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The Curt E16 5th Wheel Hitch with S20 Slider is rated for 16,000 lbs gross towing weight and 4,000 lbs vertical load, giving it the strength to handle full-size fifth-wheel trailers with confidence. The sturdy steel build and carbide black finish add durability for years of towing. It’s a solid setup that feels stable and secure when you’re loaded heavy and rolling down the highway.
Once the king pin slides into place, the auto-locking slide-bar jaw clamps down tight around it. A rear steel tension bar activates at hookup to hold the king pin firmly, cutting down on rattle or unwanted movement. The dual-pivoting head offers 10 degrees of lateral movement so the hitch connects smoothly even on uneven ground. Together these details make hitching up quick, predictable, and quiet.
For those slow, tight turns where clearance matters most, the included S20 slider delivers a full 12 inches of front-to-back roller travel. Slide the hitch toward the tailgate when maneuvering at low speeds to create more space between your cab and trailer. The non-binding design moves smoothly under load so you can back into tight spots or adjust position without fighting the mechanism.
Getting your trailer level is simple with four height adjustment options ranging from 14" to 17". The adjustable setup helps find that sweet spot between bed rail clearance and level towing. Once dialed in, the anti-rattle skid plate keeps things quiet and steady mile after mile.
The E16 mounts directly in your truck bed using the included above-bed base rails and installation kit. Everything is designed to bolt together cleanly so you can get it set up without extra parts or complicated steps. It’s a straightforward system that makes getting ready to tow feel just as solid as the pull itself.
Alternate Instructions
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hey guys, this is Jake here with etrailer. Today we're gonna be going over the CURT E16 replacement 5th wheel head. This is designed to replace your E16 5th wheel head. If you've already got one and you're wanting to replace it. If it got damage or if it's old and rusty this is gonna be a perfect fit. It's also gonna come with the replacement bracket.
If you'd like to swap out the head on the S20 which is their new slider base, you can put this in, mount it to the correct height and then put this hitch head right in the top of it. You are gonna get all the replacement parts that initially come with the kit so you'll get new hardware, new pins, a new handle, and this bracket. The best way to get this set up inside the S20 base is to set your head height with the bracket first and then set the head on top of it. Now with our new hardware, we can set the height of our hitch a lot easier than a lot of other hitches out there. A lot of 'em are gonna have to set it with the head attached but this bracket only weighs about 10 pounds so it's really easy to get it in place.
Now to get your new head in place, it's as simple as setting it on top of the bracket. And again, it will come with two new pins. And that's, I think that's kind of nice 'cause when you're replacing you know, new parts you'd like to put new hardware in too 'cause chances are these are gonna be pretty wore out. So some of the reasons why you would need to replace your 5th wheel head is if it's got a lot of rust on it it's gonna start to affect the integrity of the strength of the hitch itself. So if it's got too much rust you might think about replacing it.
If you've not been using enough grease or any grease at all this head can start to score and once it starts scoring you can't really go back 'cause it needs a smooth surface to slide on your kingpin base. Another reason is your grease gets dirty that can cause scoring. If you're not using a lube plate. There's a lot of different reasons of why you would need to replace this head. If your mechanism isn't working correctly anymore.
But it's good to know that you can just replace the head. But with that being said, a lot of people what they'll do is they'll, if they have an A16 or an E16 head and they have the traditional base but they get a new vehicle and they'd like to switch to the slider, you can keep your old head, get the slider, and then later on you can replace the head. So there's several different options and reasons of why you would need a new E16 head. Well, with all that being said, we've got it all installed it's ready to go, and it's ready for our next trip.
Ratings & Reviews
I ordered a curt mounting kit for my truck and the awesome guys at etrailer upgraded my shipping for no additonal cost. I have not yet mounted it and will follow up with a review once I do. Thank you for the great customer service.
