Valley Industries' Tow Hitch

A fifth-wheel hitch is not only an integral component in your fifth-wheel trailer setup, but picking the right hitch for the job can make or break your traveling experience. Fifth-wheel hitches come in many varieties and formats, and the installation process is best left to professionals-unless you're equipped with the right credentials, tools, and the proper product for the job.

We had been looking for a hitch to pull our newly acquired 29-foot Komfort fifth-wheel trailer (that would be hooked up to a Ford F-250 Power Stroke), and we turned to the folks at Valley Industries to provide one of the company's excellent products. Located in Lodi, California, Valley Industries manufactures a wide variety of fifth-wheel hitches, gooseneck hitches, ball hitches, hitch accessories, and more. The hitch we picked was a standard mount-in-the-bed fifth-wheel hitch, and since our trailer weighs in at just over 9,000 pounds fully loaded, we opted for the company's 16K Double Pivot model, PN 70540.

This hitch had all the features we were looking: a one-piece jaw that offers easy hooking and unhooking of the vehicle, that wraps around the kingpin, and that securely captures the kingpin, eliminating any rattle. It also features a pop-out indicator, which provides visual conformation that the kingpin is in the proper hook-up location and a removable handle. This dual-pivot model has a high-impact rubber bumper that cushions the pivot movement at the end of travel. The four-degree pivot provides tighter control of tilt to help prevent damage to the truck bed, and the hitch has a powdercoated polyester black paintjob for rust protection.

Valley Industries' hitch is mounted on the company's base rail kit, which includes two base rails, custom brackets, and all necessary hardware. A unique aspect of the kit is that for our '05 F-250, no drilling was required to mount the kit's brackets under the truck; the only holes drilled were in the bed to mount the base rails.

For the installation, we paid a visit to Valley's Lodi headquarters and followed the install from start to finish. Since this was the first time Valley Industries installed its newly engineered '05 Ford application at its own location, several engineers and marketing people were on hand to witness the install. Here, we go through the major parts of the install.