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Want a premium, US-made hitch that can be removed to leave your bed totally free? How about the option of towing a gooseneck trailer when you're done with the camper? Get the best of all worlds with this premium B&W pairing.
Features:
Specs:
Note: This fifth-wheel trailer hitch is not compatible with Sidewinder or Revolution king pins. Do not use any device that changes the pivot point of your trailer's king pin with this hitch.
With the Companion from B&W, you get a heavy-duty fifth-wheel trailer hitch that mounts in your truck bed by connecting directly to the included Turnoverball gooseneck hitch. No modifications are required to your truck or trailer. And no additional parts are required for the system to work. When you're done towing, the entire hitch can be removed for complete bed access.
The included Turnoverball serves as a sturdy, custom base for installing the Companion in the bed of your truck, but it's also one of the most recognizable gooseneck hitches on the market.
Gooseneck Specs:
With the B&W Turnoverball underbed gooseneck trailer hitch you get the best of both worlds. When you go to tow a gooseneck trailer, the Turnoverball creates a sturdy, dependable connection with your trailer. And when you're done towing, you can stow the ball upside down in the hitch to get full bed access and a clean appearance. When you're ready to tow your fifth wheel trailer, just install the Companion in the ball hole in place of the gooseneck ball and lock the post in place using the built-in handle. You can remove the fifth wheel when you're done towing, leaving your truck bed open once again.
This kit is custom designed for your vehicle. The gooseneck hitch body bolts to existing holes in your truck's frame. While some modification is required - you will need to cut a 4" diameter hole in your bed for the hitch ball and drill holes for the built-in safety chain loops - there is no need to weld onto or to drill into your frame.
Once you have the brackets and center section installed, set up the operating handle. This handle is designed to be accessed from the rear driver's-side wheel well. On the end of the handle is the heavy-duty steel pin that secures the mounting post of the Companion (or the base of the gooseneck hitch ball).
Quiet, Secure Ride
The 1" thick jaw on the Companion is precision machined to provide a tight, sturdy connection. And unlike slide-bar models, the rounded 2-piece jaw on this fifth-wheel trailer hitch inhibits rattle and movement by securely wrapping around your trailer's king pin, resulting in easier hookup and a safer, quieter ride.
In addition to the sturdy jaw, the Companion has durable polyurethane bushings built in to provide a smoother, more comfortable towing experience. These bushings sit on top of the pivot arms that support the fifth-wheel head. Because the head is resting on a padded area, it is able to pivot without clanking. The ability of the head to pivot - both front to back and side to side - along with the trailer also helps to limit the chucking that may occur with a more static hitch.
Non-Binding Latch Handle
The dual jaw on the Companion is operated by a simple-to-use cam-action handle. This handle allows you to quickly and easily release the jaws on the hitch, even if you are on uneven terrain. If any binding does occur between your truck and trailer, the jaws may remain closed after you move the handle to the open position. But because the handle is unlatched, there is nothing keeping the jaws closed except for the binding pressure. Therefore, simply driving your truck forward will be enough to force the jaws to open.
The cam-action handle is held in the closed position with the included pin and clip. For extra security, you can replace the pin with a sturdy padlock. The shackle on the lock you choose should have a diameter of 5/16", height of 3", and a width of 2-1/4".
To install the Companion, first bolt the included RV post to the Companion's base. This post is what inserts into the hole in your truck bed. The RV post attaches to the base in 1 of 2 ways to allow for improved cab clearance and proper positioning over your truck's axle.
The next step is to set up the Companion's pivot arms. The arms are what allow the hitch to be adjusted front to back as well as up and down for optimal positioning. As a result, this hitch can accommodate the height of your trailer and also help to give you the cab clearance needed to execute turns while towing.
To adjust either the height of the hitch or the fore/aft positioning, just attach the hitch's pivot arms in the desired location on the base. The above diagram gives an indication of where to mount the arms so that you get the height and the cab clearance that you need.
The hitch head installs on top of the pivot arms. When you have the head in position, simply secure it to the arms with the included pins.
Alternate Instructions
California residents: click here
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Ryan: Hey, my name's Ryan. Here at Etrailer, we install, test fit and review a lot of different parts, that way we could try to answer any questions those of you might have. That's exactly what we're doing here today on our 2021 Ram 2500. We're going to be taking a look at and showing you how to install the B&W Underbed Gooseneck Trailer Hitch. Nowadays, these type of hitches are becoming more and more popular. These trucks are really capable and so a lot of people feel a lot more comfortable pulling large trailers around, whether it be a camper, work trailer.
