Hensley Hitch used...yes no? Equal-izer too?

[bob777]

I have a Huskey Centrline hitch and am not very impressed. It is hard to work with. In response the the weight of the hitch, I built a wood dolly with wheels and a scissor jack in the center. This enables me to raise the hitch so I can take it off the truck. I then wheel it into the garage or store it under the trailer.

[ryand]

Originally Posted by bob777

I have a Huskey Centrline hitch and am not very impressed. It is hard to work with. In response the the weight of the hitch, I built a wood dolly with wheels and a scissor jack in the center. This enables me to raise the hitch so I can take it off the truck. I then wheel it into the garage or store it under the trailer.

I hear you....it is very heavy. I was not thrilled with the preformance of the hitch as it was set up from the dealer. Big trucks would make me white nuckle it. Since the last trip I made some adjustments to the set up that helped tremendously. I tilted the head back a notch to put some more force on the bars, Excahnged the bars for the 800-1200# units and got some of my tools out out the back and under the bed up front. Last trip the sway was not noticiable and the combo was much more fun to drive. The biggest grip i still have about the setup is the truck alignment in relationship to the trailer during hitch and un hitch. This alone may sway (No pun intended) me to look harder at an Equal-i-zer. The hensley and PRo Pride are out of the running for now.

[carl.net]

Originally Posted by ryand

When I was a kid i spent the summers with my Grandpa who lived just off Norfolk lake in Southern Mo. We would head north on the white river

They built Table Rock lake on top of my grandfathers cabin on the white river... After that no one in my family has been great fans of the core of engineers. Big grin.

[Hamblen]

I currently use a equalizer hitch for our tt. This hitch was purchased when we had a smaller tt. I feel like a hensley or pp3 hitch that states it eliminates sway would be a great piece of mind while towing. Our tt is 36ft long and weighs about 8500lbs loaded. I was considering up grading to a heavier weight equalizer hitch, but now I think it is not worth it. I have adjusted our hitch to see if the sway gets any better and it did a little, but if you take more or less weight one trip it does make a difference in the ride and the sway. I would like some feed back to sell me on spending the money on one of these two expensive hitches. We have even considered trading up to a fifth wheel, but if one of these two hitches works like they say it would be great to stay with our tt. Look forward to the feed back.

[Dakota EV]

Let me first say that your story sounds exactly like mine used to be. I had used an Equalizer hitch for almost six months after first using a Reese Dual Cam hitch. As stated in other post within these forums, these and other hitches are meant to help with sway control but, in my opinion, they do not fully eliminate the Sway issues. My trailer is almost 36' long and it is around 8500 lbs. So I had the same issues as you until I finally got the Hensley. I bought a used Hensley and I do not regret spending the money. With the Equalizer and Reese hitches, I still had sway issues while on the interstates whenever any large truck would pass me and since I could not drive over 55 MPH while towing my trailer, I was being passed by other vehicles a lot. Now with the Hensley I am able to pull the trailer whatever speed I want to and I do not worry when other vehicles pass me because I no longer feel them. I do not fully understand the principles behind how the Hensley works, I just know that it does work. I will never use another hitch while I own a travel trailer. My wife and I were considering trading up to either a 5th wheel or a motor-home but did not really want to spend the extra money. So I invested $850.00 in a good used Hensley and boy am I happy with it. I have heard from some people that they believe that it is harder to hook up with the Hensley but for me it has been easy. I actually installed the hitch myself after getting the manual off of the internet. It was easy to setup and requires very little maintenance. Also with the Equalizer and the Reese hitches I was constantly replacing the pieces that mounted on the trailer because they would bend. So far I have had no problems with the Hensley and I would recommend it to anyone that is having sway issues. I hope that this helps you. If not then I am sure that there are others on here that will be glad to give you their opinions on which outfit to buy. I have not used the PP3 hitch so I can not comment on it although I understand that it does eliminate sway too. You really want a hitch that eliminates sway and not one that just works to help you handle your trailer with sway.

