F150 and Reflection 150 series?

BarneyS, I’m going to take your advice and look deeper into the Hensley/ProPride option, after spending the last 3 hours looking at Reviews and YouTubes of people who have gone to that hitch for exactly the same reason we were considering moving to a 5er, since we truly enjoy the TT we own.
Thanks to all you 5er owners who stepped up to help a TT owner work towards the right solution when I cold have posted this in the TT Forum instead!!

towing with a Hensley/PP it feels very similar to towing a fifth wheel - i had a PP setup on my 33ft wildwood with my previous F250 and it towed excellent, world of difference from the Reese dual cam i started out with.

I would recommend that to anyone with a longer TT or a shorter wheelbase TV.

When i moved on to a Fiver, i gave the setup to my father to use with his then 2010 Tundra and 2011 KZ 32ft TT and he enjoyed that setup for three summers.

Having towed both 5th wheels and regular travel trailers, the last 15 years or so with a Hensley hitch, I believe the TT/Hensley combo tows better than the 5th wheel. There is no chucking or excess movement of any kind either left, right, up, or down and the whole thing is much lower to the ground so it seems to track better with less effect from side winds. Once you tow with the Hensley, you will not believe how comfortable a tow can be.

The combo must be set up correctly (the owners manual is clear on how to do it) and the trucks brake controller set to have the trailer lead the truck slightly when braking. If the above are done, the whole towing experience will be a pleasure. The manufacture of the hitch is very helpful if necessary and there are tons of owners of the hitch that can help you set it up if you need the help. There is also a Facebook group about the hitch.

I found it very easy to both install and adjust the hitch and did it 5 times, including both of my sons trailers.
I have no reservation at all in recommending the Hensley hitch to anyone. It does exactly what they advertise. :)
Barney

I've not towed a 5th wheel like Barney, so I can't speak to that, but I can't speak highly enough about the Hensley. The story of how we got it was we rented a trailer before buying and the rental place had a weight distributing hitch on it, but we experienced severe tail-wagging-the-dog. My DW said to do whatever it took to never have that again. I already knew about the Hensley from being on here and immediately began looking for one, in which I "lucked-out" and managed to buy mine used from someone locally for about half a new one (I'm actually the 3rd owner).

And the Hensley is low maintenance too. In 16 years I've popped the bearing caps off to inspect on three occasions. The initial time, the previous owner had left it sitting outside (on the ground?) and I found that some water had migrated in. I replaced the bearings and then inspected it a couple times since and change the grease, but everything looked good both times after the initial.

Oh, they also recommend shooting some grease into it every thousand miles, through the two zerks. Easy peasy!

Thanks for the added info, I’ve already spoken to Terry at Hensley and making a decision tonight, but it does sound very promising in solving our issue with sway.

I didn't see this mentioned but some rv trailer owners don't increase the rear P tires pressure on the truck to max psi (44 or 51 psi) when towing/carrying a load. They use what the door post tire placard tells them which is generally around 35 psi. Granted there is no load capacity gain above 35 psi on a P tire in a truck or trailer application but going to max psi stiffens the sidewalls and helps eliminating sway issues. Just a thought.

As far as tire pressure in the TV, I run 45# cold in all 4 to allow for the added load. We’ve decided to bite-the-bullet and have ordered the Hensley Hitch in hopes it will do what we need to be comfortable towing our 32’ TT, since it does come with a 60 day money back guarantee.
Thanks again to all!

Partsbob wrote:
As far as tire pressure in the TV, I run 45# cold in all 4 to allow for the added load. We’ve decided to bite-the-bullet and have ordered the Hensley Hitch in hopes it will do what we need to be comfortable towing our 32’ TT, since it does come with a 60 day money back guarantee.
Thanks again to all!

Welcome to the Hensley fold! Hensley will be sending me and Barney our commission check soon . . . (just kidding!) ;)

A funny story - I spent maybe a year on this forum (about 17 years ago) going back-n-forth with many about the Hensley and whether it would work with my V8 4Runner to pull a 25' ultralight. In the discussion process there were some great people who among their numbers were many who owned Hensleys and also some pretty smart engineering types. We even got a real Hensley aficionado into the conversation named Andy (worked for a Canadian RV dealership), who was somewhat famous for hooking up a small Dodge car to a big trailer, to demonstrate how well the Hensley worked. There were also many nay-sayers in the conversation, which got quite lively.

So there were those all over the spectrum (such as some who said, "Let me know when you're towing with this setup so I can be in another state!"), but it really served to hash-out all the issues well.

Another forum member who had a Hensely was getting a 5th wheel, because his wife was into horses, and was selling his trailer and Hensley. Turned out the guy was local to me in the Phoenix area, so I bought it from him. So I had the hitch sitting in my garage even before getting my own trailer (which is in my sig).! I would take people out into the garage and proudly show them the hitch that would make it all possible. Of course, most of them didn't know much about towing and had not idea what the hitch was about! In fact, I'm sure some of them thought I was a little nuts for buying this hunk of used metal for almost $1500 (which was a good deal considering what they were going for new) when I didn't even have the trailer yet!

But we've never looked back or regretted the decision and my wife was fully onboard after experience the tail-wagging-the-do with a rental trail. She thinks it's one of the best investments we've made.

So happy trailering to you - I don't think you will ever regret your decision!