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This hitch is designed for serious towing strength, rated at 16,000 lbs gross towing weight and 4,000 lbs vertical load. The heavy-duty steel build and carbide powder coat finish give it the toughness to handle big trailers and long miles without flex or rattle. Whether it’s a long haul or a weekend trip, it’s the kind of solid connection that builds confidence every time you head out.
The interlocking two-piece jaw system wraps completely around the king pin for full 360-degree contact. That tight fit means less rattle and more stability compared to slide-bar designs. The result is a quieter, more secure ride that feels locked-in and steady across rough highways or uneven roads.
With the built-in color-coded indicator, it’s easy to see your hitch status at a glance—red shows uncoupled, yellow means ready to couple, and green confirms you’re locked for towing. The indicators are visible from the cab, giving you quick peace of mind before pulling away. Plus, the handle self-resets after uncoupling so it’s ready for the next hookup.
When maneuvering through campgrounds or making slow turns, the S20 slider provides 12 inches of fore-and-aft travel to help prevent trailer-to-cab contact. Its non-binding design slides easily in both directions and automatically latches in place, giving you the clearance you need for smooth, controlled movement at low speeds.
When it’s time to clear your bed space, the A16 makes it simple. The hitch head removes quickly with a single pin so one person can lift it off without special tools. Built-in zerk fittings keep everything lubricated for smooth operation, and the included plastic lube plate helps the king pin glide into place during hookup. It’s a practical setup that balances strength with convenience.
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
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.
Work's good. Not as easy to install on my truck as they make it sound, but once installed happy.
Good quality and well made construction...easy to assemble...Thank you
easy to install. had zero problems
Alex at E trailer was fantastic. Very helpful in assisting me with this purchase. And to top it off, everything worked perfectly. Thanks Alex
Pkg arrived earily-great.
Installed and ready for moving fifthwheel.
Thankyou for selecting the right hitch.
good product
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 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
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.
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!
Looks good just opened the box. Waiting for mounting brackets.
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