Hello,I'm a fairly new fiver hauler. I have a CURT Q20 and R20 slider combo on my F350 that was installed as part of the deal on the new truck. I've towed a 11,000# Grand Design about 7,000 miles total between many campsites. I religiously maintain the hitch, greasing according to the manual and etrailer's youtube video. I use the teflon plate that came with the hitch. Just about every time I hook up, I spray the jaws and the pin with heavy duty silicon.I noticed that after stopping, like for a traffic light, when I take off again there is a jolt like the pin has come forward a bit during the stop and is moving back against the jaws on acceleration. Is this normal? Or do I have something to worry about? Also the hitch is pretty noisy when maneuvering. Lots of clunking. I noticed there is some play between the R20 base and the ISR rails. I can jiggle it slightly up and down. Also, there is some play between the R20 wheels and its base. Again, I can jiggle it up and down a bit. I assume that's the source of the clunking.When I took delivery of the truck, with hitch installed, there was a plastic bag containing the teflon pad and 2 rubber pads shaped like rectangular donuts. I assume these are pads to go between the ISR and the R20. I also assumed these are just a couple of spares, but maybe they didn't put any pads on the ISR, or just installed 2 of them. I don't know if I can check without lifting the whole hitch off the ISR with my front end loader. If I go to all that trouble, I may just lift it out completely and swap in a Blue Ox Super Ride and put the CURT on craigslist.Any advice sincerely appreciated. We're leaving on a jaunt to Alaska soon and want to make sure I won't have any issues on the trip.-jj

I had the same hitch, Curt Q20. I've had it on a bolted down ISR frame, B&W turnover ball, and Ram factory puck system. It did the same thing as yours. I put a 5th Airborne pin box on the 5th and that dampened the up and down slop. I needed a lighter hitch after buying a cabover. I bought a PullRite SuperLite and stopped all that.I think all the clearances in the Curt, and probably most conventional hitches, have what is called "clearance stack up". Given certain circumstances, all the clearances in the hitch system add up to produce those unwanted results.PullRite SuperLite or Andersen will help a lot. I went with the SuperLight mostly because it was $100 less than Andersen. But it is also steel vs. the Andersen aluminum, if that makes a difference to you.

I used to have a Curt hitch and it was clanky and noisy enough that I got rid of it. Switched to a rail mount Andersen Ultimate and it's totally smooth and quiet. It weighs less than 40 lbs so it's super easy to install or remove.

Its been stated many times about the Curt having slack in them, and I would definitely change it out before a trip to Alaska.

Q16 sold (was on my Ford) for same reason....B&W tight and sold...world of difference.

My B&W Companion is solid, with no clunking on starting or stopping. Check out the B&W Patriot slider.Lyle

CURT Q20 Slop and Noise | Good Sam Community

32 Replies

jjinatx
Explorer
May 27, 2019
jjinatx wrote:

Tried to add the 2 missing rubber pads. Problem is, that I cannot get the pins back in. The pads are too thick to go in the gap between the R20 base and the rear ISR. I'll try fabbing some thinner pads from scrap EPDM pond liner and try those tomorrow.

-jj

OK, I fabbed a couple of pads from EPDM. The pond liner is slightly less than half as thick as the Curt pad, so I tried stacking 2 of them, but still couldn't get the pins in. I ended up with just 1 on each side.

Don't know how they'll hold up, but for now they take the slack out.

As for getting any info from Curt, forget it. I sent a contact form to them asking about these issues and have received no response. The same thing happened last year when I contacted them about another issue - no response.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm stuck with this hitch for the next trip, but I'll probably replace it after I get back. I wish I had started this a couple of weeks earlier. I would have had time to replace it before this trip.

-jj
thomas201
Explorer
May 27, 2019
A lot of your problems can disappear with smooth as silk driving. Look ahead stop long and gentle. To take off, ease onto the pin with your brakes at an idle, and so on. I learned to dive this way with partial loads in tube trailers. Even with anti-slosh bulkheads they have a lively ride.
Cummins12V98
Explorer III
May 27, 2019
Sorry for your troubles. Steel quality may be an issue as you mentioned.
redhooker
Explorer II
May 27, 2019
I have owned 2 Curt hitches. Both Q20, one roller base and one stationary. Here’s why they suck:

The roller is doing what the OP describes because of the slop between the base and rails. Yes the fix is the pads but you need all four, and yes you will have to beat the pins in with a hammer and I used an angled vice grip to give me a flat surface to hit. You will also curse, sweat, and likely bleed when you need to beat them out.

