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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. This is a brick wheel hitch that will mount in your short bed, GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado 2500 and 3500. So you can tow your fifth wheel trailer. This does have the manual slide on it, so it is going to make sure that your short bed truck can pull your fifth wheel trailer and still make those tight turns when you need to, by moving your hitch back up to 14 inches. So basically when you find yourself in a situation where you need to make one of those slow, tight turns, you'll get out, you'll move the slide into the slide position here and that will allow you to very easily slide that back up to 14 inches so that you have that greater clearance.
You're not gonna have to worry about making contact with your cab and your trailer. And then when you get straightened back out you can slide that back into the lock position there where it will sit above your axle so it'll distribute the weight appropriately for your highway speeds and make sure that everything's gonna be safe again for you. Now, this is going to fit with your standard 12 to 14 inch wide pin boxes. Keep in mind this is not gonna be compatible with your rotating pin box. So if you've installed a rotating pin box on your trailer so that you can kind of accommodate your shorter bed this isn't gonna work with that to give you more.
It would create two pivot points which could cause safety issues and that sort of thing. So you wanna make sure you've got a static pin box in order to operate this properly. This is made here in the USA of a sturdy steel construction. You can see it's got nice black powder coat finish on it. It's gonna help resist rust and corrosion.
That steel construction is gonna give us the gross towing weight capacity of 21,000 pounds. It also has the vertical load limit of 5,250 pounds. So keep that in mind. make sure that that's gonna work for your setup. This is designed specifically for your 2020 and newer GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado 2500 and 3500 with the OEM prep package.
And the reason for that is our legs here are side rails. These are designed to fit into your factory puck system. So I've got these loosely installed right now so that's why they're kind of wiggling around. Once you get them firmly installed, you'll be able to pull up that pin and just pulling that lever, I don't know if you'll be able to see the way that's turning that foot so you can have it in the open position. Just set it down into your factory puck system and then push it in. That's gonna put it in the lock position. You'll pass your pin through and you'll have a nice solid connection to your factory prep system. So very simple to get installed. It's dropping right into those four pucks, and this is a little bit lighter weight than some other options. So it is going to be relatively quick and easy to get installed and to take out if you're needing to have a full bed access again. So a little bit lighter than some of your other options. I will say when you're comparing this to say like an auto slide, it is gonna be a little bit more work having to get out, unlatch and allow it to move into that slider position rather than your auto slides which will do that automatically for you. But auto slides are significantly heavier so it'll be harder to get in and out. They're also gonna be significantly more expensive. So if it just doesn't fit into your price range, this is still gonna give you that slide adjustability so that you can have that room that you need to make sure you can make those tight turns without denting your cab or making contact with your trailer. If we move into the specifics of our hitch, we do have the wrap around single piece jaw that's gonna provide a nice secure connection for you. Having that 360 degree jaw to kingpin contact is going to ensure less rattling and more security than your slide bar jaws. I'm gonna use a screwdriver here to kind of simulate your kingpin. So as you're backing your truck up to your trailer that king pin's gonna find its way back to this back plate here which is going to trigger it to close, snap shut. And then with it shut you can see we do have that three quarter inch thick solid steel locking bar that's gonna reinforce that connection with your coupled trailer. And that's going to automatically lock into place when the jaw closes. So you're gonna have a nice sturdy connection. We can operate that jaw with our spring loaded handle here that's got the comfort grip and that will allow for simple coupling. You can see we have the tethered safety pin that's going to allow you to secure the handle in the open or the closed position and it's tethered to make sure that you don't lose track of that. Our hitch head is a double pivot head so it's going to ease hookup and help to limit chucking while you're traveling. This will pivot front and the back as well as side to side. If I am able to turn this to the side a little bit, you can see that inside here we do have the cushioning polyurethane dampeners that help to reduce noise and absorb road shock to give you a nice smooth ride. Again, working our way down, we do have the adjustable height setting here. So we've got a big pin that we can pull out. There's three different adjustment holes here. So at our highest point it is going to give us a hitch height of 22 and one eighth of an inch. Our middle setting will be a height of 20 and seven eighths of an inch, and then at our lowest setting it'll be 19 and five eighths of an inch. So make sure that that's going to work for your setup, give you adequate clearance over your bedside rails. So overall, a really nice option here. If you don't want to pay for the convenience of an auto slide this is still going to allow you to have that clearance for a more reasonable price and it is gonna be fairly simple to take in and out. Of course, it does weigh over a hundred pounds so you'll definitely want to have a second set of hands helping you with that. It's not something you can do on your own but it is gonna be a little bit more, a little easier than some other systems. So 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
Hitch works great and delivery from etrailer was fast.
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Looks great
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.
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.
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
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.
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 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.
Very noisy!! Makes you think something broke. It’s good if you don’t want to break the bank. But when parking you’ll hear the loud noises coming from the hitch. Other than that it works fine.
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