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Old 07-21-2017, 08:25 PM   #1
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Sway/Weight Distribution 2012 Wildwood Xlite

Hi guys. I'm looking at purchasing a weight distributing hitch to pull my 261BHXL travel trailer. The trailer weighs about 4300lbs dry and I'm pulling it with a 1500 chevy pick up. What rating hitch do you all suggest: 600 - 800 - 1000??
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Old 07-21-2017, 08:30 PM   #2
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I have Wildwood 2017 261bhxl, I use Fastway e2 wdh, tow with 2015 Ram 1500 4×4. It's does a good job.
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Old 07-21-2017, 08:32 PM   #3
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Forgot to add, 1000lbs max bars and 10000lbs max hitch head.
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Old 07-21-2017, 08:34 PM   #4
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Forgot to add, 1000lbs max bars and 10000lbs max hitch head.


Thank you!
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Old 07-22-2017, 12:13 AM   #5
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I have a 2015 261bhxl too. I have the e2 wdh. 10k lb
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Old 07-22-2017, 05:45 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by Chriss View Post
Hi guys. I'm looking at purchasing a weight distributing hitch to pull my 261BHXL travel trailer. The trailer weighs about 4300lbs dry and I'm pulling it with a 1500 chevy pick up. What rating hitch do you all suggest: 600 - 800 - 1000??
Check out the Hensley or Propride. I chose the Propride and love it.
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Old 07-22-2017, 10:43 AM   #7
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Check out the Hensley or Propride. I chose the Propride and love it.
I can't speak for Hensley, however, my overall experience with the ProPride hitch was less than pleasant. The thing weighed a ton, was a PITA to hookup and never did perform the way I thought it should. I'm going with an Andersen hitch now and will share my experience after I take possession of my new travel trailer.
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Old 07-22-2017, 11:09 AM   #8
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This is where I'm getting stuck. They all have a 10,000lb towing capacity but the 600-800-1000 is based on tongue weight.
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Old 07-22-2017, 11:36 AM   #9
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This is where I'm getting stuck. They all have a 10,000lb towing capacity but the 600-800-1000 is based on tongue weight.
Keep in mind everything you load on tongue(propane, batteries) will add weight to tongue. So will what you load in front of camper & in truck bed.
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Old 07-22-2017, 11:52 AM   #10
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Keep in mind everything you load on tongue(propane, batteries) will add weight to tongue. So will what you load in front of camper & in truck bed.


What is your tongue weight?- (since we have similar camper and truck)
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Old 07-22-2017, 12:08 PM   #11
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I have a 700lb TW and have the 1000 lb bars.

I have hitch adjusted with all 8 washers and 9 th link to keep bars parrelel.

I still had rear sag with the 1500. I put sumo springs on. Got them for 153$ online.

Best investment I have made.

See my post here with pics.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...ml#post1570978
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Old 07-22-2017, 12:17 PM   #12
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Originally Posted by Campforlife View Post
I can't speak for Hensley, however, my overall experience with the ProPride hitch was less than pleasant. The thing weighed a ton, was a PITA to hookup and never did perform the way I thought it should. I'm going with an Andersen hitch now and will share my experience after I take possession of my new travel trailer.

Did you call Sean from Propride? TO have the issues you stated something is drastically wrong with your setup. Sean is awesome over the phone. I bet I called him 5 times in about an hour during my setup. He took every call
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Old 07-22-2017, 12:28 PM   #13
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Sway/Weight Distribution 2012 Wildwood Xlite

