Andersen Hitches

[atboyd]

Read the thread, looked and listened to company speil, then ordered from HitchSource. Tongue plates too long but quick trip to machine shop fixed that.
Set up easy, hook and unhook easiest WD/anti-sway I have ever used(50 years of trailer towing)
Only 280 miles so far and feels wonderful. Have not encountered strong crosswind with poor road conditions yet but everything else is stable.
More later.
atboyd

[flc]

I have a new truck and trailer (on the way) so, after hearing some favorable comments, I'm considering this hitch. My truck is a 2 wheel drive F150 and the trailer about 600 lb tongue weight. My guess is the 4" drop/rise is sufficient. Can anyone with this hitch confirm this? I'm just trying to keep it at a cleaner look with less metal, if possible.

[comfun1]

Originally Posted by flc

I have a new truck and trailer (on the way) so, after hearing some favorable comments, I'm considering this hitch. My truck is a 2 wheel drive F150 and the trailer about 600 lb tongue weight. My guess is the 4" drop/rise is sufficient. Can anyone with this hitch confirm this? I'm just trying to keep it at a cleaner look with less metal, if possible.

I have a '97 f150 and a 2012 Grey Wolf 21rr. It required the 6" drop/rise. The 4" and 6" were the same price and the 6" can be cut off if you don't need the extra 2".

[PHS79]

Originally Posted by flc

I have a new truck and trailer (on the way) so, after hearing some favorable comments, I'm considering this hitch. My truck is a 2 wheel drive F150 and the trailer about 600 lb tongue weight. My guess is the 4" drop/rise is sufficient. Can anyone with this hitch confirm this? I'm just trying to keep it at a cleaner look with less metal, if possible.

I would go with the 6" version if I were you. I have the 4" and I have mine setup with 1" of rise on my 04 F150 and 2012 Grey Wolf 26BH. But my F150 is 4X4, lifted 3" in the front and running a tire that equals out to about 33.5" tall (about 2" taller than the stockers that came on my FX4.)

And like comfun1 said, if it turns out you don't need the extra height you can always cut it off. I would rather have the extra and not need it, rather than not have it and need it. I was actually surprised that I needed to use mine in the raise position with my setup, but it is what it is...

[flc]

Thanks, Guys. Sounds like 6" is it.

[dsgnrdavid47421]

I have just completed my second trip with the Andersen hitch and I have to say it's the best, smoothest, quiet hitch I have used.
The bushings do a great job absorbing road bounce. To test it this time I drove the same route that with our old torsion bar hitch almost made us sea sick. Very smooth, one dip over a gap and right back to level.
I would highly recommend it. The hookup and un-hooking are a breeze. Spin the ratchet, pull the lower pin to drop the yoke and then extend the jack to release the ball.

[CHD Dad]

Curious on the unhooking/hooking - can you raise the TV and TT up enough with the jack to slide the yoke on/off and pin it without having to use the socket to back off the tension on the chains? Similar to raising them both up with a regular WDH to snap up the spring bars.

[dsgnrdavid47421]

I haven't tried that because it is much faster to back off the nut. It only takes about 3 cranks until the nut is loose enough to spin by hand. I can usually have the chains slack and the pin out in under a minute.

To tighten the chains you can either count the exposed thread or in my case I have 1-1/4 of bolt exposed when I am at proper tension. I keep a block of wood cut 1 1/4 as a guide.

[CHD Dad]

Thanks for the reply. I think I may order one from Radauto this weekend. Love the simplicity of it. My only worry is possible wear and tear on the coupler latch from having all that force up against it. I spoke to Andersen on the phone and he didnt seem worried, but his idea that the tongue weight would help seat the ball didnt add up for me. We are talking 700-1000# of tongue weight vs. a couple thousand pounds of force pulling on those chains.

[BIG LACY]

Originally Posted by CHD Dad

Curious on the unhooking/hooking - can you raise the TV and TT up enough with the jack to slide the yoke on/off and pin it without having to use the socket to back off the tension on the chains? Similar to raising them both up with a regular WDH to snap up the spring bars.

I think that is why I had sway problems when I first tried it out. When you jack it up high enough to slip the chains on or off, same w/ bracket,the ball will come up relieving the anti sway pressure. That said you can jack up under the hitch ball it's self and hookup no problems. Hope that makes sense. Lacy

[PHS79]

Originally Posted by CHD Dad

Curious on the unhooking/hooking - can you raise the TV and TT up enough with the jack to slide the yoke on/off and pin it without having to use the socket to back off the tension on the chains? Similar to raising them both up with a regular WDH to snap up the spring bars.

I tried it once, I put over 90psi in the bags on my truck and also used the tongue jack on the camper, it raised the rear of the truck over 4" past the empty height of my truck. I was not able to get any tension off the chains, they were still tight, and I was not able to get the triangle plate to release from the bottom of the ball.

This weekend I am bringing the camper into our house to wash it and get it ready for next weekend. I may try and see if I can figure out a way to release the chain tension, just cause I can be lazy at times, but if I have to use the ratchet every time its no big deal.

[firemanrod]

Just took my 26' Wildwood out using my Andersen WD Hitch for the first time

The hitch did everything it was supposed to do. I experienced absolutely no sway while pulling. Bouncing was non existent. The hitch performed well.

I do have some issues with the hitch. I pull my trailer with a 2011 Ram 1500 Quad. My trailer has about a 520lb. hitch weight. I could not get the rear end of my truck up enough to be within one inch of the front. I was always 1 1/2 to 2 inches lower in the back. I configured the hitch in every way possible. My truck being lower in the back did not affect the towing although it didn't look real good. One of the problems with my truck being lower in back is if I was towing at night my headlights would be higher hitting opposing drivers in the eyes the same way high beams do.