Whatever the case may be, you're definitely going to want a hitch that is going to be able to handle just about anything you want to throw at it. That's exactly what this B&W is going to be able to do.Now, to be honest with you, I've installed quite a few gooseneck trailer hitches. One thing that really separates a B&W from many of the others is the overall craftsmanship. These things are really nice. They're put together very well and even down to the little things, just the hardware that comes with it and ease of use.
Everything works like it should and how you would expect it to. To me, that's something that is extremely important. Whenever you're pulling around a big heavy trailer, you're not going to want any weak links.Considering since this is your main attachment point, you want it to be very reliable and this is going to be just that. It's going to have some good weight capacities. The gross towing weight is going to be 30,000 pounds.
That's going to be the amount of weight that's pulling on the ball. The vertical load limit is going to be 7,500 pounds. That's going to be the amount of weight pushing down on the ball. In case you're wondering, the ball is going to be 2 and 5/16ths in diameter.Something that's pretty cool about this, too, is the fact that it is a turnover ball. What that means is, whenever you're not using this, you can actually pull it out, flip it around, and store it right inside of the hitch.
That way, you're not going to have to worry about leaving this behind somewhere on accident or you've got it rolling around in the back seat of your truck. It's just really convenient. You can store it here and not have to think about it too much.Not to mention, because of that, we're pretty much going to have full bed access. We're not going to have really anything obstructing the middle of our truck. Granted, we will have our safety chains here, but in all honesty, these only come up a little bit and they're about even with the channels here on our bed, so really not taking up a ton of space. That way, maybe you want to throw in some lumber back here or if you're doing a project at the house and you need to put some other material, four-wheelers, motorcycles, whatever the case may be, you're not going to have a big hitch taking up a ton of space.The U-bolts here, where you put your safety chains, are pretty cool. They're actually spring-loaded, so when you're not using them they sit nice and flush and when you are ready to use them, you can pull up and you got quite a bit of space, actually. You shouldn't really have any issues getting pretty much any size hook that you might have on there. Whenever the ball's locked in, it's going to be very solid. There's hardly any movement at all. That's really because it has a square design and so you're not going to have to worry about that ball spinning or rotating on you.One thing I do like about the B&W is the handle. It's super easy to operate. That's really not the case with all goosenecks. This one, whenever you're ready to unlatch, you just pull it out, move it to the left a little bit, and it'll stay open for you. That way, you can get your ball in there, do whatever you need to do. Whenever you're ready to hook up, you'll just pull it to the right a little bit and more or less let it go back in on its own, you might have to help it a little bit, and you're locked in. Super user-friendly and you don't really need to think about it or fight with it a whole lot.Now, something I do just want to point out, from time to time, once you first install the hitch sometimes the powder coating on there can hang your handle up a little bit. Usually, you can solve that very quickly by just lubricating it a little bit, work it in and out a couple times, and then it'll be as smooth as butter. At the end of the day, a hitch you really can't go wrong with. To be honest with you, these B&Ws are my favorite. That's really just because the overall reliability, the ease of use, and the quality of construction. Because of those things, getting them installed is a little bit easier, too, compared to some of the others. Everything fits well and don't really fight you a whole lot.Matter of fact, I'll say probably the most difficult part about this one is actually tightening all the hardware. It just takes a little bit of time. You follow along with me and I'll show you some of the tools that I used and some tricks to make it a little bit easier. Speaking of which, let's go ahead and put it on together now. To begin our installation, we're going to be underneath the back of our truck. I went ahead and just temporarily removed our spare tire, that way it gives us a lot more room to work and see what we're doing. With that being said, we're going to need to remove this heat shield here, which will also allow us to get to where we need to go.To get this shield off, we're going to have four fasteners right here and then we're going to have a couple of them on this back edge. They're really hard to see, but actually relatively easy to feel. We're going to take a 10-millimeter socket and get all of those removed. With all the bolts removed, we can lower this down and set it off to the side for now. Now what we need to do is lower our exhaust down a little bit, give us a little bit of extra space.We're going to have one rubber hanger right here that we need to remove. You want to spray it down with some soapy water, that'll help lubricate it. I'm just going to take a pry bar and pry one end of our isolator hanger off. Now what we can do is grab our template. How this is going to work is, this hole right here, we're going to line that up with this hole right here in our cross member. This is the hole on the passenger side front. We're going to line this up. When we're lining that up, we're going to push this up flat against the bottom of our bed. This small hole here is going to be an indicator for us. We're going to mark it and that's going to let us know where we need to drill.When you do this, it has to go on top of the cross member, so you want to sneak it in like this, line that up, line the two holes up, want to get it as best as you can. When you line them up, you also want to make sure you push this flat against the bed of the