Curt S25 Slider for A25 5th Wheel Trailer Hitches - 12" Travel

Video Transcript for Curt A25 5th Wheel Trailer Hitches S25 Slider Review

Hi everyone. Aiden here with etrailer. Today we're taking a look at this Curt S 25 sliding base for your fifth wheel hitches. This is gonna be designed to help get us some additional clearance from the cab of our truck when we're carrying our fifth wheels and give us an extra 12 inches of space to make some tight turns. There's gonna be a variety of different slider bases that Curt makes, all with different fits and we'll talk about those a bit in this video. So it's important to get the right one for your fifth wheel head, but let's get into it and check out the S 25.

So when you're operating this you wanna see how easy it's gonna be from the outside of the truck because obviously when it's in use we've got our trailer hooked up. So on the inside, if we reach over the bed rails there's a pin with a retaining clip that controls whether the release lever is opened or not. So we can pull that lever open, pulling it towards us. We'd go and pull our truck forward and the fifth wheel head would slide forward. Now for me, just doing it from the outside of the bed here it's a little difficult to do, but while you're driving, it would auto latch in place right there.

We could come out re-pin it and get our better turning clearance from here with an additional 12 inches of space from the cab of the truck. With this being a manual slider you're going to be getting out of the truck, interacting with it whenever we need to get better turning clearance whether we're parking the camper or just coming across a sharp turn while we're driving, you need to be able to interact with this in a somewhat easy way. I think Curt did a great job here at making this handle easy to get to and easy to pull because we're pulling it towards us and it's not working against us. Something I could compare this to is B&W's system, where the handle is at a similar height but you're pulling it back so it's kind of in line and we're never pulling it towards us. Just makes it a little bit more complicated and difficult to use from the outside of the truck right here.

So for me, Curt wins the ease of use here as far as the handle operation goes. Now while we're talking about the B&W systems there are a few more differences. So if you're looking at building a system from the ground up, that includes the slider and the fifth wheel head itself, you've got options. for me the B&W one is just a bit bulkier and maybe a little bit harder to get in and out of the bed. The Curt slider here has handfuls at the front and back and it's a little less bulky.

So it's pretty easy with a friend to grab these dedicated hand folds, get it in and out of the truck bed and set it up in your rails. As for mounting the fifth wheel head itself it's gonna be a little bit easier on the Curt here as well. It's got these plates on the outside that we'll see a little bit later in the install process that help hold it at the designated height. So then you can just run your bolts through get them attached and torque down properly. Whereas for the B&W system, it's all a bit more internal and harder to get to. So for that install process and that setup it's maybe a little bit more complicated. So if you're frequently going to be taking the fifth wheel in and outta your truck bed then maybe the Curt's a better option. Whereas if it's staying in there full-time you can go with the B&W. It really just comes down to your preference there. Now, if you're not building a system entirely from scratch let's say we already have one of the fifth wheel heads maybe from Curt or from B&W then I just go with whichever slider base is compatible with your fifth wheel head. There's no sense in buying a whole new system when you've got part of the components that will already work and you just need the right slider base. Speaking of which, this slider base that we're checking out today, the S 25, that's going to be designed to use with the A 25 series from Curt. If you've got a different fifth wheel head from Curt maybe like the E 16, the A 16 or the A 20 then you can check out the S 20 slider base. Just making sure you get the right one for the right fifth wheel. Now the slider has a gross trailer weight rating of 25,000 pounds, and obviously you also want to go by the fifth wheel head that you're using, and then be sure you're checking to make sure you're not overloading your vehicle either. Just go by the lowest rated component in your system and know that that's what the slider itself can handle. As for the overall construction of the slider it's a carbide black powder coated steel all around and you can definitely feel it as you're lifting it and setting it into your industry standard rails that the construction is solid and should hold up to the elements for a long time. I do wanna mention that it automatically latches in both positions. So whether we're getting some additional clearance from our cab or we're returning it to its natural driving position That handle will automatically latch back into place on both sides. So you only have to get out of the truck once. Now I mentioned it mounts up to your industry standard rails, and earlier I mentioned that it's very easy and straightforward to set up. So let's check out that process now. Getting the slider base into your bed, you're probably gonna want an extra set of hands because even without the fifth wheel head, it is pretty heavy on this side with the latch and everything. Luckily we've got some convenient handholds on either end. We can lift it up and make our way over to the tailgate and then make our way into the bed to get it to our rails. Before we set it into the rails, we do have these rubber isolators that can line up with the holes that are mounting tabs we'll use and that'll just help reduce the noise and the rattling that we hear whenever we're towing. We can maneuver it into place and drop it in, lining up with the holes. We will need to move our isolators in a little bit to line up. And once it's dropped in, we can pin it in place. Those pins should slide through those mounting tabs and our ISR rails and clip into place like that for all four locations. Now at this point all you have to do is install your fifth wheel head. That's not really included with the slider but what is included with the slider is these plates. It's gonna help you mount it up and get it bolted on. The fifth wheel head itself isn't super heavy on its own so it is easier to lift by yourself but you will probably need a second set of hands to get these plates in. Those will hold it upright at your desired height while you get the bolts attached and torqued down properly. And then these plates will slide through from the outside of the slider right here with the curve matching and the pins poking through on the inside. So our fifth wheel head will just drop into place and you can see how those holes will align. If you've got it at the lowest height setting you really don't need an extra set of hands. It'll support itself while you get this plate in place enough to just hold it there. But if you wanna raise that height up at all, you will probably need someone to help get this plate in while you have it at the proper height setting. And when that's done on both sides you can just take your hardware, run it through, have the nut on the inside, and then tighten and torque it all down properly. But with those plates in place I really don't need to worry about it. These bolts are very easy to get through. Once your fifth wheel head is in place that's really all there is to it for the install process. It's really great that the slider base is just a drop in install that made it very straightforward and simple, and it was easy to get the fifth wheel head installed as well. So if you need that slider base to get you that extra clearance from your cab or your truck you can do that and it's a pretty easy thing to add on, in addition to the fifth wheel head you already have. Thanks for watching.