Hensley Arrow: How does it REALLY work?

6MISFITZ wrote:
Sfdon, congratulations on the hitch.
I thought those strut bars were under tension, not compression.
Once the brackets are shear bolted and U bolted, the strut bars are under tension, right?

The brackets merely offer the struts something fairly firm to push against. The purpose of the struts is to keep the hitch from pivoting on the ball. They might have been designed to work in tension and the effect would have been similar, but as you can tell by loosening up on the strut bar bolts, the actual design puts them in compression - as Stressor noted.

When I first installed my hitch, I overtorqued the strut bolts resulting in a "overcenter" condition (like a vice grip) when the hitch would shift from right to left or vice versa. It took me a little while to figure it out, but once I reduced the torque it's been working fine ever since. Even under those conditions though, my brackets have never slipped.

6MISFITZ wrote:
If you exceed the turn limit of the hitch (forward or reverse) and approach 90 degrees between tow vehicle and trailer, those shear bolts are designed to shear allowing a bit of motion in the brackets, saving the hitch and its components.

Exactly correct Mike. The bolts shear with primarily one purpose - to provide a visual indication that the brackets have slipped for one reason or another. The service folks told me that under normal conditions, you might never know you'd experienced a bracket that had slipped without those bolts.

6MISFITZ wrote:
With our old Equal-i-zer hitch I could get to a full 90 degree turning angle with the trailer without damage. If I exceed the 82 or 85 degree maximum turning limit of the Hensley, I will most likely need an emergency repair kit.

Would it be fair to assume you already know that Hensley will be only to happy to fix you up? I bought the kit for about $30. It's got a myriad of pins and clips as well as some extra bolts and a couple of zerk fitting combo gizmos for the spring bars.

6MISFITZ wrote:
For now, I make sure the gas stations I enter have an easy exit or I wait for the next station with more room, so I don't test my installation!

Mike.

That's not something I've been worried about. Maybe because I'm a box frame type.

I really appreciate your commentary about your earlier experiences. Keep up the good work, Mike.