I have a quad cab and bought it to tow a small 5th wheel – an Escape fiberglass trailer that weighs 5,000 pounds loaded with a pin weight of around 800. I ordered my Lone Star with few options – tow package, 33 gallon tank, level 1 equipment, 3.21 diff – in order to get a high payload, and I have a payload of 1,804 which should be plenty. I towed a similar small fifth wheel for many years with my 98 Ram 5.9 and love the way a fifth wheel tows vs. a bumper pull - far more stable, and shorter overall length when hitched up so easier to fit into smaller campsites.
I bought my truck last July and found that none of the hitch manufacturers had a rail bracket kit for mounting the rails in the new body style Ram. Without a truck-specific mounting kit, no one wanted to try to do a custom installation – trucks are so complex now with so many variables no one would mess with it. Reese and Curt both supposedly had rail bracket kits in the works but kept pushing out the ETA. Apparently there is a weld seam under the bed of the new body style Ram right where a bolt hole would normally go for the brackets that was giving them problems designing something to work. We have to go pick up our new trailer next month and I was getting worried that we might not be able to get hitch rails installed in time.
A couple of weeks ago I found out that Demco had come out with a rail bracket kit for the new body style, part number 8552032. Just in time for me – I got the rails and hitch installed today and now I’m all set to go pick up our new fifth wheel next month. Thought I’d share this because no one seemed to know about the Demco rail bracket kit, I actually found out about it when talking to a Demco factory rep about something else. If you’re trying to get fifth wheel rails installed in a new Ram this is the only option until Curt or Reese comes out with their own brackets.
It doesn’t matter what brand of brackets or rails you use, they are all industry standard so any rail-mounted fifth wheel hitch designed for ISR rails will fit on any rails. I wound up getting a Demco hitch also because I liked that particular hitch, takes up less space in the bed and is lighter than most fifth wheel hitches.
Another option for the new Rams is the B&W Turnover Ball, which does have a kit to fit the new body style. It mounts a removable gooseneck ball that leaves a completely flat bed when you take it out, which is a plus if you need to haul other stuff. There are a few fifth wheel hitches that come in a version that mounts to a gooseneck ball instead of rails – the Demco Recon I just bought is one and there are others.
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