Andersen WD hitch thoughts?
Thinking about going to an Andersen WD hitch instead of my Equalizer E2. The hitch head is heavy, have to store the bars, etc. I've seen some issues with Andersen causing damage to the A-frame on TT...
Forum Discussion
Flapper wrote:Grit dog wrote:Flapper wrote:
I had one, and for my 34', 8000lb 850# tongue trailer, it didn't work. BUT -
the trailer was way too light on the tongue, so prone to sway easily. Not enough TW on the friction cup to counteract the sway. Also a very long tail wagging the dog. I had no issue setting the WD to recover all the front rise of my truck. Loved the ease of setup and use.
With a shorter, lighter trailer that has proper tongue weight it may work well. At a guess, the OP's trailer might be at the very top of the range for it. Too bad there is no "try it for 30 days".
Rather than accumulate slightly used hitches in my garage, I just bit the bullet and got the very expensive, very heavy ProPride. Which definitively fixed the sway issue.
Sold it to a fellow with a trailer same length and a bit lighter than mine, at a steep discount. He got rid of it soon after, also.
What you said is largely contradictory.
Not enough tongue weight but trying to recover front end rise?
Not at all.
1. The hitch depends on TW pressing the ball of the hitch down into a silicon friction cup, that then dampens sway. Not enough TW, not enough friction, and if prone to it, sway could start.
2. ALL hitches make the front end of the tow vehicle rise, due to the weight on the back end. The WD system (whatever kind) acts as a reverse lever to bring the front end of the vehicle back down. Some have bars that can be hard to set. This has chains that are easy to tighten, and for me, were robust enough to bring the front of the vehicle back to its original height.
So, 850# on the hitch was way more than enough to get the front of the vehicle to rise, but not enough to generate the needed friction to dampen sway. Can't say what my now proper 950# TW would have on it all....
Ok, I can see having an extra large tail wagging the lightweight dog exaggerating sway issues. So makes sense in your case where the Anderson design may not have been enough to counteract a poor towing trailer design.
But what are you calling “sway”. The little wiggles while towing at high speed or a bit of exaggerated push when passing a semi? Or actual sway that increases with speed and becomes hard to control or uncontrollable at certain speeds?
