Curt Q5 20k hitch

jbeletti

Well-known member
Yes. On year 3 with mine. Still working well. Took some getting used to it. Now I work with it instead of fighting it. I found if I take just the right amount of pressure off the hitch and if I am not unhitching at an off-angle to the RV, it works very well. Probably hitched/unhitched a few hundred times with it. Each winter, I tear it down, degrease and regrease it. Except for that one winter I left it out in the snow. Took on a bit of rust that year!

I liked the hitch head capacity on it so I went with it over the B&W 5th wheel companion hitch. I'd rather have the companion and turnover ball system but I went with more margin on hitch head weight. I have a HEAVY pin.

Jim
 
Thanks for the reply Jim. I just purchased one from the "HitchStore"
Will use it for the first time when I go to Elkhart for the "Level Up" system to be installed.
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
Nice Clarence. Just never hit Auto-Level when you are hitched to the truck :) On simple overnights where I am not unhitching, I will always drop the front gear to stabilize and I will sometimes manually level out as best I can without taking too much pressure off the hitch.

I think you'll love the combination.

Jim
 

larneal

Member
We've had the Curt Q5 20k hitch for a year now and really like it. What I like most is the fact that you can lock the arm in place and you don't have to worry about it coming unhitched. What I don't like is you really have to approach your pin just right or it won't hitch but it's well worth the extra money.


The Neals
2009 3385RL Big Horn
 

Pizzaguy

Well-known member
Had mine 2 years and love it. Rubber bushing helps with chucking and no banging when starting/stopping like last hitch.No slider. Towing with a short box Superduty and have never been in a situation needing a slider yet.
 

JASMAR

Have Camera Will Travel
Great to Hear about the quality of the Curt Q5, I having installed on my 2010 GMC Sierra 2500HD friday and taking delivery of my SD2800RL on Monday. Been pulling boats and TT for over 40 years, 5vers are a new world to me. Like anything new, I am looking forward to learns the little secrets of hitching and unhitching. I had a couple of questions:
1. Can you use a regular receive lock Pin to lock the 5ver hitch to the rails, or is there a special one for that?
2. When using the tephlon disk on the pin box, do you still need to grease the plate?
3. When hitching and unhitching, how do you know if you rig and pin box is low or high enough?

Tom
 

pmmjarrett

Not just tired..... RETIRED!!!
Great to Hear about the quality of the Curt Q5, I having installed on my 2010 GMC Sierra 2500HD friday and taking delivery of my SD2800RL on Monday. Been pulling boats and TT for over 40 years, 5vers are a new world to me. Like anything new, I am looking forward to learns the little secrets of hitching and unhitching. I had a couple of questions:
1. Can you use a regular receive lock Pin to lock the 5ver hitch to the rails, or is there a special one for that?
2. When using the tephlon disk on the pin box, do you still need to grease the plate?
3. When hitching and unhitching, how do you know if you rig and pin box is low or high enough?

Tom

The Q5 is popular with RV transporters, have one in my own dually. Good hitch.

  1. Can't help you, don't lock mine. Sure somebody can answer this.
  2. NO!!! only grease the "lube points" specified for the hitch.
  3. G.O.A.L. Get out and look. When hitching back to the hitch get out and raise or lower the trailer so the pin box bolster plate is just a hair above the top of the top of the hitch plate. 1/16" - 1/18" is good. Then back under it and lock the jaws. Helps to have somebody watch you if you have a crew or extended cab...... When unhitching, chock your trailer tires and raise the trailer landing gear until you can just see a little daylight between the hitch and the trailer plates, then unlock and pull out. You don't hitch up like a semi ramming it in and lifting thhe trailer. You'll destroy the landing gear, mess up your truck bed or worse.... There was an RV transporter for RAD transport killed about a year ago unhitching at a dealership. Nobody knows exactly what happened but when he unlocked the hitch the trailer rolled back, came down and crushed his head between the trailer and his truck bed. This could have possibly been prevented with wheel chocks and or lowering the landing gear first before unhooking.
 

archbarb

Member
I have a 2007 GMC Sierra 2500HD C/C with long bed, and also the Curt Q5 hitch. The deciding factor on the Curt hitch was my neighbor. He transports fifth wheels, and he highly recommended it. So I figured if it was good enough for a transporter, it would work for me.