truck. I got it where I need it to be. I'm going to take a marker and put a dot there. We'll come back with our drill bit and create a pilot hole on the bottom of our truck bed.Now, we can hop up in the bed of our truck and take a hole saw and create our opening for our gooseneck to come through. Here's my pilot hole that we drilled from the bottom. My hole saw that I'm using is three and a half inches. I'll go ahead and get that cut out. While I'm in the bed, I'm just going to grab my vacuum cleaner and pick up our mess here. Then, what I'm going to do is take a paint stick, and where we have bare metal from creating the hole, I'm going to put a layer of this paint on there. That's just going to help keep it protected from any rust and corrosion. If you don't have one of these paint sticks, you can always just use some spray paint. That'll get the job done as well.Now, back underneath our truck, we want to take a close look at our center section here. What we're looking for is any extra lines, wiring, plastic clips, anything like that that will be attached to it, because this is where our hitch is actually going to sit. If you have stuff in the way here, you're going to need to grab a flat blade screwdriver and just pop those out and get them removed. With that being said, we can now focus on getting our nut plates installed.If you look here, we have a handle and two nuts that are attached to the plate. These two nuts are actually going to line up with these two holes on our center section here. They're going to line up on each side, so everything's going to be the same on each side here. Now, the way to get these in, what you're going to want to do is make sure that this portion of the nut is going to be facing down. The way to get these in there, it's kind of tricky. They're a little bit tight. You're going to want to set these up on top center section. You got to try to have to weasel it in there and find that sweet spot, get a little creative here and try to rotate it in there. I feel like, once this pops in, it'll probably be a lot easier to work with. I think the most challenging part is just trying to physically get it in there.Once you work that nut plate into position, this is what it should look like. As you can see, the threaded portions of it line up with our two outermost holes there. You want to get that into position. I went ahead and did the same thing over on this side as well. Now, what I'd like to do is just go over our attachment points on our hitch itself and how we're going to position it underneath the truck. If you look on one side of it, we're going to have this little lever here. You want this to be on the driver side of your truck. You notice, the hole here is actually offset. You want the offset portion, this side, to face towards the front.Now, with that being said, we're going to have a total of eight bolts that's going to hold this into position. This is what they're going to look like. Four of them will run up through the hitch on the sides here into those nut plates that we put in. Four more are going to come in through our center section, into the hitch, into these threaded portions, so really straightforward, but I just wanted to show you how we're going to do this before we put it under our truck.Just to put two and two together, I figured I'd show you, you could take a quick look at the center section here. As I mentioned before, the two bolts are going to come up through the hitch into the nut plate that we put in. The four bolts on the side are going to line up with these larger holes here in our factory center section, so two on each side. With that being said, let's grab our hitch and get it into place. I grab our center section, get it up. You may have to finesse it in. While we're holding it up there, I'll grab our bolts and get a few of them started hand-tight, that way it'll support itself.Now that we have all of our hardware in place and hand-tight, actually just hopping up in the bed of the truck and just making sure that everything lines up here. If it's off just a hair, it's not dead center, that's okay. A lot of times what can happen is once you tighten up all your bolts, it'll draw everything up exactly where it needs to be. Now that we know it is lined up, let's go ahead, get underneath, and tighten everything up.Now back underneath the truck, we can grab our socket and get everything tightened down. I'm going to tighten down these bolts first here on the bottom. Once those are tightened, we can come back and get the ones on the side. For this bolt back here, it is relatively close to our handle mechanism, so you may need to use a thin-walled socket, like this one here, or even a box wrench to get in there and actually get this tightened down.Now just a quick tech tip to make it a lot easier to get to the bolts on this side, I actually used a ratcheting strap, went around my exhaust and cranked it down and that hold my exhaust a few inches down and towards the center of our truck, which makes it a lot easier to get to these bolts. Without doing this, these are nearly impossible to get to. This only took an extra minute and makes life a lot easier. With the exhaust being held like that, I'm easily able to get to my bolts and run them down.For the bolts here on the side, when they're this far out, it's really difficult to get a socket in there. We just don't have a ton of space in between the head of the bolt and the hat channel here on our bed, so what I suggest doing is just using a ratcheting wrench, like this one, to tighten them down. If you don't have a ratcheting wrench, a standard one will work just fine. It'll just take you a little bit longer. You have to be a little more patient. I just figured this was something that was definitely worth mentioning.Now that all of our hardware is tightened down, we want to be sure to come back with a torque wrench and torque it all to the amount specified in our instructions. Now, when you do this, you want to make sure to torque down the four bolts on the bottom first and then we can come back and get the bolts there on the side. Now, just a quick tech tip, for the bolt that's all the way back here, it's a little tricky to get to. What I found is to use a combination