The Best Trailer Hitches for Trucks and SUVs: 5 Picks Compared

The Tow & Stow wins Best Overall because it solves the two problems that send people back to the parts store. It carries a 2 in ball and a 2-5/16 in ball on the same head, and the head adjusts up and down so you can pull the trailer level. Most owners buy a second ball mount within a year or two. This one is meant to be the last one you buy.

The fold-away trick is the part people notice day to day. When you unhook the trailer, the whole head swings up and out of the way instead of sitting there waiting to catch your leg. That sounds small until you have parked in a tight garage or backed up to a loading dock.

Build quality is the other reason it ranks first. It is solid steel, made in the United States, and owner reviews consistently report years of use without slop in the head or rust bleeding through the coating. Cheap adjustable hitches often loosen at the pivot after a season of rough roads, which is exactly where this design is strongest.

The honest limitation is weight and price. This is a heavy chunk of steel, so pulling it out of the receiver and carrying it to the tailgate is real work compared with the slimmer Andersen EZ Hitch. The 2 in shank version also stops at 10,000 lb, and the price sits near premium territory for something that is still just a ball mount.

Buy it if you tow more than one trailer, or if your trailer sits at a different height than your truck’s receiver. Skip it if you own one light trailer and never change setups, where the CURT 45056 covers you for far less. If your trailer is a big travel trailer that wanders in crosswinds, the CURT 17062 weight distribution hitch is the safer answer no matter how good the ball mount is.

The CURT 45056 is the Best Budget pick because it does the one thing a ball mount has to do and nothing else. It slides into a 2 in receiver, it holds a 2 in ball, and it drops the ball 4 in below the receiver so a typical trailer rides level behind a typical truck.

What sets it apart from the no-name mounts near the same price is that CURT torques the ball at the factory. A loose trailer ball is one of the more common causes of a trailer coming off on the highway, and buying a ball mount and ball separately puts that torque job on you. Here it is already done, and CURT is an established towing brand rather than a marketplace label that appears and disappears.

The problem it solves is simple money. Adjustable hitches cost several times more, and if your trailer height never changes you get nothing back for that spend. For a homeowner with one utility trailer, this is the right amount of hitch.

The real limitation is that it is locked in. One drop height, one ball size. Borrow a friend’s boat trailer with a 2-5/16 in coupler and you are stuck in the driveway. It is also a hollow shank, so expect some rattle in the receiver unless you add a locking pin or an anti-rattle device.

Buy it if you know your trailer and that is not going to change. Choose the B&W Tow & Stow instead if you tow several trailers, or the Andersen EZ Hitch if your truck sits high and 4 in of drop is nowhere near enough.

Lift a truck and towing gets harder in a way nobody warns you about. The receiver rises with the frame, the trailer coupler does not, and suddenly the trailer rides nose high. That puts weight on the back axle of the trailer, hurts braking and makes sway more likely. The Andersen EZ Hitch wins Best for Lifted Trucks because it puts the ball a full 8 in lower than the receiver, which is enough for most lifted half tons and plenty of stock three quarter tons.

What makes it different from the other deep drop mounts is how slim it is. Most of them are heavy, awkward things. This one is all steel, certified to SAE J684, and still comes in at 20.6 lb, so you can carry it in one hand and it stores flat instead of eating half a truck box. Andersen also rates it 10,000 lb with the 2 in ball and 14,000 lb with the 2-5/16 in ball, which is more capacity than the budget CURT mount by a wide margin.

The compromise is the combo ball. Both sizes live on one shaft, so switching coupler sizes means loosening the ball, flipping it and putting it back correctly. That is a minute of work in a parking lot, and it is slower than the B&W Tow & Stow, which simply spins to present the other ball.

The other honest gap is that the listing does not publish a tongue weight rating. If your trailer has a heavy tongue, confirm the number with Andersen before you load it. The polished finish also wants an occasional wipe and a little grease, since it is not powder coated like the CURT and B&W picks.

Buy it if your truck sits high and you want a slim mount that fixes trailer angle. Choose the B&W Tow & Stow if you swap ball sizes constantly, or the CURT 17062 if the trailer behind you is a big travel trailer that needs weight moved forward.

Tongue weight is the number that decides whether a trailer tracks straight or starts swinging. Too little and the trailer sways. Too much and the truck’s rear squats and the steering goes light. Most people never measure it. The Weigh Safe wins Best for Checking Tongue Weight because the measuring tool is built into the hitch you already have to use.

The gauge sits in the shank. As you crank the trailer down onto the ball, the load presses on the gauge and a dial shows the tongue weight in pounds. If the reading is far off the usual 10 to 15 percent of trailer weight, you move cargo forward or back and watch the number change. That feedback loop is worth more than any sway bar for anyone who loads a trailer differently each trip.

Everything else about it is a good adjustable mount. Aluminum body, 6 in of drop that flips for rise, and stainless steel balls in 2 in and 2-5/16 in. It levels the trailer the same way the B&W and Andersen picks do.

The honest limits are two. The gauge is a hydraulic field check, not a certified scale, so treat it as a guide rather than proof for anything near a legal limit. And the price is the highest of the ball mounts in this guide, which is a lot to pay if your trailer is always loaded the same way.

Buy it if you haul different loads and want a fast reality check at the hitch. If you already know your tongue weight is fine, the B&W Tow & Stow gives you the same adjustability and dual balls for less. If tongue weight is high because the trailer is a large travel trailer, you need the CURT 17062 to move that weight forward, not just measure it.

At some point a trailer stops being a ball mount problem. When the tongue weight is high enough to squat the truck, no amount of adjusting a ball height fixes it, because the weight itself is in the wrong place. The CURT 17062 wins Best for Heavy Travel Trailers because it moves that weight instead of just holding it.

Here is what it does. Two forged spring bars run from the hitch head back to brackets on the trailer tongue. Tightening them levers weight off the truck’s rear axle and spreads it to the front axle and the trailer axles. The truck sits level, the headlights aim at the road, and the steering keeps its normal weight. Built into the same kit is a friction sway control bar, which fights the side to side wag that big box trailers pick up when a semi goes by.

It is rated to 10,000 lb trailer weight with 800 to 1,000 lb of tongue weight, and the 2-5/16 in ball comes torqued to the head, so you are not shopping for parts to finish the job.

The real cost is effort. Weight distribution setup means measuring your truck’s fender heights before and after, adjusting head tilt, picking the right chain link on the bars and checking your work. Get it wrong and you can make handling worse than stock. Every hookup afterward is also slower than a ball mount, and the system needs an A-frame tongue with room for the brackets, which rules out most utility and boat trailers.

Buy it if your trailer is large enough to change how the truck sits. If your trailer is light and simply rides at the wrong angle, the B&W Tow & Stow or the Andersen EZ Hitch solve that far more simply.