Fifth Wheel Installation - 1999 Ford F-350
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How to Install a Fifth Wheel on a 1999 Ford F-350
Today on this 1999 Ford F-350 super duty, we are going to install part number RP50082. The first thing we need to do is go ahead and lower the spare tire so we have access underneath the vehicle. And then once we have that done, we will go into the bed of the truck and we will start marking out the places for our rails. What we are going to do is measure out from the edge of the bed itself, not the tailgate but the bed, and we are going to measure out and place a mark in the bed as described in the instructions. We are going to do that in two places on both sides. Now we have our mounts in our bed. We will line up our first rail and you are going to want to get them even left to right, using the seam right here works out pretty good. Our custom install kit on the bottom is going to use these two outside holes here. So we will find the center and mark that. Do that on both sides of the rail. Alright, let us move our rail out of the way. We will go ahead and drill a couple 1/8 inch holes. Now we are by the frame of the vehicle on the driver side. Now you do not want to really have to take off the back tires but we did anyway for clarity. One thing we know is that our plate is going to have to sit flat on the frame so that our brake cable here is going to be in the way. So, we are going to move that out of the way. There will be a provision to but that back on later on. 1:12
Then we will hold our brackets up to it and make sure everything lines up ok. This is going to go around the hat channel from the bed here. And the up front, here is our hole we drilled. So that looks ok. Go ahead and drill out our pilot holes. We are going to start will a 1/4 inch bit and work out way up to a 9/16 inch. Alright, let us go ahead and loosely mount the frame bracket to the frame. And we are going to use a 5/8 carriage bolt. We will run it right through here, through the existing hole in the frame. And on the back side we will use a spacer, a lock washer and nut. Alright, now we are going to leave this loose because we still need to have the bracket loose enough where we can install the brake cable hanger. Pull it out a little bit. This original hardware is going to go right back in here. Our little bracket goes right in here and, onto the bolt, go ahead and reinstall the nut. Now we can hold the tab right here if you squeeze it with a pair of vice grips to help it from spinning. Then we can just run it down. Let us go ahead and sneak in our U-bolt. Alright, we will install a conical tooth washer and nut to hold everything together. Again, we are going to leave everything loose. Now let us go ahead and repeat the same process back over on the passenger side of the vehicle. 2:28
Let us go ahead and set our rail into place. We are going to have to install a couple of these spacers right here. And then we will go ahead and the rail right on top of that. This will insure metal to metal contact between the bed and the rail. Now, when you tighten this down, the chances are that the spacer is going to slide down just a little bit. But that is ok, as long as you have metal to metal contact you are alright. Alright now on the bottom we are going to install a block and then we will install a lock washer and a nut. Alright, we have those finger tight. Let us go ahead and repeat the same process back over on the other side. At this point, we can go ahead and start work on the second rail. And we are going to use our fifth wheel hitch to go ahead and properly place that. OK now that we have it in place, we will go ahead and check to make sure we are square. And then, we will go ahead and mark and drill our holes as we did before. If you can take the hitch in and out, that also tells you that you are pretty square. Alright, let us mark our centers. OK, we will get the rail out of our way and we will start drilling. 4:01
Now we have our hardware installed and we kept everything pretty much finger tight. Now what we will do is go ahead and take the hitch up and down a little bit and make sure it works ok going into the rails. And that will help align the rails to make it easier to take the hitch in and out. Once you are satisfied with that, we will go ahead and hand tighten them and then we will check on more time. OK, with our bolts hand tightened, let us go ahead and check it and make sure everything works. So let us go ahead and torque the bolts down as specified in the instructions. Alright, now let us move on to the frame bracket fasteners going to the frame itself. We will go ahead and start with a U-bolt here and we are going to tighten it down evenly and then torque them down. Let us go ahead and move on to the 5/8 fastener that goes towards the back of the truck. We will go ahead and snug that down and then we will go ahead and torque it as specified in the instructions. The last thing we need to do is go ahead and drill out two more holes. We are going to drill them out on the inside of the rails right here. Since this is going through the up part on the corrugation, we do not have to worry about spacers. Our hitch is fully installed now. All we have to do is reinstall the space tire and the two rear tires in the back and we are good to go. And with that, that will finish our install of part number RP50082.
Info for this part was:
Video Edited:
Zack K
Installed by:
Cole B
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