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This hitch is made for serious towing. With a gross towing weight of 20,000 lbs and a vertical load limit of 5,000 lbs, it’s built from sturdy steel and finished in a durable carbide powder coat. The interlocking 2-jaw system wraps fully around the king pin for 360-degree contact, cutting down on rattle and giving a solid, secure feel when you’re cruising down the highway with a heavy fifth wheel behind you.
Backing into tight spots or maneuvering through campgrounds gets easier with the S20 slider. It provides 12" of front-to-back travel so you can create space between the cab and trailer during slow turns. The non-binding design moves smoothly and automatically latches in both directions, keeping the motion predictable when you’re adjusting position.
Peace of mind comes built in with Curt’s color-coded indicator system. The handle and hitch show red when uncoupled, yellow when ready to couple, and green when locked for towing. You can confirm your connection at a quick glance from the cab without climbing into the bed. The handle locks for security and automatically resets after uncoupling so it’s ready to couple again next time.
The torsion head moves with the trailer to help control road shock and cut down on towing noise. It self-aligns during hookup, guiding the king pin into place while the included plastic lube plate helps it glide smoothly into position. The result is a quieter, more stable ride that feels controlled mile after mile.
When it’s time to free up your truck bed, this hitch breaks down fast. A single pin releases the head so one person can lift it off without tools. Built-in zerk fittings make lubrication easy, keeping everything working smoothly between trips. With 4" of height adjustment, you can fine-tune the setup before heading out again.
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
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
Great product, very easy to install, only thing that could've been better would be two longer handles on the nuts installed inside the bed sill.
I have enclosed 2 photos showing how I received my order. I did inventory the items and all appear to be there with the one bent nut handle. The 3 star review is directly related to packaging.
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.
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
Etrailer is the best. Rails and kit arrived quick and in good shape. I have put 2 on Ford's and we're a lot easier because of room to work, Rams are pretty tight. Rails and kit are great quality and cheaper than Reese kits. A lift would have made it easier but not necessarily.
Not installed yet service excellent thanks for your help
I changed trucks and wanted to use my same fifth-wheel receiver in my new truck. I purchased this installation kit and it was exactly what I needed. Great quality and great delivery time.
Customer and product support is better than great as well as prices, service and available selection. Being new to 5th wheel hitch requirements I was able to get all the info needed on type and additional parts required. Received everything on a timely basis, had it installed locally without any problems what-so-ever. This is a great company by any standard and sure to be the next retailer success. They have covered all the basis in what it takes to be not just a good retailer but truly a great retailer.
Installation kit is a good quality product. I was a mechanic for over 25 years and found the instructions to be thorough but somewhat difficult to understand. The instructions are vehicle specific but should have more photos showing things like where to drill access holes. It's also a good idea to remove the spare tire for easier access. Instructions say it should take 90 min to install, (maybe my next time), took me about 4 hrs by myself. I like that it is compatible with multiple hitches.
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 !!!!!
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.
Nice kit use on my 2016 ram 1500 2 guys a case of beer and five hours got it done .
I followed the install video, but did not try to remove dual exhaust. Remove rear tires, wiggle cross brace in to place from right side of truck. Was worried, mounted close to the front of bed. But really happy, kit was great. Took 6 hours to install, with help from the wife. When hooked up, lots of room to turn. Very happy, thank you
In this case... You get what you pay for! This was a high quality product that was specific for my 2017 Ram 1500 6 1/2' bed. This was the only kit I found specific for short(er) bed RAM Trucks. Following the paper instructions along with the video provided by etrailer.com made this install downright easy.
DIY'ers - Remove the spare tire first! I reversed my truck onto Rhino Ramps and had plenty of room to do this job with typical tools and the help of a ratcheting 1/2 inch wrench. Use a punch / drill a pilot hole for your larger bit. Don't worry about the 17/32 drill bit.. a 1/2" bit worked just fine. This will not be a quick job, like the one shown on the video. Allow yourself time to take 4 hours to complete the job. You will have a crap ton of spacers left over.
67" Beds - Follow the video to the T.. The truck in the video is obviously a 67" Bed.
76" Beds - You'll notice when it's time to add the frame brackets that the video has a frame beam but up against the bracket that goes on the frame.. Yours will be further back.. You'll also notice the frame doesn't match.. Don't worry, use the same hole location as instructed on the video. You only have to remove the frame stabilizer on the drivers side..
The Curt Custom 5th Wheel kit specifically for our 2016 RAM 1500 Crew Cab, 5’ 7” bed, was perfect. Professional installation cost $400+. CombinEd with the Reese sidewinder we installed ourselves, we can almost make a 90 degree turn if ever needed. Thanks, JW, Long Island, NY.
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.
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!
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Matt
7/9/2026
One year and zero issues after many trips pulling our 43ft toy hauler.