so lots of leftover hardware. Surprising for a 'custom' kit (not universal).
Other than that, got it installed on my 2005 Silverado 3500 in roughly the time advertised. Almost. Still trying to figure out how to tighten the last nut that is really hard to reach.
Mikey
8/6/2018
No issues after a year. Kudos to etrailer for asking since so many people jump the gun quickly with glowing reviews only to realize disappointment soon after. Not so with this kit all is still good.
It wasn't so easy for me as I am 80 yrs. old but I got her done in a days time and it works fine, all the measurements in the directions were right on.
Robert
11/13/2022
The kit worked fine but the camper was too much weight for a 12 ton, sold the truck and bought a 34 ton with fifth wheel in it
This kit was a perfect fit on my 2006 Duramax crew cab. Installation was a breezy and it did not require any drilling or welding of the frame. The instructions were good and all necessary bolts and nuts were supplied ( along with a lifetime supply of spares). I would highly suggest this seller and their kit if you need fifth wheel rails installed in your truck.
Chris P.
11/26/2015
Perfectly
Per instructions, removal of the vehicle heat shield was a beastly process. Modification of inner fenders was never mentioned in the instructions, had to modify the brackets to eliminate interference fit with hanger on the drivers side on the frame. Had to customize an existing bracket to allow access to mounting bolt on driver side. Also had to modify the frame to gain access to hold 3/4" bolt head for tightening mounting plates. It would have been much better to have had 2 throw away short open end stamped wrenches supplied with the kit in exchange for many extra bolts and other hardware. Once custom fabrication was complete it does work fine.
Installed this custom kit on my 2014 Chevy,fit like a glove.A few things I didn't have to do was remove the exhaust pipe or cut the heat shield,I had enough room to put my hands and reach the hardware.But you should lower the gas tank.
I don't have access to a hoist,so I had to do my work in the driveway while fighting off the mosquitoes.
Leroy N.
6/22/2015
What a great idea,no holes in the frame,Still working good ,no issues.
I brought this 5th Wheel rail kit to a local Hitch Installation and Welding shop, and they installed it for me in one day. I brought the Hensley Trailersaver TS3 5th Wheel Hitch as well, so that the whole assembly could be line-up precisely as prescribed, with the center of the Kingpin at 1-5/8" forward of the truck drive axle center line. Great product by Reese, that fit my 2002 Silverado 3500 perfectly. Would recommend Reese products to anyone contemplating towing an RV/Travel Trailer.
I bought a new Chevy 2014 Silverado Double Cab 4X4 with the 6' 6" bed and needed a bed rail kit to mount a fifth wheel hitch from another vehicle. Plan on spending 6 - 8 hours to install it if you have no previous experience with this installation. Make sure you have less than 1/4 of a tank of gas as the installation requires lowering the gas tank down about 12 inches. You will also need to remove the spare tire. You will save yourself a lot grief by doing these two things first. Also note the position of the bolts that hold the rails to the brackets, the front rail uses the outer most holes. The rear rail uses the second set of holes inward from the end of the rail. If you have a bed liner, trim it first before doing anything else.
This is a well designed heavy duty product. I have purchased several different products over the years and never had a complaint. Their service and pricing have been great.
I bought these quick install base rail plates instead of the universal fits all-fits nothing well angle plates that I had used on a different truck. Watch the video e-trailer has on line in the help section and the video is much better than the instructions that come with the plates.
My install went just like the video except the truck was only 2 days old so I didn't want to drop the exhaust or the fuel tank. It was tight between the fuel tank and the bolts that hold the rails in the bed but do-able.
The exhaust side was easier and I didn't have the exhaust tin shield like on the video but it was still tight but easier than the fuel tank side.
Using the measurements like in the video ALL the holes lined up like through the bed like they were supposed to with out any reaming of the plates or brackets.
The plates on the frame with the spacers worked great just like in the video and are worth the up charge of $$$ instead of using the universal angle supports.
With my Silverado being only 2 days old I was not going to drill any holes in to the frame for any reason to have chevy void my warranty so these bolt on plates using exsisting holes were the nuts!!!
I bought new bed rails for my fifth wheel as it would just have been to much of a pain to mess with the rusted bolts in the old truck.
All the hardware was there, every thing was packed waaaay too good, and it all came fast.
