ProPride 3p hitch

Ron Gratz wrote:

Ridgerunner29 wrote:
As a result of this thread, I discussed the above theory of additional stresses caused by a Propride hitch with Sean at Propride today.

First Sean said that industry professionals are not allowed to post to this forum. So he can not directly dispute this theory of horizontal stress.

He told me that sway forces exerted on the receiver from a conventional hitch are many times greater than any forces ever exerted by either a Propride or Hensley Arrow.

With a "conventional" hitch, sway happens because the ball coupler is free to pivot on the ball. IOW, there is no yaw-axis torque transmitted between TV and TT.

With a four-bar-linkage hitch, it is claimed that sway cannot happen because the ball coupler cannot pivot on the ball and the TV and TT effectively are "locked" together.

In order for the TV and TT to be "locked" together, the "locking" mechanism (which is the four-bar-linkage) must to able to transmit a significant amount of yaw-axis torque between TV and TT.
The path for that torque transmission includes the TV's receiver.

I would vote for the Administrator to allow Sean Woodruff to post his explanation of how the "sway forces exerted on the receiver from a conventional hitch are many times greater than any forces ever exerted by either a Propride or Hensley Arrow."

Ron

Ron, I understand your thoughts on this. Has anyone actually measured the horizontal forces applied to the receiver during a sway situation with a Propride or Hensley hitch? Have any engineers performed any sort of engineering analysis of the expected forces during a sway event with one of these two hitches.

It makes sense, by the design of the Propride and Hensley, the forces that would cause trailer sway would be exerted throughout the TV and TT when the Propride or Hensley prevent sway. I am not convinced of the order of magnitude of the concern without actual data to define the stresses on the receiver vs design basis of my truck's receiver.