Arrived fast. I installed myself on a 2004 F250; relatively simply, but I did have to drill out a hole in the truck's frame... which would be tough it you don't have a heavy duty drill motor. My existing air bags had to come off first. Took a good 6 hours to install. Overall, I am totally satisfied with the product!
I've had these installed for about a year now. Still working perfectly.
etrailer is a pleasure to order from and good prices.
Etrailer.com has become my go-to site for everything. They're communication is excellent. When I asked for my item to be express shipped and they realized they couldn't get it to me in time because it wasn't in the warehouse, they quickly suggested a similar item and had it to me on time. Install on my Curt 5th wheel rails was a breeze and I just placed another order for more items that I would normally purchase from a competitor! Plus FREE SHIPPING and the low price guarantee! How could you go wrong? Thanks Etrailer
I ordered the Curt Q16 fifth wheel hitch with rails and brackets for a Ford F350. It got here in 7 days over a holiday weekend and fit perfectly. The price was right including free shipping. Thank you.
Great product that fit the way it should. Installed by my self in a few hours and then dropped on my fifth wheel hitch and proceeded to haul about 20,000lbs about 9,000 miles. Couldn't ask for better.
Bolt through box were a little short. Bed liner might not have been factored in. But they sent out longer bolts right away. Got the next day or two. Wish it came with a few more measurements on how far apart they should be than just put the hitch in and tighten the bolts down.
I ordered the hitch mount for a 2003 F250. When I received it the instructions said it doesn’t fit some 2003 models. Had I known this I wouldn’t have bought it. I had to drill several holes to make it fit and it was missing some hardware. It is not coming back off but I’m less than happy with the misinformation.
This is the fourth time I've installed a 5th wheel kit on any of my trucks,i have done this many time. This time I went with three Curt 16443 5th wheel brackets. Poor instructions, I could have bought a different kit with better instructions for significantly less. Buy the universal 5th wheel kit from your local autoparts store.
Also, this kit only uses TWO grade 5 bolts to secure each bracket to the frame whereas the universal kit uses two bolts per bracket (four brackets total), nor can I seem to find an install video. Overall, I am not happy.
Product came without any hardware. Box was undamaged ,just no hardware with it.
I called customer service .They were very helpful and had the appropriate hardware sent out.
A week later the hardware package showed up and installation was straight forward. I started on the passenger side as that is the easiest because the drivers side has brake cables that must be disconnected .My truck is a dually so I jacked it up ,used jack stands,wheel chocks, and removed the wheels. This proved to make the installation much easier. Installation time 4 hours . Took my time. Had to drill a couple of holes for the front bolts to the frame but I am very satisfied . Took off one star for the bolts being missed. Etrailer is great .
I ordered this for my 2004 Ford F250 Super Duty. Shipping was fast and arrived in good condition. Installation was straight forward and works perfect for the multiple 5th wheel hitches I’ve used it for. Would buy here again if I ever need anything else. Also, the price was the same or cheaper than elsewhere and the detailed and helpful website was the deciding factor why I purchased here.
Bought these rails for my 5th wheel trail hitch and they out performed my expectations, they lined up with the factory holes in the truck frame and bolted right in and plus they held up to the few time I had to lock up my brakes when I was cut off. For sure i thought I would lose my rig with with the hitch breaking away or the rails giving out but they performed like they're supposed to do. I highly recommend them and more so cause of the great price. Can't be beat!!
One year removed from installation at this point. Installation went as well as could be expected, as my truck had 350,000 miles and 23 years in service at the time of installation. Compounding the situation was a very thick spray-in bedliner and a pretty severe bow in the bed from a dropped load. I had to leave out a few of the rail spacers on account of the aforementioned handicaps. I'll report that with some careful, coordinated bolt tightening, after all items were in place, I have 2 heavy, high quality 5th-wheel rails that work well. I'm in the salt belt, (the truck is from Phoenix), so I re-painted everything that was exposed and it's held up well so far. I'd recommend for other customers, both the product and the store. etrailer is great and so is Curt - this is my second Curt product from etrailer and both were great experiences all-around.
