Hensley Arrow: How does it REALLY work?

tluxon wrote:
Did you have a swingset when you were a kid? Remember the contraption that 2 people could sit in facing each other and swing to and fro? I believe they still make patio swings that pivot in a similar manner. The seat stays relatively level while allowing a fairly good motion horizontally. If someone really heavy sits in that kind of swing, it takes more to get them swinging, but they can still swing. Now if you take that really heavy kid and have him plant his feet firmly against the ground, it's much more difficult to get him swinging. This is how I see the orange head (or rear bar) of the Hensley, only it has the added benefit of forcing the trailer to pivot opposite the direction it is trying to pivot when applying a lateral force at the hitch.

Yep, had one of those as a kid, and also just built (actually, put together) a swingset for my son, that has one of those. Can't remember what they call it, though.

Excellent analogy, Tim! And I think it proves the point we've been trying to illustrate. The horizontal swing is really the same principle we're talking about here. In both cases, its more than just a simple pendulum motion we're talking about. As it (trailer or horizontal swing) swings to either side, linkage forces the weight (heavy kid, or trailer) to move closer toward the virtual pivot point, making swinging/pivoting considerably more difficult, than it would be with a conventional Pendulum arrangement.

Consider the heavy kid on a conventionl swing also, where he would pivot like a normal pendulum. This would be analagous (spelling?) to what you might have, with a conventional hitch. Much easier for him to get swinging in that case. Why? He's not fighting gravity as directly as he would on the horizontal swing we're talking about, where he has to overcome his own weight/gravity significantly more, in order to swing.

I never suggested that the Hensley is 'locked up' and cannot pivot at all. My point all along was, the force pulling back on the Hensley when towing, makes it very difficult for a trailer to get enough force to pivot much at all, since it has to overcome so much of the pulling force in order to do so. This creates somewhat of a 'virtual' lock, which results in much more pivoting resistance (from the trailer's perspective), than you'd see with a traditional pendulum arrangement (like a Pullrite could be compared to).

Combine that with the benefit of forcing the trailer to pivot the opposite direction it is trying to, and well, there you have it - an ingenius hitch, that will almost never let the trailer induce any pivoting. This I think, explains why this hitch makes towing so much easier.

Can we all agree with this, now? Ron? Don? Tim? Milt? :B

Will