B&W Companion Compared To Curt 5th Wheel Hitch

today I thought we would take a look at a couple of our favorite fifth wheel hitches sit down and give you a rundown of what we like about them and what stands out to why they would be our favorite hitches how's it going I'm Jarrod Gillis welcome to another all about RVs today we're gonna be looking at a couple of hitches my two favorite hitches your standard 5th wheel hitches that if you picked either one of these I really don't think you could go wrong but we're gonna compare them and show a lot of the similarities and some of the differences so if you're deciding between a 5th wheel hitch hopefully this video will help narrow it down between my two favorite 5th wheel hitches so we're gonna be looking at the the companion by BMW and we're going to be looking at curt both of them are going to have the the same weight capacity so it's going to be very apples to apples and but let's look at the companion first so when BMW set out to make a 5th wheel hitch they had three things that they were aiming for that they wanted to do they wanted to make it safe they wanted to make it smooth and they wanted to make it removable so if you removed it out of the bed of your truck they didn't want to have rails or anything back there you wanted to have a nice clean bed of the truck that you could use and if I could add a fourth one out of a hitch that I would want I would want it to be easy to operate and I would say that their hitch meets all four of those when I was assembling it and putting it together I was really impressed with the quality I mean this thing is stout it it's a beast it's it's very heavy but it is very very well made now they have a few different 5th wheel hitches but the one we're gonna be talking about today is their companion hitch with the OEM base so this fits into the puck system of the Ram truck they also have ones that fit into the gooseneck ours actually didn't have a gooseneck puck on our truck so this is the the OEM puck system for RAM now Ram Ford GMC Chevy they all have a little bit different layout and configuration for that puck system so I think RAM is the widest so this one talking about the comparison in the the weights and everything Rams probably going to be the heaviest because it's the widest so there's going to be more metal to spread accross to those different for point system in the bed of the truck now the towing capacity for this hitch is a hefty twenty five thousand pounds the MSRP value is fourteen hundred dollars and the base weight just the base without the head is a hundred and fifty four pounds for the RAM version and for the Ford version it's seventy eight pounds so you can see a difference in the weight between between the two bases now the head on this is gonna weigh around 75 pounds which will be the same across all of them it's the same head that goes on the different bases for the different trucks so like I said I was really impressed with the quality of the hitch when I was assembling it and I was really surprised at how many configurations you could put this in for a ram truck the Ram truck because the base is wider you have a lot of options how you can mount it in the truck you can put it behind the hat axle over the axle in front of the axle you have I think it was six inches of leeway of where you can put that so you can match it up for the turning radius of your fifth wheel and your truck so it gives you a lot of options in that regard and then also you have your height adjustments for the Ford and Chevy there is I think a couple of inches where you can move it forward and backward depending on how you bolted in there and then you also did have the the height the Jets adjustments to be able to match up your fifth wheel to have the proper clearance to the truck and make sure that everything was level so it was nice being able to have as many options but we were able to put it pretty far forward because we have a long bed truck and we didn't have any issues with the turning radius but it might be different for your situation if you had a couple of inches that you just needed to spare before you had to move to a slider hitch then this might be very beneficial to you to be able to have a hitch with so many mounting options now one of the things that they did to try and make the ride smooth is on these arms you have these bushings on top and they're polyurethane bushings that they're they're solid they're molded on there so when the head fits on there you grease those polyurethane bushings but it's just a smooth operation to be able to have it tilt forward and backward on those bushings so you can see that that head can tilt forwards and backwards and also side to side and it has a a piston on the side to help dampen that side-to-side movement and keep things smooth now remember when they set out to make this hitch they wanted to make it safe and smooth and one way that they achieve two of those things is that the jaws the clamp around they're made out of this 1-inch steel so very safe and very smooth the reason why it's safe is because that that steel is so thick and it's so tight around that pin very low tolerance still plenty of room to move but it's so tight that it's not going to come out it's very safe in that regard but it's also going to be smooth because there's not slop and there's not just a pin going across there locking that in it's these jaws clamping around your 5th wheel pin so that you when you're traveling you don't have that that slop when you're stopping and when you're going and you're hearing that clunking it's a tight fit for that