Not really sure which of the three height adjustments to use, or the pin box height on our BC 3250TS, I choose the middle one with the idea of having the folks at RV Capital Service Center making the final adjustment. So happens I was lucky and had it mounted at the correct height.

The teflon plate is great, no messy grease to deal with. I even carry a spare one in case something were to happen to the one I'm using.

I do as pmmjarrett does in his response to question 3. Just don't get in a hurry, and check and recheck each time, and you should have no problems.

Archie
 

JASMAR

Have Camera Will Travel
It is now a new year, we have been able to hitch and unhitch three times during our our deliver and our maiden voyage between xmas and today. I do love the way the Q-5 feels in towing.

The only thing I notice while hitching is if I have the pin too high, the jaws do not drop into place and lock.
Viewing from the back, the left jaw is does not drop down to match the right one.

Once I pull forward and then drop the pin head more, almost touching the plate the jaws locked perfectly. Does this make sense?

Tom
 
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squire

Member
I have this hitch on my C3500HD. I like it but it can be a little tricky to lock up sometimes. There isn't a lot of margin regarding the pin height, especially if you have a teflon disk. Rocking the truck back and forth usually allows it to lock up and once the jaws lock, it's easy to tell that they're locked. I feel pretty confident with it.
 

caissiel

Senior Member
I used a teflon plate that came with the trailer on my previous trailer. It was a 9" diameter plate and it worked great untill one day I went to hook up my 5th wheel and the 5th wheel pin would not engage. With many attemt at hoking up I finally got out and to my amazement noticed that my pin was ready to fall out. The pin plate had cracked all around the teflon outer diameter area and was holding by a 2" wide area at the front. The 1/4" pin plate had fatigued and cracked away from the welds.

The thing that squared me the most is that I had driven 2000 miles with it and just gone up a 15deg hill and at any moment I could have lost the trailer. I lated had the occasion to talk to different 5th wheel owners that had the same thing happen to them with this 9" plate, mostly heavy SOB units and some were not that old, but with the 1/4" pin plate, as I only did approch the owners of the 1/4" plate to advise them of the check requirements.

I did notice that the lippert pin plate is thicker then the rest of the trailers I see around and the possibility of my plate to crack is much safer. But for me I use the grease and no teflon plates.

The 9" teflon plates that are in the retail RV stores should be indentified for smaller trailer use and only the 11" plates be used on our heavier trailers. The 11" ones are the same size as the 5th wheel saddles and will not cause added stress to the steel plates.
 

2psnapod2

Texas-South Chapter Leaders-Retired
How is this hitch compared to a air ride hitch in clunking and stuff? The price is way cheaper than the Trailer Saver or the Trail air. Cant seem possible that it compares at all. I am just about to the point that I need to purchase a hitch to haul the 5ver that will be on order real soon. So any help would be greatly appreciated. If I spend the $2500, will I get that much more of an enjoyable ride?
 

Pizzaguy

Well-known member
The Curt Q5 is a very good hitch as I posted earlier-but if I was retired and able to do alot of travelling I will have the full air ride hitch.I just can't justify the $2500.00 for our every weekend trips within a short distance.
 

lwmcguir

Well-known member
If chucking bothers you go with a full air ride hitch. That is the only way you wont feel the big cracks in the concrete or old asphalt hi ways. Otherwise any of the good quality hitches will work just fine. An alternative is to have an air pin box which helps quite a bit with chucking while using a rigid type hitch. We run mostly GN style as we pull heavier trailers most of the time. However the 5Th Airborne combined with CP took most all of the chucking out of towing the Augusta.
 
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