Who could ask for more
Eric Horn
Like a few of the other reviewers, I decided that the custom brackets for my 2005 Silverado 2500HD with 6 1/2 foot box was the way to go because I didn't want to be drilling and fitting the smaller brackets under there. Here's some thoughts. Yes, the spare tire really needs to come down - that took me about 2 hours, as I have never had it down before and had to keep referring to the instruction manual. Making measurements for the rail placement and drilling the holes in the bed was the easy part, as was using tip snips to remove a section of the heat shield underneath. The hard part was drilling the optional hole in the frame for the 1/2 inch bolt and fishing the bolt through on the drivers side (passenger side was an easy fish). I started with 1/2 inch hole for the 1/2 inch bolt - ended up drilling a 9/16 hole so the bolt would come through. Still, I do feel comfortable that this bolt provides extra security/rigidity to the brackets. The other hard thing to do was get the rectangular offset hole plate and lock washer attached to the rail bolts up by the fuel tank. Ended up hot gluing the lock washer to the plate because I was out of fingers to hold the pieces up there and thread the nut onto the bolt - ideally one would need to be part stretch armstrong and part contortionist. My total installation time was closer to 5-6 hours - but when it comes to something like this, I would rather be slow and thorough than fast and miss something. The kit contained everything needed and even a few leftover parts - so don't be concerned. Towed my new trailer home 2 nights ago and was pleased with the set-up and how it towed.
This is my first time pulling a 5th wheel but not the first time traveling in a RV. Looking at the installation kits for these 5th wheels was a learning experience! Not many places sell the Quick-Install Custom Base Rails and Installation Kit. Since this is my first time pulling I wanted the security of knowing all four bolts holding the Base rails to the frame were attached to bracket. I'm not the one doing the install, but from what I see, the time should be cut by 1/3 from the other way of installing the base rails. eTrailer was the only one of the 5 websites I checked that had what I was looking for.
Regards,
Robert G from MI
Parts arrived in a very short time and all fasteners and directions were in the boxes as expected! Installing was not quick and easy as I thought it would be. Fat fingers I could have done without. My son helped with most of the installation because 4 hands are required! The quality of the product is great as I expected too!
Joseph S.
1/3/2019
The product is working as I expected. The sun and weather has taken its toll on the paint, but that to I would expect. Great kit overall.
Very good products that are built to last. Nice thick powder coat. My order was an odd one . I ordered a fifth wheel base kit for a Chevrolet 1500. I don’t think many 1500s put fithwheel kits on them, but it’s for a 1500 towable Camper , very short and light. The system kept trying to send me the kit for a newer 2500 or 3500 I guess but we finally got it right with the required pieces to get it mounted. Nice and respectful service on the phone.
I was happy with this set of rails. I chose to have them installed, but my installer said they fit well and were an easy install. I have used them now with multiple 5th wheel and gooseneck hitches.
This product was well designed and came all the materials that were required and additional for the various other vehicle installations. The installation was as stated, the only drilling was thru the bed floor. The hardest part of the install was being able to start the driver side rail bolts to the frame bracket. To many items in the way (fuel tank, brake controller, dual exhaust), but overall an excellent package. Took about 3 1/2 hours with two guys, a third would been helpful at times. 2008 Chevrolet Silverado LTZ 2500HD Diesel Crew Cab Short Box
etrailer's web site is full of info and videos and ordering was a easy. Product came in one box and looks like it may have broken open in transit do to weight (85 lbs.) However box was taped up and nothing was damaged and all parts are there. It appears that the fasteners for multiple applications are supplied, so there may be some left over. I will be installing this into a 2004 Silverado 2500HD that had previously had a 5th wheel hitch so I'm hoping that the preexisting holes line up.
Will be towing a 5th wheel camper.
etrailer had the best price of all of the online suppliers of this product I could find. Quick shipping too. My only issue, and it's really not etrailer's fault, the included instructions left a lot to be desired. But to be fair, I found a YouTube video of this assembly being installed and while it looked pretty simple and straight forward, the video even left out some key issues...such as a brake line that was right in the way and had to be "relocated". Other than the instruction issue, I would give etrailer 5 stars.
Ordered the Reese Quick-install rail and installation kit for my 08 GMC because the 05 brackets I had did not fit the 08. A friend and I installed it in about 2 hours, had difficulty installing one bolt above the fuel tank but this was to be expected. The instructions were clear and easy to follow. The parts fit perfectly and looked like a professional installation when finished.
I did not have to take off the spare tire or do anything with my heat shield. It bolted right on took about 4 hours.
The instructions for a 1500 series is horrible, for the back rail to in stall it you have to have your hitch for measurements thats not the way you should install the second rail, give precise measurements.
2nd it took 2 people 8 hrs to install due to the wrong instructions on what holes to use on the frame brackets but, we inprovised fot the parts to work. I wouldn't recommend to all one. I would buy Curt next time.
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Larry E.
7/13/2015
Ha ha ha Michael I can relate to that have a 3 and a 7 years old and every time I work on something they are there to help the 3 year old more like wants to do it himself . Planing on installing a 5th myself and was thinking they could be of help steping on the bolts top side so I can put the nuts to the bolts, looks kinda hard. Good luck with your venture . Larry Esparza El Paso Tx