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This hitch is made for serious towing with a 20,000-lb gross towing weight and a 5,000-lb vertical load limit. The heavy-duty steel construction and carbide powder coat finish give it the solid feel you want when hauling a large fifth wheel. It mounts above the bed rails and uses interlocking jaws for 360-degree king pin contact, keeping the trailer tight and stable behind you.
The rounded, interlocking two-piece jaw design wraps completely around the king pin to cut down on rattle and movement. It’s a big step up from slide-bar hitches that can clank or shift under load. The fully articulating torsion head helps absorb road shock and noise, giving you a smoother, quieter ride mile after mile.
Before you roll out, just look at the color indicator to see the hitch status. Red means uncoupled, yellow means ready to couple, and green means you’re locked in for towing. The handle and hitch both display the indicator clearly, so you can check it without climbing into the bed. When you uncouple, the handle automatically resets itself back to ready-to-couple.
For slow turns or tight spots, the non-binding S20 slider gives you up to 12" of fore/aft travel. It slides smoothly in both directions and locks automatically, helping prevent your trailer from contacting the cab during sharp maneuvers at low speeds. That extra clearance keeps things controlled and worry-free when backing or parking in close quarters.
When you need your truck bed clear, the head lifts off fast with just one pin. It’s designed so one person can remove it without special tools. Two built-in zerk fittings make lubrication simple, and the included plastic lube plate lets the king pin glide smoothly into place during hookup. With height adjustment from 17-1/2" to 21-1/2", it’s easy to dial in your setup for level towing.
Alternate Instructions
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi everyone, Aidan here at etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at and showing you how to install this replacement fifth wheel head for the Curt A20. This is going to be just the head assembly here today. So if you already have a sliding base or the legs for it, and you're looking to replace a broken or damaged head, or maybe you're just adding it to a sliding base, like the S20 we're using today, then this is gonna be the one for you. If you need the full kit, be sure to check out one of those full kits on our website. But as for this replacement head, let's check it out.
This is gonna operate just like your standard A20 fifth wheel head with the 360-degree dual jaw design. It's gonna get full contact around the kingpin here and those jaws are controlled by this lever on the outside of the fifth wheel hitch. We can unpin this handle right here. The pin could be swapped out for a padlock, if we wanna keep it secured when you're not around. Pull the handle out and back to open up those spring loaded jaws, and then we can back up to our fifth wheel.
That will drop into place. The kingpin will slide in. And it'll snap into place and you can see that 360-degree contact. Repin that handle or relock it back up to secure it, and then we're ready to hit the road. Now as we're hooking up, you probably saw a lot of movement in the fifth wheel head here.
Now it's by design. It's got a torsion system built into it, which gives us front to back, side to side, and even diagonal movement, really all around in a 360-degree motion. It can move around and adapt. So what it's gonna do is a number of things. It's gonna help guide the kingpin in so if we're not perfectly backed up to our trailer, this can kind of move and meet the kingpin where it's at to make hookup a lot easier.
