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This heavy-duty fifth wheel hitch is rated for 16,000 lbs gross towing weight and a 4,000 lbs vertical load limit, giving you the strength to handle full-size campers and toy haulers with confidence. The sturdy steel construction and durable carbide powder coat finish hold up through long trips and rough roads. It’s a solid piece of gear that keeps your trailer secure mile after mile.
The rounded, interlocking dual-jaw design wraps completely around the king pin for full 360-degree contact. That tight grip cuts down on rattle and movement you might feel from slide-bar hitches, giving you a smoother, quieter ride. It’s the kind of solid hookup that feels locked-in from the first pull and stays steady across every stretch of highway.
You can tell at a glance if the hitch is ready to uncouple, couple, or tow thanks to Curt’s three-point color-coded indicator. Red shows uncoupled, yellow means ready to couple, and green confirms you’re locked in for towing. The indicators are visible from the cab, so you don’t have to climb in and out just to double-check your setup.
When space gets tight during slow turns, the S20 slider provides 12" of front-to-back travel for safe clearance between truck cab and trailer. It slides smoothly and automatically latches in both directions so you only need to step out once. That extra room lets you make sharp maneuvers without worrying about contact or binding.
Clearing your bed after a trip is simple. Just pull a single pin to lift off the hitch head—no tools required. The design makes it manageable for one person to handle, so you can switch from towing mode to open bed space quickly. Built-in zerk fittings also make lubrication fast and clean for next time you hook up.
Alternate Instructions
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi everyone, Aidan here with etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at this replacement fifth wheel head for your A16 or your Q16 fifth wheel hitches from Curt. So if you're getting this as a replacement head it's gonna function just like your old one. You can see right away It's got the same torsion system that's acting as a sort of cushioning system. When we're hooked up to our trailer it's gonna help us create a smoother ride going down the road with that side to side, front to back and even on the diagonal movement, all absorbing that shock but also helping us with the hookup process by moving and meeting the kingpin as we're guiding it back. The dual jaw system here, they overlap with each other to create really solid contact on the kingpin 360 degrees around.
And if we move over to the side here those jaws can be controlled by the handle secured in place by a pin and clip that can be swapped out for a padlock if you want that security aspect, pulling the handle out and back, we'll open up those jaws or in the coupling mode I've got a dummy king pin here that will slide back in. The open flare here will guide it into position and then as it backs up, we're hooking up to our trailer. The handle will snap back into place fully locked in and we can just resecure it with our pin and clip. Now a good way to know if we're fully coupled is the indicator on the back. You can see it's green right now which means we're positively coupled and good to go.
But if I undo that handle here, partially you'll see it switched to that red and in the fully open position it'll switch to yellow letting us know we're ready to back up to our trailer. And then as we back up that kingpin slides in, it'll swing past that red and when it's fully latched in, go back to green. With the positioning of this, it's easy to see from the cab of the truck so you don't have to get out to check on it. You can just look back there and see if you've got a good couple. With the fifth wheel head here we are gonna have a weight capacity.
It can handle 16,000 pounds of gross trailer weight rating. That's how much weight it can pull and has a vertical load limit, that downward pressure of 4,000 pounds. Be sure to check whether it be the leg kit, the slider base or your truck and go by the lowest rating component in the system but know that that's what the fifth wheel head can handle. You've got your three different points of height adjustment on the side. Again, depending on whether you're using the slider base like we are today or the just regular legs that are fixed, that height may change but you do have three different options for the adjustment.
