Hensley or....
With the purchase of our 35' (OAL) trailer, I am curious if a non top of the line hitch will prove satisfactory? It isn't abnormally tongue heavy for the truck, but will certainly benefit from sway el...
Forum Discussion
eipo wrote:
Barney,
Snip...
The head isn't turned on the trailer, its pivoted over via the links between the upper and lower section.
As for the spring bars... I am not referring to how many links are hanging, I'm talking about the angle between the bracket and the end of the bar. Unless I am mistaken, any forces placed on the chains if they are at an angle other than perpendicular to the bar will transfer those forces to whatever it is attached to. With the brackets sitting 1.5" back further than they should have been, they were not only exerting a force vertically, but also on the horizontal. i.e. the chains were trying to not only carry weight, but they were pulling the head back towards the trailer.
My chains were like this \ rather than |
The chains cannot pull the hitch head back if the struts are tight. If indeed what you said is true then the struts were loose. The hitch head (again I am only talking about the orange top part, not the black bottom part) must not move at all except to rock in a vertical plane but not in a horizontal plane at all. The only part of the hitch that should turn is the black bottom part.
I also do not quite understand what you meant when you said "The head isn't turned on the trailer, its pivoted over via the links between the upper and lower section."
That is contrary to the picture. The picture clearly shows the hitch head (orange) turned to the right. The distance between the corners of the head are not the same on both sides. That cannot happen , as far as I can see, unless the struts are not adjusted equally. The head cannot "pivot over" due to the links between the top and bottom parts. The bottom (black) part can but not the top.
Those two struts are key to the Hensley hitch operating correctly. They must be set right.
To show what I am talking about, lay a straightedge (ruler or whatever) directly over the picture and aligned exactly in the center of the tongue latch. This will indicate the trailers centerline. Now see if the front of your hitch is at a 90 degree angle to the centerline. It is not. It is angled to the right, which means the struts are not adjusted correctly and are not even on both sides of the trailer.
As far as the chains goes, they should almost as vertical as you can get them so the pull both front and back as the trailer turns and pulls/pushes on the chains applies equal forces to the brackets and you do not run out of "operating room" as far as chain length goes. This also prevents the bars from crashing into the brackets or other parts and they move back and forth. If has nothing to do with the pull on the hitch head(orange) unless you run out of chain length.
Barney