If you do not want any sway and the white knuckled driving that comes with it, then consider a sway elimination hitch like the Hensley. I bought one and i would never pull a trailer without it. They are spendy (~$2000), but more than worth it. Just Google it and watch their video of full size car pulling a '32 trailer doing a slalom course and intentionally going off and on road to soft shoulder over and over again. Before I had this I had a Husky WDH 1000 lb with friction anti sway pulling a 27' 4800lb toy hauler with a 2008 Sequoia and I was ready to sell the rig as i hated the white knuckle driving. The biggest problem with the Hensley was remembering I was pulling a trailer. I have posted on this several times and some think i work for Hensley, but i don't. I am a retired engineer that is just sharing this revolutionary engineered technology.
Most people do not have reference of driving with traditional WDH vs the new sway technology sway elimination hitches. But I guarantee that if you ever drove with traditional WDH vs the Hensley hitch, you would never go with WDH.
Maybe some people are just better trailer drivers than me or have a higher tolerance for sway... I have zero tolerance for sway and white knuckle driving.
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Old 07-22-2017, 12:33 PM   #14
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What is your tongue weight?- (since we have similar camper and truck)
The stated tongue weight from Forest River on mine is 434lbs. Add about 150lbs for battery & full propane. That would leave about 416lbs left on the 1000lbs bars. Depending on how much you intend to add behind the rear wheels on your truck and up front in your camper, the 1000lbs bars should be enough. It's just me and the wife, we don't carry that much with us. The e2 wdh works well for us. What ever hitch you decide on, make sure it's set up correctly. The dealer had my link plates on upside-down. I couldn't get it set correctly until I noticed what they did wrong. I was all over the road and the ride was very uncomfortable. Corrected their error and now it's fine.
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Old 07-22-2017, 12:35 PM   #15
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Originally Posted by PoPo Cliff View Post
The stated tongue weight from Forest River on mine is 434lbs. Add about 150lbs for battery & full propane. That would leave about 416lbs left on the 1000lbs bars. Depending on how much you intend to add behind the rear wheels on your truck and up front in your camper, the 1000lbs bars should be enough. It's just me and the wife, we don't carry that much with us. The e2 wdh works well for us. What ever hitch you decide on, make sure it's set up correctly. The dealer had my link plates on upside-down. I couldn't get it set correctly until I noticed what they did wrong. I was all over the road and the ride was very uncomfortable. Corrected their error and now it's fine.


Makes sense now. Thank you!
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Old 07-22-2017, 12:35 PM   #16
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Originally Posted by larryandamy View Post
If you do not want any sway and the white knuckled driving that comes with it, then consider a sway elimination hitch like the Hensley. I bought one and i would never pull a trailer without it. They are spendy (~$2000), but more than worth it. Just Google it and watch their video of full size car pulling a '32 trailer doing a slalom course and intentionally going off and on road to soft shoulder over and over again. Before I had this I had a Husky WDH 1000 lb with friction anti sway pulling a 27' 4800lb toy hauler with a 2008 Sequoia and I was ready to sell the rig as i hated the white knuckle driving. The biggest problem with the Hensley was remembering I was pulling a trailer. I have posted on this several times and some think i work for Hensley, but i don't. I am a retired engineer that is just sharing this revolutionary engineered technology.
Most people do not have reference of driving with traditional WDH vs the new sway technology sway elimination hitches. But I guarantee that if you ever drove with traditional WDH vs the Hensley hitch, you would never go with WDH.
Maybe some people are just better trailer drivers than me or have a higher tolerance for sway... I have zero tolerance for sway and white knuckle driving.

X2 only mine is a Propride....
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Old 07-22-2017, 02:02 PM   #17
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Originally Posted by Campforlife View Post
I can't speak for Hensley, however, my overall experience with the ProPride hitch was less than pleasant. The thing weighed a ton, was a PITA to hookup and never did perform the way I thought it should. I'm going with an Andersen hitch now and will share my experience after I take possession of my new travel trailer.
Don't know why you had any trouble hitching up with the Propride. Only issues I ever had were before I put some dry lube into the hitch receiver for the stinger. Didn't slide in easily before that. Now, with the stinger installed on truck, I backup close to the trailer, adjust the trailer height to match the truck, back in the rest of the way, jump out and secure the over center latches, attach safety chains, break-away cable, use my battery drill to adjust the WD jacks (based on marks on the jack posts), raise tongue jack while removing foot, pull and stow chocks, and I'm ready to go. I raise the stabilizer jacks before starting to hitch up. Time from when I get into the truck the first time until ready to depart - <5 minutes.
I'll grant that the backup camera on my truck makes the lineup really easy, but if you don't have one, those magnetic guides are almost as good.
Yes, the hitch itself is heavier than the market leaders. However, because it increases the distance from the trailer axle center to the connection to the TV, actual tongue weight is the same or less than with a ball mount hitch.