What I can tell you though is that the whole spacing is 2" apart for each interval of that height adjustment. So just take that into account whenever you're setting this up for your truck and trailer combination. The whole fifth wheel head is gonna be a steel construction with a carbide black powder coat finish over top of it to help it resist rust and corrosion over time. Now with any sort of finished scratches and scuffs can be a danger to it because if you scratch away the finish it's way more susceptible to rust and corrosion over time. It does come included though with a lube plate which will sit between the head of the fifth wheel and your pin box with the kingpin right in the center here and reduce that metal on metal contact to make sure that the finish hopefully lasts a lot longer, keeping your whole fifth wheel looking like new. Speaking of keeping things operating like new you do have two zerk fittings on that dual jaw design here. So you can apply grease regularly to keep them operating smoothly. If you don't wanna leave this in your truck bed full-time and you want to take it out, it can be pretty heavy but you can separate the head into two pieces by taking out that first pin and clip and this large pin that runs through the center of the fifth wheel head. And that will allow us to actually separate the head from the body of the fifth wheel here. So it makes everything a lot lighter and easier to get in and out. And with it out you can see the rubber isolators that are located inside. That's part of the torsion system that we're talking about earlier. And what helps cushion the whole movement here and keep everything operating nice and smoothly as well as reducing noise. Being able to break it down really helps with the installation process because you can do it all on your own relatively easily. So let's go ahead and walk through that process with you now. Now since this is a replacement head you could be replacing it on a standard fifth wheel rather than this slider kit that we're doing this with in which case you'll be needing to use the hardware that came with your fifth wheel originally that bolt, lock washer and flat washer that threads into the legs on your A16 hitch. With that being said, if you are missing these, you will need to get new hardware because the hardware that comes with the replacement head is going to be that bolt and nut. Getting this installed, it might be a little easier to have a second set of hands, but if you can grab it by the center and get one of your bolts started just to help hold it in place on either end, that would be ideal and then we can get the nuts installed later after repeating this on both sides. Now at this point you wanna take your wrench and socket and actually start to tighten these down in all four corners and then we can torque it to the specifications found in our instructions. For the torque wrench, it's pretty easy to rent these out or borrow them but if you wanna get your own you can find those here at etrailer. Just make sure to find the proper torque spec and your instructions and repeat that for the other three bolts. With everything torqued down we can take the head unit and drop it down into place, securing it with the large pin going in through the back of the whole assembly and securing out front with our smaller pin and retaining clip. And that's really all there is to it for the installation process, it's gonna be a very basic easy to use replacement for your A16 or your Q16 fifth wheel hitches. Just deep in mind that if you're replacing one with the standard legs that you do have the appropriate hardware either reusing the old one or getting new hardware. And if you're gonna be dropping it in place in a situation like this with the S20 slider, know that the hardware it comes with is gonna be exactly what you need. But that'll do it for our look at this replacement fifth wheel head for your A16 or your Q16 hitches from Curt. Thanks for watching.
Ratings & Reviews
It was a very easy install, only took about 20 min. Easy setup to my campers and worked very well while towing.
Well do
Easy to install and remove, i wish the clamp down levers moved a bit easier as i catch mu knuckles sometimes.
Other wise its great
Nice hitch
It is installed in my pickup but due to my wife's illness I have not taken the trailer out, but soon
Works well on my 2021 3500HD crew cab standard bed. I have never had any issues with turning clearance. All in all I am pleased with it and would buy it again.
VERY POOR DIRECTIONS BUT I GOT IT DONE
The hitch came in two separate packages, the legs and the head unit. The head unit was not In any type of box and had shipping label taped to it. I did not receive and hardware and was missing the pull handle. I am sure that this was a failure on UPS and not etrailer. I called customer service and they got the matter resolved.
I called to the technician line for help my hitch had to be set after disengaging. I have to pull the handle back and hear a click or I cannot get a proper lock. The technician said to lube it and was not very professional. He didn't suggest it could be anything other than that. His remedy didn't work so I have to set the lock to hook up.
Received rails and hardware packaged very well
Good price and was shipped to the dealer that installed the hitch. Happy and satisfied.
GREAT PRODUCT. EASY TO HOOKUP AND RELEA SE.
Adam helped me with getting the correct fifth wheel hitch for my 2024 Chevy truck after other companies failed. My order was delivered in 3days of ordering over the phone with him. Installed it the next day and it fits with no issues. Thank you again
I'm very happy with this new hitch and the ease of coupling and uncoupling my 5th wheel. The ability to separate the head of the hitch from the base is very helpful. I'm now able to remove the hitch from the bed of the truck by myself. It took two people to remove my old draw-tite hitch. I'm even happier with the customer service at etrailer in resolving an issue I had.
My previous hitch was a B&W Patriot which I loved. I had to change hitches due to a new truck and decided on this Curt A16. I miss my old hitch. You are supposed to be able to remove the head from the base to make it easier to move in and out of the bed. But there is defect in manufacturing. There are two rubber collars that are designed to reduce vibration when towing. But the tollerance on thos collars is so tight that I can not remove the head without using a small bottle jack underneath of it to force it up and out of the base. The collars are slightly too wide and therefore the head is "jammed" into the base. I am currently in talks with Curt to find a solution.
They fit perfectly on my 2018 F150 and they were very easy to install.
Only way to go. Takes the pain out of installing a new hitch. Worth the extra over a universal kit.
Alex at E trailer was fantastic. Very helpful in assisting me with this purchase. And to top it off, everything worked perfectly. Thanks Alex
good product
Product was as described. Fit and price were great. Just wish shipping would treat the package as their own. First couple pictures are from damage due to shipper carelessness.
Looks good just opened the box. Waiting for mounting brackets.
Great product. YouTube video was a big help with installation. I paired the curt custom 5th wheel mounting kit with etrailers airlift 5000 air bags and tows my 28' 5th wheel camper like a dream!
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