The Elite Series fifth-wheel trailer hitch offers the best in quick, easy hookup with a wide funnel area, 4-way pivoting head and a self-latching jaw that wraps around the king pin for maximum security. Custom, under-bed rail system sold separately.
Features:
[NLA]Reese Elite Series Pre-Assembled 5th Wheel w/wiring 25K:Specs:
[NLA]Reese Elite Series Pre-Assembled 5th Wheel w/wiring 25K:Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Today on our 2015 Ford F250 Super Duty we will be installing the Under-Bed Rail and Installation Kit for Reese Elite Series 5th Wheel and Gooseneck Trailer Hitches, part number RP30126. To get our vehicle ready for installation we're going to go ahead and lower the spare tire and remove the rear wheels and tires. Take a flat blade screwdriver, or we have a brake spoon, just get it under here beneath the cap, just pop it loose. You can set it aside. Now I'll go ahead and remove the spare tire. Now our 2015 F250 is set up for this puck style system. You see there's dimples in the bed right here that are locations for the holes that we will be drilling.
They're in the diagram in the instructions, just so you can double check the measurements in between the marks in the bed that comes from the factory. If there is no dimple in the location you can go ahead and mark it using the instructions. In this case we do have our marks here in the bed and we'll use an 1/8" drill bit to start our pilot bit through these four holes, two here on the driver side and then two here on the passenger side. It is a good idea to put gentle pressure on there as the gas tank is on this side so you want to go ahead and be careful when drilling this rear hole. Once you get done, go ahead, check your location underneath to make sure you're not interfering with anything when you go to drill out your bigger hole. We'll go to our passenger side and repeat the same process in drilling out our 1/8" pilot holes.
Before we drill out our 2-3/4" hole for our hitch I'm going to go ahead and take a piece of plywood here, put it up on the frame, just so you have something to drill into underneath. It'll just protect the wire in here and the gas tank underneath our hole when we drill it out. Now we're going to go ahead and take our 2-3/4" hole saw and drill out our holes at each of the four locations. Now we'll go ahead and take a vacuum and clean up our metal shavings. Next we need to loosen up our bed bolts here in the bed of our truck. We can go ahead and lift the side of our truck bed up, prop it up so we can get our rails into place.
It does include a T50 torque inaudible 00:02:44. We'll go ahead and remove the ones here on the passenger side and loosen up the ones on the driver side. Let's go ahead and set that bolt aside. There's four on the passenger side and four on the driver side. We'll remove the two in the middle, then there's one here at the tailgate and then one at the inaudible 00:03:02 by the tap 00:03:04. Again here on the driver side we'll only need to loosen these just so we have some room to tilt our bed up on the passenger side and to get our block into place to give us some room to put our rails in.
We'll go ahead and use an extra set of hands to help us flip the bed up so we can get the block underneath the frame and the bed to give us some working room. If you have a pry bar or a big pipe you can stick underneath here and just pry it up a little bit to give you some leverage to lift it up. Now we can find out if we take something close to a 2 by 4, put it underneath the hat channel and frame and give us enough working room to get our rail in place. So we'll go ahead and take our first rail, slide it in here, up over the frame. Then we can go ahead and scoot it back close here to the hat channel so we can get our second one into position. We'll go ahead and take our second rail, slide that up. You can see this brace here on it, this will go toward the middle on both side. This one will go back, the back rail will go forward here until you see this bracket and it will be up. Now that we have these in place we'll go ahead and lower the bed back down. We do have it supported here just a little bit in the front, we'll go ahead and take that block off the hat channel. Next we need to put our side brackets into place and bolt them to our cross rails. Here on the passenger side, this is the correct bracket. You have two holes here that'll bolt to our cross rails. You see here there's two cut outs. If you hold it into position, you can see that it clears this factory bolt that's in the frame. That hole lines up along with our rear hole. This will be the right one for the passenger side. We'll go ahead and take our 5/8" bolt, feed it through our bracket and into the nut. We'll go ahead, we're going to secure our bolt with a conical tooth washer, we'll slide here into the opening here in our rail and our 5/8" hex nut. Again, feed that over our