[Walke]

Yes, my situation is the same as yours, 35 foot trailer 8000 lbs + when loaded. We had an Equalizer on our 26 and 28 foot trailers and when we traded for the 35 foot unit I went to Craig's List, Kijiji, etc and found a used Hensley Arrow. The best purchase ever, I refurbished the unit myself with the super support of Terry at Hensley, I was impressed with the details Hensley had on the hitch after I gave them the serial number. I purchased a lifetime warranty, received the parts I needed under the warranty to have it fit my setup, great service and help with any installation questions.
The unit tows without any white knuckle experiences. Most RV'ers talk about sway with regards to towing speed and tractor trailers passing. My enjoyment/acid test of a Hensley hitch is the absolute control and straight tow that occurs when you let the tow vehicle "coast" down a steep hill. At 60, 70, 80 MPH the trailer stays in a straight line behind the TV and never gives an indication of a sway. Absolutely great, I very seldom tow above 65 MPH, but when a hill is a 7 or 8 % grade and I let it go there is absolutely no problem with control.
Get yourself a Hensley and you will never regret the decision. Look around for a used unit, Hensley also has some refurbished units, they are very well built and do not need much more than paint during a refurbishment.
A second advantage compared to your Equalizer, the heavy metal that you have to lift off your truck and store after setting up your TT is not required, it all stays on the TT with the Hensley unit, just a relatively light 2" x 2" x 12" coupler to remove from your truck. Great Hitch !!

[Sean Woodruff]

Sorry, Walke, the title to your post is not accurate regardless of what Hensley advertises.

It is NOT the ONLY hitch to ELIMINATE sway.

The ProPride 3P hitch uses the exact same pivot point projection design plus has quite a few more improved features and benefits.

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[ryand]

Sean- would you be kind enough to summarize the benefits of the P3 over the Hensley?

[Sean Woodruff]

Originally Posted by ryand

Sean- would you be kind enough to summarize the benefits of the P3 over the Hensley?

I will but I don't want to step outside the forum's rules. If this information does please feel free to delete this post...

As I said, both the 3P hitch and the Arrow hitch operate through a linkage system that projects the effective pivot point of the travel trailer to 52" forward of the actual hitch ball. This eliminates the leverage that the trailer will have on the tow vehicle when the towed with a conventional hitch.

Jim Hensley's original design patents addressed the mechanism for this projection. He licensed those patents to a man named Colin Connel who started the company Hensley Mfg., Inc. Jim Hensley never sold anything to the company named after him. He only licensed his patents to them. Through the years Jim continued to make improvements to his original design but the company never licensed any of them. In 2007, ProPride licensed all of Jim Hensley's patents to improve his original design.

What improvements have been made in the ProPride 3P design?

An adjustable hitch bar to match different tow vehicle and trailer tow heights. This will save the 3P hitch owner $100-$150 in shipping charges in the future should a different offset hitch bar be needed for a new tow vehicle or trailer. The Hensley Arrow uses a welded hitch bar and the company offers a "free" exchange. Free isn't accurate due to the customer being required to pay the shipping of the new bar and return shipping of the old bar.

The hitch bar wedges and the hitch box have a greater angle to help in hitching and unhitching without the bar sticking in the hitch head. Hitching and unhitching the 3P is MUCH easier than the Arrow. This is the feature that many of our customers who have owned Arrows in the past comment on most frequrently.

A one piece yoke holds the hitch head square to the front of the trailer and doesn't allow pivoting on the ball. This replaces the strut bars on the Arrow hitch. The independent strut bars do become loose from time to time on the Arrow hitch and allow the trailer to sway. When two independent strut bars must work together as one piece there is twice the probability of a problem. A SINGLE WELDED yoke will not become loose. Even if a frame bracket slips the yoke will not allow the trailer to sway. If an Arrow frame bracket slips it will allow the hitch head to pivot side to side and may damage the hitch.

The 3P hitch requires NO drilling into the frame for installation. Holes placed in the trailer frame weaken the frame. We do not think it is a good idea to drill holes in the trailer frame and weaken it. The Arrow requires holes to be drilled in the frame to hold the frame bracket.

