Quote:
Originally Posted by itat
In my previous post, I said that the OP's proposed combination would not justify a Hensley or Propride hitch. That's because the Hensley and Propride hitches have a significant advantage over the other suggested hitches ONLY in sway control. They have no significant advantage in weight distribution. That extra anti-sway capability comes with a lot of extra weight, too.
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If you are looking for a significant advantage for the Hensley style hitches, consider these two posts. Everyone talks about sway elimination and most just consider how that affects normal towing (wind and semi's). But other stuff happens on the road and the sway elimination plays a big role. You can link over to the first. The second requires an Id on the site to see, so I copied the entire post. You tell me if they portray reasons that are a good enough advantage. As many have said, on various topics, you don't need it, unless you do...
The unofficial pp users guide... - Page 104 - Airstream Forums (this is post number 1446 in this thread)
https://www.myrvtalk.com/forum/techn...d-the-3p-hitch
Thanks to Sean Woodruff and the 3P Hitch
03-29-2011, 12:13 PM
I wanted to take some time to calm down before posting this. I think enough time has now passed, but if I let out a few colorful adjectives, I'll apologize now and warn that they may be present.
Before I get into the details, I'd like to thank Sean Woodruff for having the good sense to identify the 3P hitch as a good bit of engineering. I'd like to further thank him for bringing it to market and offering it to the public for a reasonable price. Today, I believe that I stole the hitch from him. It is worth far far more than he charges. In fact, I can't put a price on what it is worth.
Here is what happened:
I was coming back from the USA and had just crossed the border into Canada. Right after the crossing, there is an "information building" where tourists can stop and get some information about the area, perhaps purchase some fancy shirts stamped with "CANADA" or the National Flag. As I was driving past the building, I started to pick up speed as the highway returns to 100 km/h. I saw a small black Honda Civic with dark black tinted windows starting to speed up from the parking area to my right. He was obviously trying to merge onto the highway in front of me, so I started to slow down. When towing the 8000 pound trailer, I believe that it isn't worth playing chicken.
As I slowed, he too started to slow. He continued to slow until he was no longer along side of the RV, but behind us. I thought this was strange, but started to increase my speed again. Everything was normal. We approached a section of the highway that is undergoing some repair work. I slowed down to the posted 60km/h and proceeded through the repair zone. After, we returned to normal speed.
That is when it happened. I saw the Black Civic pull into the left lane and begin to speed up. I kept my eye on him with the mirror, but I can't say why. I just felt that something was strange.
He raced up in front of us and then cut into our lane. He was probably 3 or 4 car lengths in front of us. He slammed on his brakes. No reason I could see. He just did.
I thought we were going to die. I really did. We were traveling a little shy of the 100km/h speed limit around 95 which is where I feel comfortable with the trailer.
I slammed on the trucks breaks and could feel the anti-lock kick in. I wasn't slowing down fast enough, and traffic on my left made it impossible to just go around him.
I ended up going to the right and onto the shoulder. If I'd had any other hitch, I'm confident that we would be in hospital right now if alive at all.
What happened?
The right wheels were off pavement and on gravel while the left wheels were on pavement. The 3P hitch had the trailer under total control. We managed to come to a stop without any issues, and the sudden swerve to the right and then to the left didn't do anything but move us to the right of the slow lane as intended.
When we stopped, the truck was past where the Honda was stopped. The back of the trailer was along side of the Honda. The left edge of the trailer was about half a foot from the side mirror on the Honda. I didn't have a whole lot of room there.
As soon as we'd stopped, the Honda took off. He actually burned rubber.
I was shaking. I can't believe that I didn't wet my pants. There should have been a big pool of pee-- or worse-- where I used to be.
Two people stopped to see if we were alright. One was a truck driver who left me his information so that when (not if) I contacted the police, he could pass on his eye witness account. He provided me with the license plate number of the car. He said they were behaving strange and that was why he took it down.
When we started off again, about 5 km down the road, there was the black Honda and an undercover car pulled onto the side of the road. The trucker was just pulling away, so he must have stopped too. My wife wanted me to keep going, but I pulled over again (this time, in a much more controlled way-- but, the tires were off pavement again, now that I knew it wasn't impossible to get back onto pavement-- thanks Sean and the 3P hitch).
One of the two cops started to walk back to me while the other remained with the Civic. I found out they'd witnessed the whole thing and were just waiting to talk with me. They had impounded the car and were waiting for the tow truck. They were also going to hold the four young kids for 24 hours pending charges. I said I'd like to press charges. Any charges. Whatever the officers felt applied.
Apparently, the kids plan was "wow, nice truck. Fancy RV. They have money." So they were going to cut in front of us, and slam on the brakes. When we hit them-- they were sure we would because there would be no way for me to stop such a heavy rig-- then they'd sue us, threaten us, and either have a huge payout from us or from our insurance.
Sean, your hitch is a miracle. It is magic. In fact, I can't understand why the Department of Transport doesn't make use of the ProPride 3P mandatory for all travel trailers.
My conversation with the police officer had him coming over to look at the 3P. He had never seen anything like it. His comment to me when he first saw the trailer's right wheels leave pavement was that he'd already picked up the mic to begin calling an ambulance. He was stunned when I maintained control and managed to stop.
I offered to let him test drive the truck, but he isn't allowed to do that while on duty. He is going to take me up on it in the future. He took pictures of the hitch. He was going to drive back and take pictures of the area to show where the trailer and truck was. He was going to talk with ICBC (the primary insurance provider in BC) regarding the performance of the truck and trailer while using the hitch. He couldn't believe we were walking away from this without even damage to the truck or trailer.
I'm sure that or current status as scratch free is entirely because of the hitch. I'd love to take credit for my faster-than-human reflexes, but...honestly, I don't feel that was the case.
So, that's what happened. I still find myself driving slower and watching the mirrors more than before. I am still looking for the next car that decides they are going to use us as their never-work-again retirement plan. I am doing this even when driving without the travel trailer.
Sean: Thanks man. If I could hug you, I would.
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