conical tooth washer, it does line up with our hole underneath. Then we'll go ahead and take our 5/8" by 1-3/4" bolt with a conical tooth washer on it, feed it up here through our side bracket and into our nut. It's a good idea to get an extra set of hands to kind of to help you support this bracket; it is kind of heavy, as we feed it through there, and get it into position. Now I'll go ahead here and repeat the same process, bring in our conical tooth washer and 5/8" nut. Feed it here over this opening, get it lined up with our hole. The hole is inaudible 00:05:58 and put your finger there and wind that up there, it makes it a lot easier. Take our 5/8" bolt, feed it up through the brackets and in to our nut. Now we'll go ahead and go the driver side and repeat the same process. Now that I have our frame brackets attached for our cross rails, we'll go ahead and attach our brackets here to the frame. We'll be using an M14 bolt and conical tooth washer. Make sure the teeth are facing toward the bracket. They'll go into these holes that are lined up here on our side brackets. We'll feed that through, we'll go ahead and put our flange nut here, feed it up on the back side of the frame and thread it on. We'll go ahead and repeat that here for our front mourning location. Now we'll go ahead and go to the driver side and repeat the same process of attaching our side brackets to our frame, using the same hardware. Our cross members here with our openings for our cups are here lined up with our holes. Before we attach the cup with our bolts, we'll go ahead and reattach our bed here. They do have inaudible 00:07:13 cut on them so you do not want to use an impact, you want to go ahead, thread them in by hand starting out and then use a socket. Now go ahead and install our pucks here into our openings. We'll go ahead and take a plastic trim ring that comes with the kit, take a puck, drop that into a position. That aligns up in there. Then we'll go ahead and take our 5/8" blunt head screw that takes the Alan bit and a split lock washer, feed that onto our bolt, down through the puck into our rails. Go ahead and use a 3/8" Alan bit to tighten that down. Once we get that tightened we'll go ahead and repeat the process at the other three locations and then torque it down. Now that I have all our pucks installed and tightened down we can go ahead and torque as indicated in the instructions. Now that we have our pucks tightened and torqued we can go ahead and move to our side brackets and cross rails and tighten and torque those as specified in the instructions. Before we tighten and torque our side rails and side bracket's we're going to go ahead and take our 5th wheel head and put it into our pucks. This will help keep everything aligned when we tighten down our side hardware. Now that we have all of them secure, we can go ahead and twist those into place. Put our pins in to hold them into our pucks. Now we'll go ahead and tighten and torque our side brackets here to our cross rails so it'll be these bolts, so we'll go ahead and use a 15/16" socket on this side. Go ahead and put a 15/16" wrench up here on our rail for both those and tighten down to specifications as indicated in the instructions. Now we go ahead and repeat the same process of tightening these bolts and torquing them on the driver side. Now we're going to go ahead and tighten and torque our bolts that hold our side bracket to the frame of the vehicle. Go ahead and use a 7/8" wrench and a 19mm socket to do that. Now we can go ahead and torque the bolt toward the front of the vehicle. Then we can repeat that process on the driver side. Now that we have everything tightened and torqued we can go ahead and go back to our bed bolts and torque them down. That'll be the final step here for our installation of our rails. Now that everything is tightened and torqued we can go ahead and undo our clips here on the side, open up our handles here to the 5th wheel head and swing the handles open. When not using your 5th wheel you can go ahead and set it out of place. When you're ready to tow just drop it in there, close your handles, everything is nice and secure. Now when we're not towing we can go ahead and take the rubber covers that come with our installation kit, put those over our pucks, give you a nice, flush surface here in the bed to cover those up and keep dust and debris out of those. Now that our installation of our cross rails and side bracket is finished, we can go ahead and reinstall our spare tire and rear wheel tire. Now we can go ahead and lower our truck down onto our wheels and then torque them and reinstall our center caps. Now that we have our 5th wheel head installed, we're ready to hook up our trailer and hit the road. That'll do it for our Under-Bed Rail and Installation Kit for Reese Elite Series 5th Wheel Gooseneck Trailer Hitch Kit, part number RP30126 on our 2015 Ford F250 Super Duty. .
