White knuckles for 600 miles!

CampingN.C. wrote:
but snapping the brackets took about all I had, with the jack up some.

Do not be concerned with jacking the truck up higher, Jack it up! If you are pulling that hard on the snap up's, you should go up higher and in many cases flip the snap up by hand. Same for unhooking. That pipe flying out of your hand can make a good camping trip, not so good.

Was your truck bed empty? Once your loaded with camping "stuff", then tweak the hitch.

Good luck.

John

Update
I picked the camper up yesterday and as was suggested I went up one chain link and reset the cams to center. Coming home everything definitely felt much tighter or more "planted" so to speak. I didn't get it back to the scale to see how much of a change it made numbers wise, but snapping the brackets took about all I had, with the jack up some.
But, the ride is much more harsh now, very close to an unloaded truck feeling, as there's obviously less weight on the rear suspension, so I guess that's the trade off.
It still doesn't feel perfect, maybe I'm just being too picky who knows. Maybe my old Burb and the smaller camper spoiled me on how well they towed together. Short of getting into the washers, I think I've about done all there is though.

I bought the Sherline tongue scale back when we were first shopping for travel trailer. I used it to make sure the trailers we looked at were ok for our tow vehicle.

In your case, if you have the total weights, the tongue scale can confirm your loading easily, especially if you need to move things around. I also carry wrenches and a 3/4 socket set with me until I get a new setup dialed in. That way if I want, I can make changes. I have pipes for extensions on the wrenches so I know that I can remove and tighten back properly.

Best wishes to get it dialed in.

myredracer wrote:
I hope OP comes back eventually with a report if he was able to improve things and what he might have done.

I will, camper is at the dealer at the moment with some warranty issues. I should pick it up Monday, planning on going up a link, resetting the cams and returning to the scales.

I hope OP comes back eventually with a report if he was able to improve things and what he might have done.

Typical 25-series rear axle is around 2800lbs empty, so you've added 1900lbs to the rear axle without the WD bars snapped up. That supports the assertion that around 600lbs has been transferred off the front axle of the truck.

More weight transferred to the front should make a night-and-day difference.

Great that you got to a scale. Too little weight restored back onto the steer axle could be the major factor. Perhaps you may want to play with the bar angle to adjust the amount of weight transferred between the axles?

A larger bar rating *may* help. I went from 800 lb bars to 1200 when I found our actual tongue wt. was 960 lbs. Made a big difference to me to get the weight transferred properly between axles.

Some additional thoughts:

Since you have an older TV, is it possible the front end is a bit worn? I had to rebuild the entire front end on our F250 because of the use it had by the PO but I've also read that the OEM front end on some trucks isn't all that durable.

Is there any play in the Reese WDH or between the hitch shank and receiver? Reese has shims and Blue Ox has their Immobilizer that removes play between the receiver and shank. Some say it won't do much, if anything, but I think it may when using a WDH like the Reese DC or when using friction bars. I just installed one but have not had a chance to try it out yet. There seemed to be a lot of play in our receiver/shank, especially compared to our old F150.

Another idea would be to add shocks to the TT. I added some to our TT and it made a big difference. One thing I didn't expect was that because the TT wasn't bobbing up and down like it did in the beginning, less up/down motion is exerted by the TT's tongue back onto the rear of the TV and makes for a smoother ride in the TV.

Mr. Wood,

Once you get it set up and understand the mechanism, you will
wish you had done it initially. I almost lost my wife as a travel
companion after that first un-Hensleyed experience... she forced the
move to Hensley.

I should have pulled it and sold it myself when I traded in the TT...
they did, and sold it in a day.

BTW... used ones seem few and far between. Good luck.

Charles

cdlaine wrote:
I had the exact same experience on my first tow with my current
truck and a 33 ft. McKenzie Medallion TT...right down to the
white knuckles. Solution = Hensley Hitch. Never experienced again
in just over 10 years of ownership.

Yes , heavy, yes learning curve, yes a bit more hook up hassle,
yes expensive but no problems ever with big rigs blowing by and
sending us into the snake crawl maneuver.

Good luck

Charles

If I can't get it right after a few more adjustments that's exactly what I'll be doing too, that or a PP. Already keeping an eye out for a good used one.

I had the exact same experience on my first tow with my current
truck and a 33 ft. McKenzie Medallion TT...right down to the
white knuckles. Solution = Hensley Hitch. Never experienced again
in just over 10 years of ownership.

Yes , heavy, yes learning curve, yes a bit more hook up hassle,
yes expensive but no problems ever with big rigs blowing by and
sending us into the snake crawl maneuver.

Good luck

Charles