The fixed base model cracks the rails, sinking deeper into them creating a increasing slop condition. This is due to poor design, and possibly inferior steel quality of the rails. I will attempt to provide pics here, but the issue is the tab design. It concentrates the pin weight onto tiny points adjacent to the slots. Curt replaced my rails but I still spent $300 getting them reinstalled. First trip after new rails went in-almost exclusively on decent interstate (about 1000 miles)-and rails are cracked again. All 4 slots. Perhaps the pucks are better but I would advise anyone considering a Curt to keep shopping.

Curt has been a huge disappointment but the selection of hitches rated north of 20k is slim so I made a second attempt with the non-slider model.
jjinatx
Explorer
May 21, 2019
jjinatx wrote:
Durb wrote:
I had start/stop clanking with my ISR mounted hitch. I remedied the situation by using Curt 16900 sound deadening pads. Four bucks for a set of four on Amazon. I took out the front pins and pried the hitch up enough to mount the pads. Repeated the process for the rears. Really easy.

I went out to the truck and found out that the end of roller mount towards the cab has pads and the end towards the tailgate doesn't. So, the installer left them out for some reason. Since I have the pads, I'll go out today and see if I can lift that end and slide them in. The cab end is snug, The tailgate end is where the play is.

Tried to add the 2 missing rubber pads. I was able to lift the end of the R20 with a crow bar enough to slip the pads over the nubs that sit in the rail holes. Problem is, that I cannot get the pins back in. The pads are too thick to go in the gap between the R20 base and the rear ISR. I didn't want to beat on the pins with a hammer for fear of distorting the, but I did use a chunk of wood (poor man's dead blow hammer) to try to tap them through but couldn't do it. Guess that's why the installer didn't put them in. And before you ask, yes, the rails are also made by CURT. I'll try fabbing some thinner pads from scrap EPDM pond liner and try those tomorrow.

While out there, I noticed that 4 of the 8 wheels the slider rolls on aren't touching the R20 base. This is unloaded, so I don't know if they all touch with the pin weight on the hitch. I'll see next time I hook up.

-jj
cummins2014
Explorer
May 21, 2019
Cummins12V98 wrote:
lee worsdell wrote:
curt is Chinese and assembled in the states. They don't use a higher grade as bolts as on b&w.

Below is the response from CURT about where the CURT 5er hitches are made.

Good morning,

The 5th wheel hitches are mad in China.

Thank you,
Steve

From: OrderHub Support B
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2019 8:09 AM
To: cswebinquiry@curtgroup.com
Subject: Contact Form

I hope many find this useful, thanks for your efforts. :)
cummins2014
Explorer
May 21, 2019
blofgren wrote:
I have the Ram (Curt) 20k slider in my truck and really don’t notice any more slop or noise than my previous hitches. My last was a Hijacker slider which was an excellent hitch.

I actually tow with two different hitches , the Andersen rail mount ,and a 18K Reese slider, depending on the trip I am going on. Bought the Andersen for ease of removal, if its a fishing trip, and need to haul around my inflatable pontoon boat .

I prefer the Reese slider, like you there is a bit of noise with the Reese, never been concerned where it was made, and not sure if it is made in the US.

I think the important thing here is if you are happy with your choice, some seem to think they need to convince others of their choice of hitch is the only way to go , or the importance of where it is made .
blofgren
Explorer
May 21, 2019
I have the Ram (Curt) 20k slider in my truck and really don’t notice any more slop or noise than my previous hitches. My last was a Hijacker slider which was an excellent hitch.
Cummins12V98
Explorer III
May 20, 2019
lee worsdell wrote:
curt is Chinese and assembled in the states. They don't use a higher grade as bolts as on b&w.

Below is the response from CURT about where the CURT 5er hitches are made.

Good morning,

The 5th wheel hitches are mad in China.

Thank you,
Steve

From: OrderHub Support B
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2019 8:09 AM
To: cswebinquiry@curtgroup.com
Subject: Contact Form
BarneyS
Explorer III
May 19, 2019
I have deleted a lot of off topic posts between two or three individuals who like to bait and troll each other and often get threads closed. In an attempt to keep this one open I elected to delete the members off topic posts.
Carry on but keep your remarks on topic to this thread title.
Barney

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CURT Q20 Slop and Noise

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