I ordered this hitch to replace my 18k Signature series. It fit right in my original bed rails from my 18k Signature hitch. Works great.
etrailer shipping and customer service was awesome!
absolutely great hitch. Should not have any problem pulling or worrying about bending something. Would recommend this hitch for F 350 and 450 at any time
Excellent fifth wheel hitch. Strong but yet stylish. Easy to mount and also remove from truck bed. Easy to hookup and disconnect 5th wheel. Reese is a very good product.
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My Reese Elite 5th wheel hitch arrived UPS. 143lbs and used a hand dolly to take off the truck and wheel to my garage. Came packaged ok. Pre-assembled and everything was included. Read the Manual, which for older people helps, showing lube and parts, install info etc...referring back to the manual/instructions. Used a wooden table(same height as my tailgate) to wheel it right up to the gate and slid the hitch on a piece of cardboard(from the box) into the position of the puck system. Moving the base first then the hitch plate next. The hitch install was simple and easy. Did not need any help. I did call customer service and made a slight 1/4 turn adjustment to two legs for a tighter fit. There again referring to the manual/instructions provided with the hitch.
Very pleased with the hitch over all. It served its purpose and I believe will give us many years of service. We pull a 5th wheel gvwr of 11769lbs and completed over 1200 miles of safe towing. Pleased with my purchase. Thank you.
A year ago I began looking for a fifth wheel hitch for my F250 with High Capacity Towing Package. The vehicle has an OEM mount (puck system). The RV dealer kept telling me what 'might work.' That's not how I roll. I visited etrailer.com and their Subject Matter Expert came on board and helped me find the equipment that was perfect for our requirements. We have towed the trailer from KY to CO to KY to FL and around FL. Thank you etrailer. Your price was a few bucks more than buying it from Amazon- but they have no expert on hand. I am more than willing to pay a few bucks for the piece of mind you provided. Thank you.
I have a 2013 F350 and it came with a 5th wheel hitch Prep Package. Your Reese Elite Series Pre-Assembled 5th wheel Trailer Hitch, 18000 lbs fits perfectly. The installation was quick and easy. We took a trip to Glacier National Park and it works great.
Thank You,
The Halls
Item was received well packaged. All parts were received as expected. I wish I would have taken pictures of box when it was received or as I installed it on my 2015 F250 but rest assured it fit into my Ford with the 5th wheel prep package quite easily. Directions were adequate. My only issue was I did not know if the pre-asembly of the base was torqued correctly. There was no mention of it in the packaging and I do not own a torque wrench so it would have been comforting to know that it was done properly before shipment. However it appeared to be okay and I had no issues towing my 5th wheel the 15 miles from the dealership to my home. Also there is no mention prior to ordering that you need lithium grease to properly lube the moving parts. Make sure you have on hand prior to assembly. Overall, excellent product and I am definitely please with it and highly recommend it.
Great price for a top quality 5th wheel trailer hitch. There are other similar hitches to this B&W, but this is the best and the same as Ford's OEM one costing much more.
Some assembly is required, just fitting to truck bed and locking/pinning the head mounting is required. One thing that is not mentioned on this website is the pre-mount height of head is 15-3/4 high, the most used height for most truck and trailers.
The hitch arrived when stated. The hitch was assembled and slid into the pucks perfectly. I did some modification to my bed liner to accommodate the hitch and all worked well. I have yet to tow with it, but I have every confidence that it will work great.
P.S. Lumber rack and tool box will be removed for towing.
The first hitch I received had been busted open and everything fell out and then thrown back into the box along with someone else small box and retapped but missing some parts. etrailer had box picked up and sent me a new box with all the parts. Their customer service is outstanding. Never expected this kind of service.
I have installed this hitch 4 times. It is a solid piece. With a little care in the mounting adjustments, there are no rattles or noises, even when the camper is not connected.
The only problem I have is the instructions indicated drilling 4 3" inch holes in the bed. A 2 1/4" set of holes is more appropriate. They leave too much room for installation error. I mount the rails below and use a pointed bolt from the bottom to mark the hole location to drill the bed.
Other than that - I think this is a great hitch.
I've now towed a few thousand miles with this fifth wheel hitch, and am very satisfied with it. The sliding mechanism works well, to get extra clearance between truck & trailer. I also like the fact that the fifth wheel pad itself can be easily detached from the rest of the frame, because that makes it possible for one person (me) to remove it in two pieces.
