Help me decide on a hitch

Andersen hitch is great, I have a short bed truck and no problems. I got it because I can easily, within two minutes, take it out of my bed and store it in the storage compartment of my 5th wheel. Difficult for me to fathom why anyone would go with your traditional heavy, clunky hitch...hope I didn't any of old school guys.

Dumoldles

^^^^^^^^^^Maybe because most of us use the hitch for what it's intended rather than a wall hanger. :)

Dumoldles wrote:
Andersen hitch is great, I have a short bed truck and no problems. I got it because I can easily, within two minutes, take it out of my bed and store it in the storage compartment of my 5th wheel. Difficult for me to fathom why anyone would go with your traditional heavy, clunky hitch...hope I didn't any of old school guys.

Dumoldles

Under 12 K Andersen is no doubt an option. Towing heavy not so much. Bed deflection and bent tubes. They have updated for those towing heavy. Still NO way this would be attached to an Andersen in the back of my truck.

I think you are going to find that the Cougar has a very short overhang, just like my 278 does. It means that you cannot hitch up with your tailgate down. You have to backup close, get out and close your tailgate, and then complete the hitch makeup. Guess wrong and you will dent your fiver front or your tailgate. I avoid all that by using a Vee cut tailgate.

But I think the Anderson might be a good fit. You won't need to pull forward/backward to operate the hitch jaws. You will simply drop the receiver directly down on the ball. You will likely still have to open/close the tailgate halfway through, but the clearance will be improved.

Cummins12V98 wrote:


Under 12 K Andersen is no doubt an option. Towing heavy not so much. Bed deflection and bent tubes. They have updated for those towing heavy.

Andersen rates their hitch at 24K, but you're saying that the hitch is only good for less than half that. Why would they rate it so high then? Wouldn't they be held liable if someone experienced a catastrophic failure as a result of their hitch being overrated? I searched long and hard but couldn't find more than a one case of bent tubes, and only a few other comments from dissatisfied customers. You must have some engineering data or information regarding a high number of incidents to confirm your position.

Cummins12V98 doesn't like the Andersen hitch. You'll just have to learn to live with that. Arguing isn't going to change his mind.

WTP-GC wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:


Under 12 K Andersen is no doubt an option. Towing heavy not so much. Bed deflection and bent tubes. They have updated for those towing heavy.

Andersen rates their hitch at 24K, but you're saying that the hitch is only good for less than half that. Why would they rate it so high then? Wouldn't they be held liable if someone experienced a catastrophic failure as a result of their hitch being overrated? I searched long and hard but couldn't find more than a one case of bent tubes, and only a few other comments from dissatisfied customers. You must have some engineering data or information regarding a high number of incidents to confirm your position.

He has no engineering degree. Just personal opinion... Hes the most outspoken critic of the Andersen even though hes never used one.

For heavy applications Andersen still offers the original steel version. You will not find any reports of failures out there even from guys towing heavy.

fj12ryder wrote:
Cummins12V98 doesn't like the Andersen hitch. You'll just have to learn to live with that. Arguing isn't going to change his mind.

This is true, and perfect timing as I was just about to mention the OP specifically stated what make/model of 5th he has which is well under 10K and pin weight of probably 1700#.

Yet the post stating "I would never pull this" is showing a trailer of close to 20K and pin weight of 5000+.

Not really apples to apples or answering the question honestly.

fj12ryder wrote:
Cummins12V98 doesn't like the Andersen hitch. You'll just have to learn to live with that. Arguing isn't going to change his mind.

What it will do is get the thread closed.

fj12ryder wrote:
Cummins12V98 doesn't like the Andersen hitch. You'll just have to learn to live with that. Arguing isn't going to change his mind.

Nothing wrong with anyone sharing an opinion about any possible topic under the sun. But that's where it should stop. "I don't like this or that, and I'm not going to use this or that."
It only becomes a problem when opinion morphs into conjecture, and baseless claims are put out there as fact.

I'm a contractor by trade. Lots of contractors rely on online reviews and referrals, but that's not the type of work I do. If I had 1000 positive reviews and 1 or 2 or 3 negative reviews, would it be safe to assume that those are outliers and I'm good at what I do?

I might say: "I'm a good contractor".
Someone else who has never used me, never worked with me or for me, and generally has no knowledge of me might say: "He's a bad contractor". Is it reasonable to believe that person?