2004 Ram 3500 Fifth-Wheel Hitch Research

From : tom mitchell

Q: we recently bought a 2004 ram 3500 dually for full-time 5th-wheel towing purposes 5er yet tbd. we thought that having the 5er hitch installed would be straightforward but it turned out to be somewhat of a challenge; yet a happy ending was found. the hitch brands most often mentioned in these forums seem to be reese draw-tite and hidden hitch. these are all owned by a single company cequent group http//www.cequentgroup.com we went to our large local reese dealer intending to have him install the reese 16k 5er hitch but he refused to do the work. this was because of dodges fairly stern technical warnings with respect to any alterations to the new tubular frames used on 2003-2004 rams http//dodgeram.info/tsb/2003/13-001-03.htm the reese dealer quoted the above technical bulletin as his reason. he didnt want to assume liability for our trucks safety after drilling our frame to install the hitch. he was hopeful that reese would come out with some ram-specific no-drill brackets in 2004. however our calls to reese tech support found that they had no such product planned. via the cequent site we looked at the other hitch brand product lines. it looked like we had a chance when we saw the following hidden hitch brackets http//www.hiddenhitch.com/products/displayaccessory.aspaccessoryid=50040 described graphically in http//www.hiddenhitch.com/images/products/instructions/50040.pdf however it turned out that these no-drill brackets only fit the 02-04 dodge 1500 series and 03-04 dodge 2500 series; not our 3500. by pure luck valley industries was mentioned in some of our searches and we recalled them as a reliable long-term hitch maker http//www.valleyindustries.com more importantly they had a considerable variety of no-drill hitches and fittings for our truck http//www.valleyorders.com/valley/public/cgi-bin/ipa002r extses=ex64251829&event=selmodel%28changed%29&vehyr=2004&vehmake=dodge&vehmod=pickup after studying the instructions for the valley underbed system ubs and scissor-clamped 16k hitch provided in http//www.valleyorders.com/isheets/70630.pdf http//www.valleyorders.com/isheets/70660.pdf we decided to go with it. although on-line prices for valley parts 70630 and 70660 seemed to be around $1200 trick trucks in winchester va installed the hitch in our line-xd bed for $899.60 including tax. we havent towed anything yet but its a pleasing hitch to look at just four 2.5 holes in the bed no rails and when the hitch is removed plastic plugs fill the holes and leave a pretty flat bed. this result is not intended to critique anyone who has had other hitches installed in new rams by standard drilling or welding. good installers are not going to do anything really unsafe. but this valley solution avoids any warranty problems that an unscrupulous dodge dealer might bring up if any frame defects happen down the road. .

Replies:

From : markmark

how do you know they are painting it is there a site you go to to follow up ive never bought a vehicle i had built before this sounds cool. so if it was painted today when should it hit the dealer 1500 4x4 quad cab. tia pk .

From : mark

a small shop in airdrie alberta told me that all i need to do is buy new rails and use my old hitch when i get my new truck... he told me the hydroform raises some issues but i am going to get away with about $150-$200 for rails wiring including back-up lights and instalation.. not a bad deal in my opinion. m. we recently bought a 2004 ram 3500 dually for full-time 5th-wheel towing purposes 5er yet tbd. we thought that having the 5er hitch installed would be straightforward but it turned out to be somewhat of a challenge; yet a happy ending was found. .