I am curious if anyone has any experience with the class V Airsafe hitches compatible with WD Hitch's. Looks interesting but it is also very expensive. What do you think of the claims of less driver fatigue and less abuse on your transmission?

pbmazda32 wrote:I am curious if anyone has any experience with the class V Airsafe hitches compatible with WD Hitch's. Looks interesting but it is also very expensive. What do you think of the claims of less driver fatigue and less abuse on your transmission?I've had the Class VI for 4 years now, put about 20K miles on the trailer.I love it, but here are some things to think about before spending the bucks1) on roads with frost heaves or concrete expansion strips it made a huge difference in towing ride and comfort. none of the jerking I was noticing before. DW loves that. 2) It works very well with a WD setup.I've running about 1500lbs tongue weight and use a Reese Dual cam WD setup.what are the downsides1) weight. it is heavy, around 100lbs, I use a harbor freight small roll around dolly. 2) Cost. If you only tow a few weeks a year or not very many miles, or on good roads, it's a pretty expensive solution. as for the claims of less transmission wear etc. I'm sceptical. The real advantage is the decoupling between the trailer and tow vehicle movements. On frost heaves I can watch the trailer moving up and down without jerking the truck hitch up and down jerking the truck up and downBut, as I mentioned, for us it is a great product, does what it says, improves the ride on many roads we travel on. But think about your roads, and how much time you travel, and the cost. decide if it is for you

I've been using a Class V AirSafe since 2006. It works just as AirSafe says. It really does help keep things smooth and stabilized by allowing the suspension of the tow vehicle to articulate without affecting the trailer, and vice versa. Any less wear on the transmission is not really possible to discern, but anything that keeps things from jerking around is probably good for eveything.

What others said ^^^. It is heavy but works great with or without WD.

Good to hear from actual users. I was more concerned about it`s durability with a WD hitch! glad to hear they work so well.

Thanks for everyone's comments. Sounds like it is a good system. I am a weekend warrior but the roads I've been travelling on lately have been horrible. We take the camper out once a month for 4 days at a time. Next year we are planning a month long trip (already saving gas money for that). I'm basically looking for anything that will help smooth things out. I bought the Dexter E-Z Flex kit but it hasn't arrived yet. I also plan on getting some better quality tires on the truck and eventually the camper.

Anyone have experience with Airsafe hitches? | Good Sam Community

15 Replies

IPegasus
Explorer
Feb 14, 2016
Here is a picture of mine. Hope this clears it up for you.
ktmrfs
Explorer II
Feb 12, 2016
TexasATM wrote:
Do any of y'all with the airsafe hitch have pictures of your setups? I'm having trouble seeing how the WD ties into the hitch because they don't have any ball mounts in the pictures on the site.

Thanks!

you buy a mounting plate that bolts to the back of the airsafe. it's made to accomidate any std WD hitch reciever.

Imagine your "regular" WD hitch shank, but no shank, just the drop down bar with a mounting plate at the top that bolts to the airsafe

I'll post a picture later today of mine.
TexasATM
Explorer
Feb 12, 2016
Do any of y'all with the airsafe hitch have pictures of your setups? I'm having trouble seeing how the WD ties into the hitch because they don't have any ball mounts in the pictures on the site.

Thanks!
ktmrfs
Explorer II
Feb 12, 2016
campigloo wrote:
If you're looking to smooth the ride consider new really high quality shocks on the tv. I put Bilsteins on mine and also added TorkLifts to my tv suspension. Roads I used to max out at 45 because of the porpoising I can now ride at 60. Not a bunch of money but made a huge difference.

I agree on the bilsteins and torklifts, had them on my 04 silverado, have them on the 15 denali.

yes, they do help the ride quality quite a bit but nothing compared to the improvement my airsafe hitch gives on a bad road.

but again, if you don't travel on bad roads, or don't travel much each year, it's probably not worth the expense for you.
pbmazda32
Explorer
Feb 12, 2016
I'm patiently waiting for KYB to release shocks for the Ram. I put their HD shocks on my F150 a few years back and was blown away with the improvement in ride quality and how they handled towing. As soon as they release them, they'll be on the new truck. I see Bilstien has shocks out for my truck, but I cant tell if they are designed to replace stock shocks, or whether they are for a lifted truck. The product description says they accommodate up to a 2 inch lift. I'm not lifted, truck sits to high as it is.

The next project for the camper is putting on a shock kit for each axle. Not sure of the brand but they run about $135 per axle from Etrailer.com. My Dexter EZ flex showed up but I won't be able to work on that till march.

If I could run into some spending cash, I think I would put a Kelderman air suspension all the way around the truck. But that job would be over $2000, and would still need good shocks.
campigloo
Explorer
Feb 11, 2016
If you're looking to smooth the ride consider new really high quality shocks on the tv. I put Bilsteins on mine and also added TorkLifts to my tv suspension. Roads I used to max out at 45 because of the porpoising I can now ride at 60. Not a bunch of money but made a huge difference.
ktmrfs
Explorer II
Feb 11, 2016
IPegasus wrote:
pbmazda32 wrote:
I am curious if anyone has any experience with the class V Airsafe hitches compatible with WD Hitch's. Looks interesting but it is also very expensive. What do you think of the claims of less driver fatigue and less abuse on your transmission?

I have the Class V Airsafe hitch. It does work as claimed. The down side is that it is heavy. Mine weights 80 lbs. As I have grown older and weaker it is a struggle to carry/move around. I am seriously thinking of selling mine because of the weight.

I have a Class VI, even heavier. However, went to harbor freight, bought one of the small furniture dollies, not much bigger than the hitch. added a few 2x4 for a cradle, and use it to move around the hitch. Now once removed I can easily roll it around and only need to lift it a short distance to remove or install.
IPegasus
Explorer
Feb 11, 2016
pbmazda32 wrote:
I am curious if anyone has any experience with the class V Airsafe hitches compatible with WD Hitch's. Looks interesting but it is also very expensive. What do you think of the claims of less driver fatigue and less abuse on your transmission?

I have the Class V Airsafe hitch. It does work as claimed. The down side is that it is heavy. Mine weights 80 lbs. As I have grown older and weaker it is a struggle to carry/move around. I am seriously thinking of selling mine because of the weight.
pbmazda32
Explorer
Feb 07, 2016
I'm sure they won't, but I'm changing the tires for more reasons than just ride quality. I don't trust the no name tires currently on my camper.
ktmrfs
Explorer II
Feb 05, 2016
pbmazda32 wrote:
Thanks for everyone's comments. Sounds like it is a good system. I am a weekend warrior but the roads I've been travelling on lately have been horrible. We take the camper out once a month for 4 days at a time. Next year we are planning a month long trip (already saving gas money for that).

I'm basically looking for anything that will help smooth things out. I bought the Dexter E-Z Flex kit but it hasn't arrived yet. I also plan on getting some better quality tires on the truck and eventually the camper.

none of the above changes will do anything near what the airsafe hitch will provide.