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Hello all,
I thought I'd show a few pictures of the Demco Gooseneck to 5th wheel hitch I recently installed on my flat bed truck. The install was easy, but there are a few areas that caused a bit of trouble and there is one design flaw that might trouble some folks that I thought I'd point out so that people can make informed decisions.
My truck bed is a CM Flatbed deck with under boxes. Its the model for a Ford Superduty crewcab long bed chassis cab truck. It has a factory installed B&W 30k GN ball in a recessed well; the ball is not removable. I researched and decided on the Demco Recon hitch designed to work with a recessed ball, flat deck. It is the 21k rated hitch. Factors for choosing this hitch: relatively light and easy to remove when I need my flatbed deck clear (I haul an Arctic Fox 1160 double slide pickup camper on this truck when we go into primitive boondcking sites). This hitch is relatively short in height, which is better for my truck setup, as its a 4x4 truck and the flatbed deck sits up apx 4" higher than a regular truck bed. The hitch is height adjustable via the upright casting which has 3 holes, allowing 1 1/4" adjustments up or down from the center pinhole.
I called the Demco Tech line prior to purchase to verify that this hitch would work with my CM recessed ball flatbed deck. I had an area of concern that the minimum dimensions of the ball well, was about 1/4" narrower, in one place, than the minimum suggested by their website installation guide. This was based on the front, back and side clearance dimensions of the well walls, measured from the ball centerpoint. The two side dimensions and the front dimension were just fine, in fact larger than the minimums. The rear dimension was about 1/4" narrower. Talking with the Tech, I was assured that the hitch would fit but I would just have to install the upright casting into its receiver at my desired height and torque the set screws down, prior to setting the base down over the GN ball and securing it to the ball. The reason is that you can't use a wrench to torque the set screws down if its in the well due to lack of clearance. No big deal, I set it up and it went into the well just fine.
This is where I found out that having the upright casting set up to the lowest pin setting (to give the hitch its lowest height) was not going to work because the casting is about 1/2" below the base of the receiver. This makes the casting hit the bottom of the GN ball well, which doesn't allow the rear of the frame to contact the flatbed deck, when you torque down the GN ball coupler. So, I had to reset the upright casting height adjustment pin to the middle position(moving the hitch height up 1 1/4") to provide the clearance needed to seat the hitch frame properly to the truck bed. Hopefully this height setting will work; I won't know for sure until I pickup the trailer this weekend. If not and I need that 1 1/4" back, I'll have to cut off apx 1/2" from the upright casting bottom. to use the lowest height setting.
Now to my biggest issue with this hitch after installing it. I noticed that the front, flat angle plate of the hitch frame, doesn't sit over the flatbed deck except at the corners. The recess well wall edge is slightly beyond the edge of the hitch frame. I called Demco and talked to their Tech Support about this and their answer is, all is fine here you have nothing to worry about as long as the corners have good support (the corners are fully supported). OK, I guess I can accept that. I mentioned as a product improvement, Demco might want to lengthen that part of the frame on the cab side a few inches so that the whole frame base has good contact to the flatbed. He mentioned that there are many truck bed configurations and its hard to account for every situation. OK I get it. Looks like I'll give this hitch a try after my discussion with Demco and hope all works out fine. I'll definitely be watching that front section of the base for any deformation as the hitch is used. The rest of the hitch assembly looks pretty well engineered and sturdy so we'll just have to see how it goes.
Just wanted to share my thoughts so others with a recessed ball flatbed (particularly a CM) know what to expect if they get one of these hitches. Feel free to ask questions and I'll try to answer...
Taad
I thought I'd show a few pictures of the Demco Gooseneck to 5th wheel hitch I recently installed on my flat bed truck. The install was easy, but there are a few areas that caused a bit of trouble and there is one design flaw that might trouble some folks that I thought I'd point out so that people can make informed decisions.
My truck bed is a CM Flatbed deck with under boxes. Its the model for a Ford Superduty crewcab long bed chassis cab truck. It has a factory installed B&W 30k GN ball in a recessed well; the ball is not removable. I researched and decided on the Demco Recon hitch designed to work with a recessed ball, flat deck. It is the 21k rated hitch. Factors for choosing this hitch: relatively light and easy to remove when I need my flatbed deck clear (I haul an Arctic Fox 1160 double slide pickup camper on this truck when we go into primitive boondcking sites). This hitch is relatively short in height, which is better for my truck setup, as its a 4x4 truck and the flatbed deck sits up apx 4" higher than a regular truck bed. The hitch is height adjustable via the upright casting which has 3 holes, allowing 1 1/4" adjustments up or down from the center pinhole.
I called the Demco Tech line prior to purchase to verify that this hitch would work with my CM recessed ball flatbed deck. I had an area of concern that the minimum dimensions of the ball well, was about 1/4" narrower, in one place, than the minimum suggested by their website installation guide. This was based on the front, back and side clearance dimensions of the well walls, measured from the ball centerpoint. The two side dimensions and the front dimension were just fine, in fact larger than the minimums. The rear dimension was about 1/4" narrower. Talking with the Tech, I was assured that the hitch would fit but I would just have to install the upright casting into its receiver at my desired height and torque the set screws down, prior to setting the base down over the GN ball and securing it to the ball. The reason is that you can't use a wrench to torque the set screws down if its in the well due to lack of clearance. No big deal, I set it up and it went into the well just fine.
This is where I found out that having the upright casting set up to the lowest pin setting (to give the hitch its lowest height) was not going to work because the casting is about 1/2" below the base of the receiver. This makes the casting hit the bottom of the GN ball well, which doesn't allow the rear of the frame to contact the flatbed deck, when you torque down the GN ball coupler. So, I had to reset the upright casting height adjustment pin to the middle position(moving the hitch height up 1 1/4") to provide the clearance needed to seat the hitch frame properly to the truck bed. Hopefully this height setting will work; I won't know for sure until I pickup the trailer this weekend. If not and I need that 1 1/4" back, I'll have to cut off apx 1/2" from the upright casting bottom. to use the lowest height setting.
Now to my biggest issue with this hitch after installing it. I noticed that the front, flat angle plate of the hitch frame, doesn't sit over the flatbed deck except at the corners. The recess well wall edge is slightly beyond the edge of the hitch frame. I called Demco and talked to their Tech Support about this and their answer is, all is fine here you have nothing to worry about as long as the corners have good support (the corners are fully supported). OK, I guess I can accept that. I mentioned as a product improvement, Demco might want to lengthen that part of the frame on the cab side a few inches so that the whole frame base has good contact to the flatbed. He mentioned that there are many truck bed configurations and its hard to account for every situation. OK I get it. Looks like I'll give this hitch a try after my discussion with Demco and hope all works out fine. I'll definitely be watching that front section of the base for any deformation as the hitch is used. The rest of the hitch assembly looks pretty well engineered and sturdy so we'll just have to see how it goes.
Just wanted to share my thoughts so others with a recessed ball flatbed (particularly a CM) know what to expect if they get one of these hitches. Feel free to ask questions and I'll try to answer...
Taad
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