Andersen Hitch Failure

Response in full from Anderson (as posted in the Story Link)

We were recently made aware of this customer’s unusual circumstance and are currently working with them. We have been looking into all of the particulars with this one so we can figure out exactly what may have caused it.

On a side note, any bending problems like this with the Ultimate Connection are extremely rare - in fact, out of all of the units we have shipped since early 2011, we have only seen this happen to 2 other units total (which equates to approximately 0.00007%). In each of these cases the trailer did NOT detach from the ball –so safety was not compromised, and damage to the truck or trailer was either non-existent or minimal. For each one we were able to get a replacement unit to the customer promptly so they could continue their trips.

We did bring each of the bent units into our engineering dept. to look them over carefully. We were happy that we did to find any defect in the part itself. Since it is not really possible to determine if the problem was caused by installation error, or other extenuating circumstances, we just went ahead and made the decision to increase the strength of the Ultimate Connection (part 3220 and 3221) by 30% to alleviate the issue in the future.


Here at Andersen Hitches we continue to stand behind our product and we will always put the customer first. Along with a lifetime warranty on the Ultimate Connection itself, we also have a $5,000,000 supplemental warranty covering the frame and other damage that might occur. We do this because we have absolute trust in our products and want anyone who owns or purchases an Andersen Ultimate Connection to be assured of their purchase. I know of no other manufacturer in our industry that does anything like that.

Please contact us at customerservice@anderseninc.com if you have further questions or comments. Thank you.

Why did it fail......cause it was made by man, used by man and things fail.
Hopefully Anderson can determine exact cause.....more then likely NOT
But it has prompted them to increase the structural strength.

Have other conventional hitches failed....YEP
See above picture^^^^^

Issue is .......what failure rate is acceptable?
None---if you are the one that has the failure
BUT industry understands NOTHING if fail proof. And a good company responses to a product failure and takes steps to correct.
Anderson seems to have taken that step

Lippert.....Ha THAT would be a big fat NO!