Before anyone starts arguing, I work from this understanding of tongue weight:
1. It is not a constant based on total weight of the trailer, it is a factor based on the distance from the fulcrum (trailer axle) to the point where force is applied to the tow vehicle.
2. It is the actual amount of down force placed on the TV.
3. Where this force is applied to the tow vehicle is significantly different between Hensley/Propride hitches and conventional ball hitches.

If you put a Sherline scale under where the original trailer connector is located after installing a Hensley/Propride hitch, it will show the added total weight of the hitch. However, that isn't the correct place to measure tongue weight with one of these hitches. Correct spot is where the stinger connects into the receiver of the TV (point of weight transfer). Leverage leaves more of the trailer's total weight on the trailer tires. Many postings of actual weighings where actual tongue weight decreased after changing hitches.
To understand why this is the case, check the videos on determining your tongue weight with a bathroom scale. Or visit the Power Dolly website (powerdolly.co) and look at their critical factors tab - they put the mount for their dolly on the trailer frame closer to the trailer axles than the ball coupler location - increasing the weight carried by the dolly and improving dolly traction.

Not sure what you mean by "it didn't perform as I expected it to". What are you comparing to? I find that mine performs better than I expected. Most people who switch from any other hitch generally say they will never go back.

If price is an issue, used hitches periodically come up for sale - generally when people move to a 5th wheel or get out of RVing all together and sell the trailer.
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Old 07-22-2017, 04:12 PM   #18
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Did you call Sean from Propride? TO have the issues you stated something is drastically wrong with your setup. Sean is awesome over the phone. I bet I called him 5 times in about an hour during my setup. He took every call
Yes, I did. I sent him pictures as well and he couldn't see anything wrong with it. However, in all fairness, he did offer to take a look at the main hitch unit and rebuilt it, if necessary. I decided to pass, due to the downtime and cost of shipping (with no guarantee that it would solve the problems I was having). It seems that everybody is/has been happy with their ProPride hitch and that's great. Unfortunately, I was not.
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Old 07-22-2017, 04:50 PM   #19
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Don't know why you had any trouble hitching up with the Propride. Only issues I ever had were before I put some dry lube into the hitch receiver for the stinger. Didn't slide in easily before that. Now, with the stinger installed on truck, I backup close to the trailer, adjust the trailer height to match the truck, back in the rest of the way, jump out and secure the over center latches, attach safety chains, break-away cable, use my battery drill to adjust the WD jacks (based on marks on the jack posts), raise tongue jack while removing foot, pull and stow chocks, and I'm ready to go. I raise the stabilizer jacks before starting to hitch up. Time from when I get into the truck the first time until ready to depart - <5 minutes.
I'll grant that the backup camera on my truck makes the lineup really easy, but if you don't have one, those magnetic guides are almost as good.
Yes, the hitch itself is heavier than the market leaders. However, because it increases the distance from the trailer axle center to the connection to the TV, actual tongue weight is the same or less than with a ball mount hitch.

Before anyone starts arguing, I work from this understanding of tongue weight:
1. It is not a constant based on total weight of the trailer, it is a factor based on the distance from the fulcrum (trailer axle) to the point where force is applied to the tow vehicle.
2. It is the actual amount of down force placed on the TV.
3. Where this force is applied to the tow vehicle is significantly different between Hensley/Propride hitches and conventional ball hitches.

If you put a Sherline scale under where the original trailer connector is located after installing a Hensley/Propride hitch, it will show the added total weight of the hitch. However, that isn't the correct place to measure tongue weight with one of these hitches. Correct spot is where the stinger connects into the receiver of the TV (point of weight transfer). Leverage leaves more of the trailer's total weight on the trailer tires. Many postings of actual weighings where actual tongue weight decreased after changing hitches.
To understand why this is the case, check the videos on determining your tongue weight with a bathroom scale. Or visit the Power Dolly website (powerdolly.co) and look at their critical factors tab - they put the mount for their dolly on the trailer frame closer to the trailer axles than the ball coupler location - increasing the weight carried by the dolly and improving dolly traction.