of different tools here. I have my socket, a swivel, an extension, and then I actually have an extension that the end of it allows you to rotate a little bit more as well. I used all 3/8 sizes. It's a little bit thinner. Then, I just used an adapter that goes from 3/8ths to half-inch, that way I can get my torque wrench on it. With everything in there like this, you're able to get on that bolt and actually get it tightened down properly.Now what we can do is move to our driver side rear wheel well. What we need to do is loosen up some wiring that's on top of the frame rail, that way it'll be out of the way and we're able to get started on our handle that goes in here. It's a little tricky to see, but there's going to be some plastic fasteners starting here and a couple more that run down towards the back of the truck. We need to pop those free. I'm just going to use a trim tool, you can use a screwdriver as well, though. I'm just going to pry up, get those fasteners removed. Then, you can just push that wiring back in there.Now we can grab our handle and slide it in through this opening. Make sure you clear anything that's in the way. When you do this, you want to make sure that this angle here, this lip, is facing up. You don't want to have it facing down towards the ground. We'll just set it in there, let it rest. You can go underneath the truck and get everything connected. Now, underneath the truck, we're going to take this bracket here and attach it to our handle, which is coming our right here. Now, we don't have a ton of space and room to work here, so it is a little tight, just a forewarning.The way this is going to work on our truck, you have two square holes at the very end of our handle. Those are going to line up with these two holes here on this bracket. The bracket's going to get attached to that handle. You're going to do that by taking carriage bolts and dropping them through our handle. When you're doing this, too, you want to make sure that all your lines are clear and everything else. I'll do that for both of those square openings, take our bracket, push it through there.What we're going to do where those carriage bolts dropped down, we're just going to take flange nuts and secure them. Again, this is really tight, so take your time with it. You'll find that spot where you get an opening and you can get in there and get everything started. Once we have them started, though, we're just going to leave them hand-tight for the time being. Now that that one end of the bracket is loosely attached to the handle, this end is going to get attached to the mechanism here that actually releases the pin inside of the hitch.Again, we're going to use the same hardware, just a carriage bolt, drop down through. We're going to take our flange nuts, get these started. Now that it's in place, we could ahead grab some sockets and get everything tightened down. I'm going to use a 9/16 socket. Just a tech tip, with the bolts being really hard to get to back here since our gas tank and everything's in the way, what I found that makes it easier is to use a quarter-inch drive and a 9/16th socket on the end of it that allows you to swivel. That gives you enough room to get up in there and tighten those nuts down.Now we can get ready to install our safety chain hook. In the bed of the truck here, if we look at our gooseneck, you want to make sure that pin is running through there. You want your handle to be pushed all the way in. What you're going to do is take your ball, set it in there. Then, they actually give us a nice little template here. It should make things pretty easy. We're going to slide this over our ball. You want these portions here to face towards the back of the truck. There's some little openings there.What I'm going to do is just hold this template secure and use a small drill bit just to make some marks in the bed of our truck. I'm not going to drill all the way through just yet. I'll do that. That'll let us know where I need to completely drill. We're going to do the same thing over here, should be able to lift this off. You can see we have our marks made. I'll go ahead and use my pilot bit to continue to drill all the way through.These ones should just go right through the bed, however, the ones closest to the rear, you should feel it punch through the bed. Then, you'll have to drill through that cross member underneath as well. There it went through the bed and then I can go ahead and drill through that cross member. I'm going to do the same thing for this side as well. With our pilot holes made, I'm going to come back with an 11/16ths drill bit and enlarge them to the final size. Once these two are enlarged, you're going to do the same thing for these over here.Now that we have all of our holes drilled, we'll come back with our vacuum, clean everything up. Then, what I'm going to do is take a paint stick and paint the edges there, that bare metal, to protect it from rust just like we did our main hole here. Once our paint is dry, we're going to take our U-bolts. These are just going to drop right down through like so. Now back underneath our truck, here's where our U-bolts dropped through. What we're going to do is take these springs. You want the large end of the spring facing up, the skinny end pointing down towards the ground. You're to put that over the U-bolt. We're going to take a hex nut and just get it started hand-tight. I'm going to do that same thing for the other side right here, as well as the U-bolt on this side.With all of these on there, now what we can do is tighten them down. With these, what you want to do is tighten the nut down to where it is flush with the end of our bolt. About there is perfect, I'm going to do the same thing for the rest of them. Now what we can do is go ahead and re-secure our exhaust. It is really tight, so I do suggest putting a lot of lubricant on there to help it go back together easier and try to line it up, push it into place, and rehang it. At this point, we can go ahead and reinstall our heat shield the opposite way that we removed it. That'll finish up our look at and our installation of the B&W Underbed Gooseneck Trailer Hitch on our 2021 Ram 2500.
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