But then when we're driving too, that's gonna act as a shock absorber, helping to reduce the hitching and just any of that road shock we're experiencing going down the road, but also limiting noise. To keep things operating smoothly, we've got our Zerk fittings located on the jaws here, so you can apply grease and keep them operating smoothly for a long time. The indicator at the back, visible from the cab of the truck will let us know if we're properly latched and coupled ready to tow. So we right now, we've got it locked in ready to tow. I'm gonna pull the handle out and back. And you can see right now we're in the coupling mode. And as I bring that dummy king pin back in, it's not fully coupled yet. And when it finally snaps in, (wheel head snaps) you can see it's got that green indicator. We can pin it in place and then we're ready to tow. So it's nice that you have that built-in and then it's visible from the cab of the truck. As for your weight capacity here, the fifth wheel itself can handle 20,000 pounds of gross towing weight and 5,000 pounds of your vertical load limit. Be sure to check on if you're using a sliding base like this one that it can handle that weight as well as your truck and go by the lowest rating component in your whole system. All around, you got a very durable steel construction with a carbide powder coat finish on top to help it resist rust and corrosion over time. Now that doesn't make it immune to things like scratches because that can scratch away the finish and cause it to rust and corrode quicker. But your kit does come included with a grease plate here that will slide in between the head of the fifth wheel with your kingpin in the middle here and help reduce that metal and metal contact. Keeping the head of this hopefully looking new for a lot longer and keeping those scratches and scuffs away. If you don't wanna leave this in your truck bed all the time, getting it removed can be a bit of a pain because of how heavy it is, But the head will separate from the main body here with this pin and a very large pin running through the center of everything. That is completely removable so that we can take the head on its own and lift it from the main body. So it's a lot easier to get in and out of the truck bed on your own like this. And if we look a little closer there where the pin runs through, you can see those rubber isolators that help dampen that impact and act as shock absorbers when we're going down the road. Now whether you're upgrading or replacing your existing head, it is going to be a very straightforward installation process. You will need a torque wrench for it, but aside from that everything's pretty straightforward and easy to do straight out of the box. So let's check out that process now. It comes pretty much fully assembled in the box. You will only need to attach the handle to the head, but I chose to also separate the head from the main body here, just to lighten the load a little bit and make it easier to attach. For our application today, we're attaching it to our sliding base here, the S20. So I'm just gonna get it dropped in place. And then, loosely get these bolts installed, line them up through the outer holes at whatever height setting we want, (metal clanging) and then attaching the nuts on the inside. (metal clanging) And at this point, once you've got it set to your proper height, you can tighten it down and torque it to the specifications found in your instructions. (metal clanging) (wrench rattling) If you don't have a torque wrench at home, they are pretty easy to rent, or you can find them here at etrailer. And repeat that process for all your other hardware. And then the head simply drops in place in the center and secures with the large pin feeding in through the back to the front. And then secures in there with this pin and retaining clip at the front. Now you're ready to hook up. And as far as the replacement head for the Curt A20 goes, that's really all there is to it. It's a very simple installation process. It comes with all the hardware you need. So if you already had an A20 fifth wheel hitch and you're just looking to replace a broken or damaged head, this is gonna drop right into place and do that for you. Or maybe you've got the S20 slider like we do here and you've got one of the kits maybe with the A16 and you're looking to upgrade the head to really max out the weight capacity potential of the slider itself. You can do that too. Like you see it is dropped in place Bolt it in with the included hardware and you're good to go. But that'll do it for our look at an installation of this Curt A20 fifth wheel head replacement. Thanks for watching.
Ratings & Reviews
Work's good. Not as easy to install on my truck as they make it sound, but once installed happy.
Representative very helpful with the order to make sure I was getting the right part of my truck. Order package well and ship on time and receive in the 3 day delivery window.
Thank you
Good quality and well made construction...easy to assemble...Thank you
easy to install. had zero problems
Don't really know how this works since the base was lost in shipment and I had to send the head back because I actually needed something that I could hook the fifth wheel to. Ended up spending quite a bit more money to resolve the matter out of town with no options.
Pkg arrived earily-great.
Installed and ready for moving fifthwheel.
Thankyou for selecting the right hitch.
Installation went smoothly, havn't hooked up to trailer yet but everything seems to work smoothly. Hitch delivery was a day early.
It is working as expected and as design ed
Not installed yet service excellent thanks for your help
Always great service at etrailer, thank you.
I have a problem with my stars to rate, I think my phone bugs.
I put you 10/10
Very good hitch, I'm pleased with durability and ease of use. I didn't give it 5 stars because of the base locking pins that are slightly smaller than the holes they fit in and make the trailer "clunk" when taking off or stopping.
I'll post back after a 2000 mile haul with the 40 RV. Looks good so far...
Have a great day everyone!
Amazing product fit perfect with no issues whats so ever being that this kit is for a none fifth wheel truck option and was able to easily install with no problems, We have owned it over a year and still looks new and works perfect we tow a 44 feet RV very often with no issue and really recommend this product hands down !!!!!