smooth say friend now for me I wanted a hitch that was really easy to operate and this one is so you can open up that handle and when you couple in the fifth wheel you you pull back into it it's just a very solid connection that handle comes snapping back and you can put the pin down in there so that that handle can't open and those jaws can't open while you're going down the road now once you couple to your fifth wheel you always want to check the pin back there to make sure that everything looks proper that you're not high pinning it or coupled in there strange but it's a very strong solid connection that's just easy to operate I also like the top plate on this hitch the lines are really clean and I like the way that it's just easy to see where I'm lining up the fifth wheel to the actual hitch when I'm backing up the truck so that height is crucial because I want my fifth wheel to be about a half inch lower compared to where my hitch needs to be so that way when you're backing into it it just gives you that nice connection and you're not worried about sitting too high on it and you have that proper height adjustment also when you're disconnecting from the fifth wheel that that arm is just easy to swing open and you can actually pin it open so if there's any kind of a strange angle or where there might be any kind of binding you're able to pin it open so once you're ready to pull away you can just pull away and you don't have to worry about it trying to reconnect on there or close on it or bind in any other additional way that you pin it open and you can pull away just as a side note talking about binding I know a lot of people have issues with that in their fifth wheel hitch we have the Anderson Levellers and almost every time we level up on those we go backwards onto it so we put those Levellers behind the wheels and we pull back on to it oftentimes that will remove the the pressure from being able to release the pin or the jaws on your fifth wheel hitch and it allows it to operate freely and when you're going back and you're putting that pressure onto those anderson levelers it's releasing the pressure off of the pin or the jaws on your fifth wheel but that to say we haven't had any binding with either of these hitches that we're talking about today couple of the last things I wanted to mention about this hitch one thing that I liked is you're able to make some adjustments for how it sits in that puck system just some micro adjustments because each truck is going to be slightly different and you don't want to have to fight your system going into those pucks and being able to drop down and turn those handles it's just easier if you're able to make those adjustments so it fits in there nicely now it just drops into the puck system you have a quarter turn handle that locks it into place it's just a snug fit and then you have a pin that locks it in so that it cannot come out one thing that sets this B&W companion hitch apart is it's a hundred percent american-made so it's an American company they get their steel from here that they mill it here they manufacture it here they're very proud to say that they make the entire process here in the US the mills that they know and I've heard really good things about their staff having good customer service and a staff that's proud to produce what they're producing is is a great way to have a great product now there's only one thing that I had a hard time doing with this hitch and it's because it's the the RAM version so it's the heavier bigger bulkier version you can remove it from the bed of the truck removing the head is extremely simple so you can take the head off to not have to lift the entire thing out of the bed at the same time but that base is extremely heavy there is a lot of steel they definitely made it smooth they made it safe and they did make it removable and I was able to remove it on my own but it was it was at my limit it would be much better if you had two people to be able to lift it in and carry it out and be able to carry it wherever you needed - but it is possible to do it by yourself but it is extremely heavy remember that base comes at a hundred and fifty seven pounds for the RAM for the forward it was closer to eighty so you can see the difference in there 157 to eighty so a very heavy base but once it was removed you still have full use of the bed of your truck now the next hitch that we're looking at is the curt a twenty five and it's been fantastic - we've been using it for the last few weeks the last month and it has been absolutely fantastic very impressed with it the specs are very similar to the last hitch that we looked at this can also tow twenty five thousand pounds the MSRP value is almost identical at around fourteen hundred dollars you can usually find it on Amazon for just under a thousand dollars between eight hundred and one thousand dollars it also works with the puck system in our Ram truck so just drop straight in there we don't have putting rails in or anything like that it's a very clean install into the truck I can't exactly remember how much this one weighed but we'll talk about moving it and handling it and what it's like to put it in the bed and out of the bed of the truck but I wanted to talk about the jaws on this hitch because they're very similar to the last one very thick still a very secure solid connection around that pin it helps remove any of the motion giving you a nice smooth ride for towing your fifth wheel you're not going to get that that bouncing back and forth when you're hitting your brakes and you're hitting the throttle it's not going to