The Best 5th Wheel Hitches: 5 Picks Compared for Full-Size Trucks

The B&W Companion RVK3500 wins Best Overall because it solves the problem that annoys fifth wheel owners the most: a giant steel hitch sitting in the bed all week. It does not bolt to rails. Instead it drops into a B&W Turnoverball underbed gooseneck hitch, and when you pull it out the bed is flat with nothing but a ball hole in the floor.

The towing side is just as good. The head uses a cam-action latching arm that pulls the jaw tight around the kingpin instead of leaving a little play. That tight grip is the reason owner feedback keeps coming back to how quiet it is at highway speed and how little it bangs when you slow down. The head also pivots front to back and side to side, so backing into a rutted site does not twist the trailer against the truck.

The honest limitation is what it needs underneath. The Companion is not a standalone hitch. If your truck does not already wear a B&W Turnoverball gooseneck, you are buying that too and drilling or bolting an underbed frame in place first. Budget for both parts and a shop afternoon.

Buy it if you have a long bed truck, tow a fifth wheel regularly, and want your bed back between trips. Pick something else in two cases. If you drive a short bed, the PullRite SuperGlide 2700 slides out of the way on tight turns and this one does not. If your trailer is heavier than 20000 lb, step up to the CURT PowerRide 30K instead.

The CURT PowerRide 30K exists for the trailers that make the rest of this list nervous. At 30000 lb GTW and 7500 lb of vertical load, it has 50 percent more headroom than the B&W Companion and double the rating of the PullRite pick. If you tow a big toy hauler with fuel, bikes and a side-by-side inside, this is the only hitch here with real margin left over.

What makes it different is how it attaches. There are no base rails. The legs drop into the factory pucks in the bed of a Ford Super Duty and lock, which is the cleanest install in this guide by a wide margin. No drilling, no bolting a rail frame under the bed, and when the hitch comes out the bed floor is flat with nothing sticking up. The head is self-aligning and pivots in two directions, which takes the edge off rough pavement with that much weight behind you.

The limitation is fit, not function. This is a Ford-only hitch for F-250, F-350 and F-450 trucks with the 8 ft bed and the factory puck system. If your truck is a Ram or a GM, or has no pucks, none of this applies. It is also heavy, and a Super Duty bed is a long way off the ground, so treat removal as a two-person job.

Buy it if you own the right Ford and a genuinely heavy trailer. If your fifth wheel is a normal 12000 to 16000 lb rig, this is more hitch than you need and the B&W Companion RVK3500 or the CURT E16 will serve you better for less.

Short bed trucks and fifth wheels have one classic failure: a hard turn at a gas station and the front cap of the trailer meets the back of the cab. The PullRite SuperGlide 2700 wins Best for Short Bed Trucks because it removes that risk from the driver’s hands entirely.

Manual sliders ask you to stop, pull a pin, unlock the slide and remember to lock it again. The SuperGlide is automatic. As the truck turns, a cam system walks the head rearward, opening up clearance right when you need it, then brings it forward again as you straighten out. Nothing to unlock, nothing to forget, and the hitch sits forward over the rear axle while you are driving straight, which is exactly where the pin weight belongs.

The limitation is capacity and cost. This model is rated at 15000 lb, the smallest number in this guide alongside the budget CURT. Plenty of short bed owners tow trailers heavier than that, and if you are one of them you need a bigger SuperGlide, not this one. It is also the heaviest and most awkward hitch here, so pulling it out for bed space is not a five-minute job the way the B&W or Andersen picks are.

Buy it if you drive a 5.5 ft or 6.5 ft bed and your loaded trailer stays under 15000 lb. If your truck has an 8 ft bed, none of that engineering earns its price, and the B&W Companion RVK3500 or the CURT E16 will tow the same trailer for less money and less weight.

The Andersen Ultimate 5th Wheel Connection is the odd one out here, and that is exactly why it wins Best Lightweight Setup. Instead of a heavy steel head sitting in your bed, you get a funnel that bolts to a gooseneck ball and a coupler that replaces the trailer’s kingpin. The truck-side hardware is light enough to carry with one hand.

That changes daily life with a fifth wheel more than any spec on the page. A rail hitch is something you leave in the bed because moving it is a two-person job. This one comes out in under a minute, which means the bed is free every time you are not towing. Andersen also rates the Gen 3 at 24000 lb GTWR with 4500 lb of tongue weight, higher than the B&W Companion, and the greaseless design skips the messy lube plate entirely.

The catch is on the trailer, not the truck. You are swapping the kingpin for a gooseneck coupler, which is a permanent change to how that trailer connects to the world. If you sell it, the buyer needs a gooseneck ball or a new pin box. Ride feel changes too, since the pivot point moves, and some owners notice more noise over sharp bumps than they had with a standard head.

Buy it if bed access matters and lifting heavy steel does not appeal. Skip it if you want to keep the trailer stock, in which case the B&W Companion RVK3500 gives you similar bed clearing with a normal kingpin, or if you tow with a short bed and need real slider travel, where the PullRite SuperGlide 2700 is the correct pick.

The CURT E16 is the entry point to fifth wheel towing, and it earns Best Budget by doing the core job without extras. It is a head, two legs and a set of jaws. There is no slider, no puck adapter and no removable-in-seconds trick. What you get is a 16000 lb rating and a 4000 lb pin weight rating for far less than anything else in this comparison.

What sets it apart from cheap single-jaw hitches is the jaw design. Both jaws swing shut around the kingpin so the pin sits in a closed loop rather than being pinched from one side. Owners tend to report steady, quiet towing from this style, and when wear finally shows up years later the jaws are a serviceable part rather than a reason to replace the hitch.

The real limitation is capacity and motion. At 16000 lb it fits smaller and mid-size fifth wheels, but a loaded 40-foot fifth wheel or a toy hauler with a side-by-side inside will pass that number. The head pivots front to back, not side to side, so on badly crowned driveways you feel more of the trailer’s twist through the truck than you would with the B&W Companion.

Buy it if your trailer is comfortably under the rating, your truck has a long bed, and you would rather spend the difference on the trailer. Look at the B&W Companion RVK3500 if you want the bed clear during the week, or the Andersen Ultimate if lifting a 100-plus pound hitch out of the bed is not something you want to do at all.