I bought a 2019 Ram truck and contacted Reese needing a tiedown kit for the 20,000 pound hitch I already owned as the tiedowns from my old Dodge truck was different. They told me I would have to buy a new hitch (around $2,000) as there was not a tiedown kit for the new style frame on my Ram truck.
I shopped around and got the same answer, finally talking to a etrailer associate, as I had found online a 20,000 lb Curt hitch for$850.00, I was ready to order but carried on the conversation informing him of my situation with the Reese hitch, he said let me check on something first. He came back with good news he could sell me a kit that would fit the rails he had and they would fit the Reese hitch I had. $xx.xx I was a little skeptical but he assured me the kit would work. It was a easy installation with the parts they furnished.
Upon installing the kit I found the rails from my Reese hitch would work with the kit, I contracted etrailer and they said they would issue a refund for the rails when I returned them, the refund was issued in a very short time.
etrailer is the first place I talk about when visiting with other trailer owners about parts needed. We owned 3 campgrounds in Minnesota I wish I had know about had known about etrailer at that time.
Maybe need to work on the packaging part of the process. Not real sure if I have all the pieces to the product since the box was completely ripped apart. We order from etrailer all the time and it’s the same issue every time. The packaging process
Arrived fast works well
The hitch has worked very well. It is very sturdy, and I have had no problems. I would recommend this to someone with a short bed for the ability to slide the hitch.
The price was good. The instructions were fair (the diagram and instructions were misleading, and you couldn't tell where the actual bolt and bolt hole were placed). Delivery was good, Packaging was good, The design is flawed and almost impossible to do! It says about 90 minutes to install by someone experienced, 180 minutes for installation by someone that is mechanically inclined. 9 hours later I finished. There are a couple of bolts on the driver side that are almost impossible to install! I don't know what they were thinking. Trying to get a torque wrench anywhere near it? If they just extended the bracket an inch or 2 it would be a world of difference. I put this on a short bed, but I still think these bolts are not in a good place. I couldn't even get an open-end wrench on it!
First, the is a very heavy duty hitch. I watch the etrailer videos and the installation was simple. No issues at all. Second, I order from Matt who was very helpful an knowledgeable on the product. He said it would be delivered in two days. I laughed but low and be hold it was delivered in two days and the packing was incredible. I Thank you Matt for all you assistance.
Easy to install and works perfectly!
This was an easy install. Very heavy and ready to pull my trailer!
An excellent experience with etrailer.com
Gwendolyn Y.
4/17/2025
The New hitch looks great in your truck, Frank! Have you taken it out for a spin yet?
Gwendolyn Y.
4/18/2025
Cammi, my customer support person was awesome. I told her what I needed and she recommended to perfect hitch. I was impressed with her knowledge of their products and how fast it was delivered. Installation was simple as long as you follow the very well written directions.
Brooke M.
2/5/2025
Cammi is going to love to see this review, Scott. Thanks for taking the time to write it! Ill be sure she gets to see it, and Im so happy to hear installation went off without a hitch! ;) Please let either me of Cammi know if we can help you out with anything else!
Scott
2/2/2026
My hitch is working great still. Easy to use no issues.
The quality of the hitch, slider, and rails are excellent. All of the hardware is zinc coated. The instructions are informative, include pictures and are easy to follow. All the measurements were accurate to my truck. Accessing the nuts underneath to tighten the bolts was tricky but not impossible. I would highly recommend having a box end crow's foot set for some of the nuts that were close to the frame rails. One of the nuts was placed directly over the exhaust hanger of my truck which was not removable.
I previously owned the Curt A16. We needed a larger tow capacity so we purchased the A20 and decided to buy the S20 slider base as well. Too many sharp turning issues with our 6’8” Chevy standard bed HD3500 during maneuvering. The S20 slider should eliminate this issue. Also I love the design of both the A20 and S20.
Harvey
4/8/2026
This was a great purchase and it’s made backing into tight camping spots so much easier. 100 satisfied with this hitch and slider system!
Info for this part was:
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Matt
7/9/2026
One year and zero issues after many trips pulling our 43ft toy hauler.