Easy to install, rebuilt the truck bed the 5th wheel camper was rear ended and destroyed the old hitch.
Great price for a decent product. I would have given 5 stars but the instructions are crapy. If your thinking of getting this kit and your a do it your self-kind of person. The 60 minutes install won't work. I spent 4 hours on mine. I was missing one lock washer I think even though it's not called out in the picture. Lay out all your fasteners first! There are two spacer/washers that are thinner than the rest. Make sure you get them in the proper location. The brake fasteners go between the plate and frame. From the instruction, it looks like they pass through the frame. They don't so I will need to remove the left plate to get that right. Other than that it's a great product that could use a better instruction sheet.
I HAVEN'T HAD ONE PROBLEM WITH MY HITCH. I bought it about a year ago. I arrived sooner than I was told it would and it is still in the box. I never opened it or installed it. But I do plan to.
Customer service for product selection and order entry were excellent and focused on my interests and needs. The hitch, custom installation kit, and harness were shipped very quickly and arrived sooner than expected. Everything arrived in excellent condition. Assembly and installation instructions were very clear and specific, and I was able to assemble and install everything with no problems and in a very reasonable amount of time. Total cost was roughly half of what it would have been if I had purchased the products and had them installed by a dealer. I am very satisfied with my experience dealing with etrailer.com, and would highly recommend them to anyone shopping for towing products.
Amazing product. Perfect fit. Great pri ce.
Installation of the Curt C16443-204 custom rail kit was a snap on my 2000 F350 dually. The instructions were pretty generic but not to hard to figure out. Once in place it was easy to line line everything up to fit the hitch in and tighten everything down.
Only pulled camper for 20 miles so far, but hitch seemed to work great! Very easy to install and put together. Took about 3-4 hrs start to finish.
My wife and I installed this in 3 hrs. We are in our mid 70’s. We had access to a 2 post lift which made this much easier as we could raise and lower the truck as needed for access. Although some say the instructions were vague I had no problem, just read them through first and begin. As the instructions stated some vehicles may have some differences as we found that the hole for the front driver side bolt needed to be drilled into the frame. After the bracket was mounted we just used the existing hole in the bracket as a guide. We previously installed an AIR LIFT AL59393 kit and it works great with this rail kit. We did our research to be sure they worked together. If you want to be sure about compatibility call etrailer and talk to one of the experts.
Very solid and well built. Installation took me longer than advertised. The instructions were a little vague, but I figured it out. A few extra carriage bolts and flange nuts would have been nice. All in all, everything lined up perfectly when I measured carefully as outlined in the instructions. I towed with it yesterday for the first time, and it worked great!
Thanks Etrailer for great customer service and quick delivery. Received my rail kit in time to install for my weekend trip. Michelle s. Was very helpful in getting me the right part and at a great price.
Thanks"
Walter,r
Super fast shipping! Many thanks!
Normally I'm pleased with Curt hardware/equipment, but this time I'm not as impressed. This 5th wheel rail and mount kit was supposedly designed for my 2002 F250, however the mounts that bolt to the frame didn't fit properly. I had to ream out the factory holes in the frame to allow the front bolts to secure the mount to the frame, and I had to ream out two of the holes in the mount to allow the rear rail bolts to work. Also there is a hole in the center of the mount as well as a corresponding hole in the frame that could be used to provide a 3rd securing bolt for the mount to the frame, however the frame is designed with a concave portion the and the mount is flat. A spacer could be used to fill the gap, or the mount could have been designed to better forth the frame in this section. As it is, there are only 2 bolts per mount securing it to the frame. When I have time I'll find a spacer to fill this gap and add a 3rd bolt to better secure the mount and thus the rails to my pickup. The carbide finish looks great and the rails and mount are built strong, just they could have been designed to fit better and more secure than they were.
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