Andersen Hitch Failure

fj12ryder wrote:
I would say since that happened when the trailer was in the process of going over on its side, it wouldn't bother me at all.

I would not consider it a failure as I would not want that sucker flipping me over!

newman fulltimer wrote:

Mortimer Brewster wrote:
Has anybody been able to find the Facebook page referred to in the link? I couldn’t find anything on the Grand Design Owner’s Facebook page. I’d like to hear what the owner of the AUH has to say. It bothers me when a 3rd party posts a pic without a source to back up the story.

google .. grand dresign hitch failure its the first story on rhe page

That’s the link from the original post - not the Facebook page. I’d like to hear what the owner has to say. All we have to go by is a picture from a 3rd party.

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!

I would say since that happened when the trailer was in the process of going over on its side, it wouldn't bother me at all.

agesilaus wrote:
Also I'd like to see the AUH defenders post some images of a traditional, massively over designed hitch, like a B&W or Pullrite showing the same sort of failure.

How about this failure.

I also have problems with Monday morning quarter back information from third party. I would say that almost anything mechanical made of metal will with the right circumstances may fail. We just don't know the amount of outside forces that were applied or the actual condition of the aluminum tubing itself. I would be nice to talk with the owner and get it straight from the horse's mouth.

WTP-GCBTW wrote:
, your math is way off. At 50M sold, 0.00007 percent equals 3500...which is nowhere close to being right. More like 50,000 units sold, I'm guessing. All the 5er hitch sales in the world won't combine to be 50M

Nope, I had one too many zeros, should have been 5,000,000 units. 5,000,000 x .00007 percent is 3.5. 50,000 x .00007 is also 3.5. That percent sign changes a couple decimal points.

So they either sold one heck of a lot of units, or they put in too many zeros too. If they sold 50,000 units it should have been .007 percent. Which is still pretty low.

Cummins12V98 wrote:

BTW they sure did not redesign the "ULTIMATE" over just a couple failures.

Isn't it possible that they actually did re-design based on those few failures as a testament to how good of a company they are (or wish to be)? Is it not good practice to always be searching for ways to enhance your product?

Keep in mind, they offer that fancy $5,000,000 warranty. To have a warranty like that on a product like this, you have to have the warranty insured. Don't be surprised to learn that the underwriter may be requiring them to make product changes based on even a couple of issues.

On a related note, I used to never see these hitches at any campground we visited. But recently, I've started seeing more and more of them. My camping neighbor this weekend said that he was going to be getting one as well before his next trip. He saw mine, struck up a conversation about it, but had already been convinced to buy one.

Mortimer Brewster wrote:
Has anybody been able to find the Facebook page referred to in the link? I couldn’t find anything on the Grand Design Owner’s Facebook page. I’d like to hear what the owner of the AUH has to say. It bothers me when a 3rd party posts a pic without a source to back up the story.

google .. grand dresign hitch failure its the first story on rhe page

IdaD wrote:
Is that the old version of the aluminum hitch or the redesigned one? Maybe steel is a better choice of material.

Steel and rail mount version for that weight.

Jerry