Since this unit comes fully assembled it was a snap to install in the under bed mounting unit.
The only issue I had was how the product was received. The box fell completely apart when the UPS driver was taking it out of his truck. He said it was damaged before he got it. Luckly everything was still in the box.
I have a 2013 F-350 which came with the fifth wheel preparation package. As advertised, this Reese Elite series Pre-Assembled 5th wheel hitch dropped right in. Had it installed in about 30 minutes. very well constructed. Can't wait to try it out.
This fifth wheel is a quality product, I like the auto latch feature and the large opening to slide into the pin when hooking up.
Not real happy with the hitch. Hitching and unhitching can be difficult. Have to hold open with a bungee cord back to the bed of the truck to get unhitched. Hitching on an angle is difficult to get the hitch to latch
The only problem I have with the unit is when I pull the handle to drop the trailer the Jaw only opens half way. At times someone has to keep hold of the handle as the truck is being pulled away. I will continue to use this product and would purchase again.
I have owned B&W, Curt and Reese Hitches for 5th wheel trailers. When I recently purchased a toy hauler I needed a heavy duty hitch for the 20,000# load. I decided to spend the extra money and get the Reese because of previous good experience and fitting the installed pucks in my F350. The Reese felt very light when I unpacked it. The parts are all made in China or Mexico. Assembly and installation took 25 min. The release mechanism feels cheap. It is difficult to make sure the pin is fully seated in the hitch. 2x it looked seated and I was able to install the locking pin and the trailer came out of the hitch! I always do a test pull in forward and reverse before pulling out onto the road. First time it came out I caught it on the test pull, second time it looked good w the test pull but 30' down the driveway it came out and crushed my bedside and tailgate. I would recommend the B &W or Curt before buying the more expensive but inferior Reese.
Great product to reduce the amount of bulk in the bed. The paint finish has been good. Have pulled a 16500 lb 5th wheel about 18000 mi around all parts of the US and feel good about the hitch. Very easy to remove by myself as the hitch plate seperates from the base. And uses the ford puck mounting system. Small cons. The provided wrench to adjust the puck latch is not very robust and the tether for the safety pin broke in the 1st 4 months of use. This is a good product that Im very satisfied with.
5th Wheel hitch makes towing easy. The trailer I bought would turn without the slider but I can slide the hitch back and maneuver the trailer in very tight quarters. Hitch was too heavy for me to lift but I use my engine hoist to lift hitch in or out all by myself with ease. I made a cart that rolls into the garage when not in use.
Great hitch. Very heavy and sturdy. Fits my 2016 F350 with factory puck system like a glove. Very easy drop into pucks and lock into place. The hitch separates into two pieces to make it able to be installed or removed by one person, but two are better. We tow a 16,00 pound 5th wheel with this hitch.
This hitch looks well made and thought out. Connecting it to the bed of my Super Duty is a snap with the cam locks. I love how I have a flat bed when it's removed due to the Ford under bed fifth wheel rail kit. I'd buy it again.
My only two minor negatives are:
1. It's a heavy beast. Much more than my old hitch. It pushed me to buying an overhead hoist for the garage, which makes putting in and taking out the hitch so much easier. It was a blessing in disguise.
2. The handle isn't easily removable like my old hitch. I bike on my vacations and when driving to the trailhead I put a bike on either side of the hitch. Now I have to keep a ratchet handy to remove the handle.
My entire experience with etrailer.com was excellent. I spent numerous hours researching the hitch and tonneau cover set up I wanted for my 2014 Ford F250. The majority of my time was on the etrailer.com website reviewing Q&A, installation guidance and videos, and expert advise. I chose the Reese Elite Series 5th wheel hitch and the BakFlip F1 tonneau cover. Both products arrived within 10 business days. Installation was as easy and straightforward as expected. The BakFlip F1 really dresses up my F250 and the BakFlip technology makes it very easy to use and gives me full access to my truck bed as needed. The Reese hitch has performed flawlessly.
I put this unit in my F350 with the Ford Factory 5th wheel prep kit. It fit perfectly. I have towed about 27,000 miles so far and I couldn't be more pleased. Being able to remove the hitch and have complete use of the bed is a real plus for me.
Thanks,
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