have that slop in a hitch like this I was also impressed with this hitch when I was assembling it that the quality is great it is different than the companion hitch the companion was more of a machined and welded put together base to where this one's more of you have the head and u-bolt on the legs the curt didn't have as many assembly options for being able to to put it over the axle in front or behind so you didn't have the the lateral type of adjustment but you still had the height configuration to be able to match it with your truck and the fifth wheel once you had it assembled you could drop it into the pucks and again it's just a quarter turn to be able to lock that into the puck system and then you drop the pins into there so that it can't come undone so for being able to drop it in the truck and pull it out it was very simple now this one didn't have those micro adjustments for being able to adjust exactly where it lines up with the puck system it's just the legs were as they were you kind of bolt them into place so I did have a little bit of an issue trying to persuade it in once I was all assembled but with a hammer a swift hit and a quick kick I wasn't able to drop it right into place it took me a little while the first time being able to do that but after you do it the the second and third time you kind of know how to persuade it and how to get it to drop into place but it does take just a little bit more effort to be able to drop it in but really not not a big deal now with this hitch we gain an indicator on the back that shows us what phase were at gives us three different positions whether we're going to be coupling and connecting whether we're unhitching or whether we're good to toe so that gives us those three clear indications and it's real easy to see it at what phase or what condition your hitch is in this hitch is really easy to operate also so when you're ready to connect your truck up to the fifth wheel you're able to line it up pull back and that handle will actually spring into place when you connect into there it's always a good idea after you make that connection on any fifth wheel to go over and make sure that those jaws or that pin is properly seated in there so that you don't have any issues with thinking that you're coupled but you're really not so always check that it gives us those three indications so you know exactly is it green is it yellow or is it red and what am I trying to do so I like the handle on being able to unhitch it has a little spring so you pop it out and you swing it forward and it opens up those jaws but that handle kind of locks into place I haven't had any issues with the binding it's been really smooth to use and even just the overall operation we I'd almost say that this is probably the quietest hitch that I've ever used for a fifth wheel it's just very smooth and very quiet with this hitch you're able to tilt and pivot as you drive but instead of having a piston on the side they use like a rubber for dampening that but the head is real easy to remove off of the base of this you have a pin that you can pull and then the pin that actually it's actually pivoting on you just pull that out and the head just easily removes off so you can remove that and in one piece and then just like the last one you know it's into that puck system so a quarter turn on each of those legs you're able to lift it out of the puck system this hitch for me was extremely easy to move I think it has some to do with the the leg system so there's a little bit less metal involved so it's not going to be quite as heavy and you're able to pull it closer to your body so it's just it's a little less awkward and the handles that they put on there are actually in a fantastic position for being able to move it it's very natural to be able to lift it in and out of the truck it didn't feel like I needed an additional person it felt like I was able to move it around without any problems and when I was installing it back in the truck I really do like the way that the handles tuck right up against the the legs they're just nice and clean it's a it's a good design I really like the design of this hitch the other thing that was a little bit different about this hitch is that the handle is actually spring-loaded so you pull it out it's got a little spring in there and you place it into position that's easy to uncouple but then when you're connecting it in that spring really snaps it into place and that's a real positive connection then you can pin it to where that handle cannot move while you're doing so overall I don't think you can go wrong picking either of these hitches there's a few differences a lot of similarities but a few those differences depending on what's important to you might be the deciding factor of why you go with one hitch over the other but I'll put links down in the description to check out the current pricing on the hitches I was very impressed with both of them and they are both fantastic hitches I think that's why you see people that have the BMW companion hitch say best hitch I've ever had I love it I would do it again and then with a curt I also see very similar comments from people that have owned it so easy to see why but I think that's gonna do it for today so if you like this video give it a thumbs up if you want to see more videos about our being hit that subscribe button and if we don't see you on the road hopefully we will see you the next video [Music]

Channel: All About RV's

Views: 91,582

Keywords:

Id: _6hBw6wdLLo

Length: 15min 23sec (923 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 25 2020