The weight distribution jacks sit on top of the frame rather than hang on a pin outside of the frame. This provides better leverage for the spring bars by moving the tail ends of the bars closer together and also eliminates any possibility of the pin bending like can happen in the Arrow design.

The spring bars on the 3P are bolted into the hitch head rather than a hanging on a spring loaded keeper like with the Arrow. The bolt in design will not wear and allow the spring bar to fall out of the bottom of the head.

The steel is properly pre-treated for powder coating. This will help prevent against chipping and rusting. The Hensley Arrow paint problem is well documented on the internet. To date, not one issue has been reported with the 3P hitch. This will insure longer life for your hitch.

The control links are thicker. The control links are under a great load so the 3P increased the strength to prevent any bending.

The 3P hitch box has been reinforced to eliminate warping of the top edge of the box. Over time, the top edge of the Arrow hitch box bends under the weight distribution load. This diminishes the effectiveness of the weight distribution. The 3P hitch box design addressed this issue and solved it.

That's the differences in a nutshell.

I hope this helps.


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[Hamblen]

Thanks a lot for the help. Once the holidays are in the past I will be looking for one of these two hitches. The only scary thing I have noticed is the price of a hensley brand new. I will be looking to try and find a used hensley. This hitch really has me excited about traveling further with our tt next camping season.

[Hamblen]

I have one more question for you hensley arrow or propride 3p owners. I have noticed some pictures of these hitches installed on tt's and it goes right where the lp tanks go. Has anyone had a problem with this? I may be over thinking certain things but sometimes things turn up more problems. Please let me know!

[Dakota EV]

I can not speak to the 3P since I have the Hensley. But I have not have any problems yet from my Hensley install. It is a simply matter to remove either of the two "struts or shocks" (I do not know the correct term) when I need to refill my propane bottles. That is the only time that they are in my way. I can access both of my compartment doors with the Hensley in place. I hope that this helps. If you need me to take some pictures of my install for you just let me know. Which I have the V-Lite which is a V-type nose on it so this may be different that some of the other Hensley/3P owners.

Happy camping.

[Sean Woodruff]

Neither the Arrow or the ProPride 3P interfere with the propane tanks.

If you'd like to see photos of various rigs with the 3P hitch installed you can take a look at the customer photos on the Facebook page -
ProPride on Facebook

You do not need to have a Facebook account to look at the photos.

[carl.net]

Sean, With my current Reese Dual cam WDH I am using the Convert-A-Ball Cushioned Weight Distribution Shank to reduce any shocks that the TT might cause to my truck. Do you have anything similar in your setup?

[Sean Woodruff]

Originally Posted by carl.net

Sean, With my current Reese Dual cam WDH I am using the Convert-A-Ball Cushioned Weight Distribution Shank to reduce any shocks that the TT might cause to my truck. Do you have anything similar in your setup?

No, I like as little movement between the tow vehicle and trailer as possible.

[jlgail4309]

Has anyone used Hensley Cub Anti-Sway Trailer Hitch for small trailers. They priced it out for 1395.00 for everything. Planning on up grading my hitch. Thanks for the input.

[Wumba]

I bought a used Hensley (18 mos. old) and will not tow with anything else again. As for the hooking up, once you do it a few times and mark your bars, you will be hooking up in under 2 minutes tops!

[jlgail4309]

Well bought the Hensley hitch today. They are running a sale for the first 100 people this year. Get 300 dollars off the hitch. 99 dollars for shipping. 60 day money back. Won't start the time till April. Will have to try it and see.

[Troy Middleton]

How much was your Hensley hitch?

and do you have a link?

Thank you

[Itsthetwoofus]

Originally Posted by Troy Middleton

How much was your Hensley hitch?

and do you have a link?

Thank you

You will never regret buying or owning a Hensley hitch. We had one for our TT and then traded it in for the BD-3 for our 5er.. Worth every penny spent. Click here:
Trailer Sway Control by Hensley