The other problem with mt truck being lower in back was the weight being put on my rear tires. I tried to adjust the hitch by screwing in the adjusting nuts more. I was up to nine threads showing and nothing was changing. I know that the weight of the trailer was being distributed to the front of my truck but the hitch was not picking up the back of my truck like a standard WD hitch does. The WD bars actually take up the weight of the trailer while raising the back of the truck. The Andersen only does this marginally.

I suppose I could install air shocks on the rear of my Ram but I'm tired of spending money on this "towing thing". My old hitch works just fine.

Another issues I had while towing with the Andersen WD Hitch was that my hitch pin was pretty beaten up. I could see the pressure put on the pin because the chrome was worn off. This didn't affect the pin as I bought the strongest possible. But it does show the tremendous pressure put on the pin while towing. This never happened with my old hitch.

In my opinion and only my opinion, I believe the Andersen WD Hitch would work very well with a 3/4 ton tow vehicle where the rear suspension is much stronger and not prone to sagging in the rear with a high tongue weight. I think with my Ram 1500 the Andersen WD Hitch does not work the way I expected it would. I am disappointed. But then maybe I was expecting too much out of the Andersen WD Hitch.

[OldCoot]

I would go back and read the installation manual again, don't think it should put anymore pressure on the pin than a regular WDH. If it is putting wt on the front, it should be lifting the rear. I would suspect something is amiss.

[jd-ford-hd]

One glance at this hitch tells me weight distribution would be minimal. The geometry just ain't there. I have seen the rear tires lifted off the ground in a demonstration with the tried and true spring bars. Personally, I am through with any RV that pulls from the bumper, been there, done that..!! Fifth wheel or motorhome for me..!

[firemanrod]

I read through the manual with a fine tooth comb.
The Andersen WD hitch did raise the rear of my Ram but not enough to bring it up to within 1" if the front.

I actually started over twice as far as setting up the hitch just to make sure I didn't miss anything.

I emailed Andersen on how much I could compress the "spring". I didn't get an answer. Like I wrote, I had nine threads showing and at that point the back of the truck was raising very little. I didn't think I should tighten beyond the nine threads.

As far as the hitch pin showing signs of wear after towing with the Andersen, I have no idea what that was about. I can tell you that I couldn't release the trailer hitch until I relieved pressure on the adjusting nuts. This tells me the weight distributing force was being forced back against the trailer itself.

[BIG LACY]

I have an 2008 Ram that I bought just as a TV. My TV is set up for towing from the factory (Big Horn 5.7 hemi).before the weight of my Rockford 2604 is applied ( around 700#) the front of the TV is 2.5" lower than rear. After lowering the TT onto the hitch and before hooking up the Andersen,it sets dead level. When the hitch is tightened up.the rear is up about one inch,and front down about 3/4,and tows perfect. Maybe your Ram doesn't have the tow option? A set of helper springs or air bags on the rear might just work for you. Good luck. Lacy

[PHS79]

Something seems off with firemanrods combo, IMO. Here are the measurements to the top of the wheel wells off my truck (2004 F150 FX4) with a 648lb tongue weight:
truck empty-- front 40 1/4", rear 40 1/4"
camper hooked no WD-- front 40 3/8", rear 39 1/4"
camper hooked with WD front 40 1/8", rear 40"

As you can see by my measurements the Andersen hitch brought the rear of my truck back to 1/4" of the empty height. That was with roughly 9 threads showing and 1/4" of compression on the bushings.

[gwest3024]

Ok, so we just picked this hitch up on the 18th and used it for about 8 hours of pulling. We had the Equalizer 4 way hitch and the noise made my wife crazy nervous. This hitch is amazing! No noise and some of the best anti-sway results for highway driving I have ever witnessed.

The anti-sway id created by the hitch weight on the ball. the ball turns with the trailer and is beveled into a brake liner type of material. The hook up and realease is simple, you use a deep well socket included with the hitch and take only minutes to hook up or unhook.

We are very pleased with this hitch setup. We haul a 2012 34' Salem with a total loaded weight of about 8500-9000lbs with either a 2011 Expedition or a 2012 F150 Super Crew, the Super Crew was used for this initial haul, I will update after i test with the shorter wheelbased Expedition.

[flc]

Originally Posted by gwest3024

Ok, so we just picked this hitch up on the 18th and used it for about 8 hours of pulling. We had the Equalizer 4 way hitch and the noise made my wife crazy nervous. This hitch is amazing! No noise and some of the best anti-sway results for highway driving I have ever witnessed.

..........

We are very pleased with this hitch setup. We haul a 2012 34' Salem with a total loaded weight of about 8500-9000lbs with either a 2011 Expedition or a 2012 F150 Super Crew, the Super Crew was used for this initial haul, I will update after i test with the shorter wheelbased Expedition.

gwest3024...

I have a smaller trailer on order but currently have a trailer similar to yours. I recently went to a 2012 F150 Supercrew with which i will pull the smaller trailer. I am interested to know if the Andersen hitch was able to get the F150 back to a level attitude when hooked up. My F150 has quite a bit more rear end sag than I am accustomed to and I'm still 500lbs short of payload. My equalizer does okay but I'm interested in the Andersen and need to know if it really distributes the weight as well as the equalizer. Thanks.

[gwest3024]

Yes, it gets me within 1 in on completely level ground. If you are in a parking lot or at any type of an inclince/decline it will look like the rear is low but the trailer will be level and a quick check with the tape will reassure you. I am only using the recommended 7 threads ( bearely) showing as this seemed optimal for us. I did notice in doing some testing between stops that at tighter settings i could get the back to go higher but I personally thought it took away some of the tongue pressure on the ball and redueced the awesome anti-sway effect...it could just be my perception or that winds had changed, but I changed it back at the next stop and was happy again.