Andersen Hitch Failure

jbeliera wrote:
Well in trying to put the pieces of this puzzle together: Like one behemoth of a toy hauler; the fact the combination of truck and 5er were moving at how fast we don't know' and the possible cause of the failure being the brakes locking up on heavy 5er then applying that torque and force to a moving truck. Something has got to give.

No actually nothing has to "give".
The trailer should either pull the truck to a stop or continue to skid until the tires pop.

Learjet wrote:
That B&W hitch was not a failure, it was a calibrated accident prevention release.

:

Ya ,right, they wrecked a lot of trucks ,and trailers to get that to come apart just right , just before the truck flipped over :B

Well in trying to put the pieces of this puzzle together: Like one behemoth of a toy hauler; the fact the combination of truck and 5er were moving at how fast we don't know' and the possible cause of the failure being the brakes locking up on heavy 5er then applying that torque and force to a moving truck. Something has got to give. If a company does something about the failure by taking the failure seriously and making some improvements to the strength of the parts in question and improves their design and also make it right to the owner by giving him a new one no question asked what else do you want them to do. I haven't had my Anderson (steel version) very long, but I would hate the thought of creating that scenario with any hitch design and keeping my fingers crossed that everything would be OK. Parts is not just parts as the old saying goes They do fail given the right circumstances. Lesson learned be careful and cognizant of your situation and check and re check the way you hook up your equipment. Follow good habits and if you have bad ones then make the change to safer practices.

Cummins12V98 wrote:

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!

You call it what you want , the hitch came apart, regardless whether it would have flipped the truck or not.

I can also speculate as you do, under what conditions will the B&W come apart in the same manner. Hard maneuver, sudden stop, and lane change etc. Apparently it was a wreck that caused this B&W to come apart, what will cause the next one, its rare, but it happens.

So Anderson is saying, It's OK for the hitch to fail, we'll just ship out a new one.

TXiceman wrote:
After a lot of reading, I willl stick with my nice HEAVY TrailerSaver TS3 air ride hitch.

Ken

Understood! I will stick with my "HeavyWeight" B&W.

I have never been a fan of "Have Your Cake" products.

This is the link https://www.facebook.com/pg/GrandDesignRv/photos/?ref=page_internal to the GD facebook where the picture of the failure orginated. Unfortunately, that picture can not be found today.

OK I've finally solidified the reason I have never liked the AUH. Traditional hitches, like bridges, are OVER designed. I have no doubt that the hitch shown below could take a sudden 25,000 pound force load and shake it off with no problem.



Look at it, massive steel plates. It uses triangles for strength. And the load is distributed across that big steel plate on top. Now look at this example:



This is NOT a massively over designed device. I'd say someone calculated the loads and sized these small tubes to hold just that load plus a little bit more. I don't think that if you overloaded it by 150% that it would do so well as the traditional hitch. Furthermore the load instead of being distributed across the large steel plate on the traditional hitch is concentrated on a small steel ball.

Furthermore the AUH design is in danger of small dents and such that a traditional hitch would not even notice.

If you want to trust something like that, go ahead, but I'll stick to the over designed type myself. Afterall, what is the advantage of the AUH? Weight is the only thing I can think of and my Pullrite breaks into 2, easily handleable pieces, in less than a minute. I'm certain my truck can handle the extra 100 pounds with no problem.

Yea and I broke my muffler bearing on my 2015 2500 HD Jimmy on my last trip :R

Learjet wrote:
That B&W hitch was not a failure, it was a calibrated accident prevention release.

:

:S

That’s a good one.