Not sure what you mean by "it didn't perform as I expected it to". What are you comparing to? I find that mine performs better than I expected. Most people who switch from any other hitch generally say they will never go back.

If price is an issue, used hitches periodically come up for sale - generally when people move to a 5th wheel or get out of RVing all together and sell the trailer.
You make very good points. I don't want to start an argument or bash the ProPride hitch. Almost everyone who owns one is happy with it and VERY quick to defend it. Fact of the matter is, I owned one for 5 and a half years and was never happy with it. Maybe something was wrong, maybe not. Since I took mostly local trips, I learned to live with it. The following are four things I didn't like about it:

1.) Caused my travel trailer to pull (mostly to the right). The direction of pull would sometimes change to the left after negotiating a turn. At times, my TT would track perfectly straight. I've discussed this issue with Sean and other ProPride owners. I tried everything short of sending it back. I NEVER had sway problems, however, it was discomforting to have to hold my tow vehicle steering wheel at roughly 10:30-11:00 o'clock or 1-1:30 o'clock to keep the TT straight.

2.) I could not hitch up, if the stinger and ProPride receiver weren't perfectly in line when backing up. I adjusted the tongue jack accordingly and also lowered the WD jacks to match the angle of the stinger. Even though ProPride enlarged the hitch box opening, this still proved to be a royal pain a lot of the time.

3.) If your TV was beyond a certain angle, when you went to unhitch, the ProPride Spring bars would interfere with the tongue jack and you couldn't lower the jack to unhitch. (even if you removed the jack pad). This was not fun when this occurred. Especially in tight campsites where it was virtually impossible to get 50' worth of TV and TT in a straight line.

4.) Since the ProPride hitch stays attached and hangs down a bit (which decrease ground clearance) it was impossible to perfectly level my TT in campsites that had a rearward slope. You couldn't lower the tongue jack enough to compensate for this (unless you removed the hitch or it was a dirt sight and you dug a hole).

Again, these were things I dealt with during my ownership of the ProPride hitch. There are pros and cons to every hitch on the market.
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Old 07-22-2017, 05:29 PM   #20
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You make very good points. I don't want to start an argument or bash the ProPride hitch. Almost everyone who owns one is happy with it and VERY quick to defend it. Fact of the matter is, I owned one for 5 and a half years and was never happy with it. Maybe something was wrong, maybe not. Since I took mostly local trips, I learned to live with it. The following are four things I didn't like about it:

1.) Caused my travel trailer to pull (mostly to the right). The direction of pull would sometimes change to the left after negotiating a turn. At times, my TT would track perfectly straight. I've discussed this issue with Sean and other ProPride owners. I tried everything short of sending it back. I NEVER had sway problems, however, it was discomforting to have to hold my tow vehicle steering wheel at roughly 10:30-11:00 o'clock or 1-1:30 o'clock to keep the TT straight.

2.) I could not hitch up, if the stinger and ProPride receiver weren't perfectly in line when backing up. I adjusted the tongue jack accordingly and also lowered the WD jacks to match the angle of the stinger. Even though ProPride enlarged the hitch box opening, this still proved to be a royal pain a lot of the time.

3.) If your TV was beyond a certain angle, when you went to unhitch, the ProPride Spring bars would interfere with the tongue jack and you couldn't lower the jack to unhitch. (even if you removed the jack pad). This was not fun when this occurred. Especially in tight campsites where it was virtually impossible to get 50' worth of TV and TT in a straight line.

4.) Since the ProPride hitch stays attached and hangs down a bit (which decrease ground clearance) it was impossible to perfectly level my TT in campsites that had a rearward slope. You couldn't lower the tongue jack enough to compensate for this (unless you removed the hitch or it was a dirt sight and you dug a hole).

Again, these were things I dealt with during my ownership of the ProPride hitch. There are pros and cons to every hitch on the market.
I want to believe everything you just stated and its very confusing since I have never found anyone with your situation on the internet. This is after a year of research prior to getting my Propride 3P 1400 in February???
Just saying...
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