Question for the Hensley/ProPride people

Good for you! Be sure to report your feedback here too, once you have it installed, on your hookup, and your towing experience.

Keith Haw wrote:
Thanks again everyone.

Well I just ordered the 3p. Main reason for it over the HA was price, Sean gave me a good discount. With them being basically the same I went with the lower price.

Thanks
Keith

Sorry, I said it was Sean but it was Troy that gave me the deal.

Keith Haw wrote:
Thanks again everyone.

Well I just ordered the 3p. Main reason for it over the HA was price, Sean gave me a good discount. With them being basically the same I went with the lower price.

Thanks
Keith

Nice! Glad to see you got a discount. I got tired of waiting for a reply about purchasing (days had passed), so I just went ahead and ordered it at retail. :( Oh well ... I wanted to have it for our nearly 3,000 this summer.


(My other inquiries were responded to fairly quickly, just not the ones I sent about purchasing)

Keith Haw wrote:
Thanks again everyone.

Well I just ordered the 3p. Main reason for it over the HA was price, Sean gave me a good discount. With them being basically the same I went with the lower price.

Thanks
Keith

You won't be sorry!

Thanks again everyone.

Well I just ordered the 3p. Main reason for it over the HA was price, Sean gave me a good discount. With them being basically the same I went with the lower price.

Thanks
Keith

stus. family wrote:
I just purchased my Hensley in April of this year and I can assure you there will be a learning curve in the hitching and unhitching but the pleasurable towing experience will make up for any of these problems. I have found that you need to have the trailer wheels well chocked front and back to prevent any movement and have a large enough block under the tongue jack to allow for any movement when hitching and unhitching. As an example while backing the stinger into the hitch I had my jack stand close to the edge of a 4X4 while using the cheap plastic wheel chocks and knocked the jack off of the 4X4 bending the jack tube.
I have also found very few campsites where the truck is without a side to side and front to back angle especially if you needed to level the trailer side to side before unhitching. The Hensley requires you to try to have your truck in line with the trailer and the hitch set at the same angle as the stinger so that they slide together with minimum resistance.
Like you my previous hitch was an Eaz Lift with the snap up brackets which I was accustomed to using on the WD bars but since my Rockwood has the coupler mounted under the A Frame I had to go with the standard screw jacks on the Hensley W.D. bars. If your coupler is top mounted you may be able to use the newer snap up brackets however I do not know if it will make the setup more easy.
Also if you are close to the payload on your truck keep in mind that the Hensley and associated hardware weighs about 200#.
As you can see I’m still learning and read all the post on this subject for any hints others recommend but I would not trade the Hensley for any other hitch.
Terry Powell at Hensley is very helpful with any problems that you may experience with the hitch as well as other general towing questions you may have.

All due respect, I've hitched and unhitched with odd angles. Nose high on TV with TT pretty much level (TV on incline) and vise versa. I've hitched having to back up to TT with TV at an angle to TT and nose low on TV. I guess it helps having a backup camera too. I've never thought it to be any trouble hitching up. Like a previous poster has stated, make sure the WD bars are loose enough to be able to change the angle of the hitch head as necessary when hitching up is all. You don't have to be in-line with the TT to hitch up, you can hitch up at an angle to the TT. I do it all the time.

Anyway, I got mine on my dad's recommendation. I have a relatively short wheel base and he thought it would be a good idea to have this hitch. I'm glad he recommended it. I wouldn't want to tow anything with out one now.

See pic in profile

peirek wrote:
Love my Hensley! Some secrets I have learned to hitching and unhitching:
1) I made note of the height of my rear wheel well unloaded. I use this as a gauge to decouple.
2) Loosen the WD bars significantly to allow the head to move up and down as needed for any odd angles. This helps in unhitching and hitching.
3) Use of a backup camera for aligning the stinger to the center of the hitch (with near proper angle). With the hitch head loose (slack in HD bars) you just need to get the correct height before starting the stinger in the hitch. The head will follow the needed angle and height (if not too far off).
4) Apply lube to the stinger wedges and receiver entry.

In a normal hitching event, I get out of the vehicle once to check/adjust the height of the receiver head and the rest is done via the camera. And yes the camera is critical in my opinion. Check my signature...... :B

These are all good suggestions IMO. What I did (in reference to #1), is I made a mark on the moving portion of the tongue jack with a sharpie so I know that it's at the same level as the stinger on the TV. Also, making sure to do #2 is really key. If they aren't loose enough, and angle that the main hitch unit is at relative to the stinger can create a sticking point.

Oh, and back up cameras are the best!

ProPride is a life saver. Sean's help is also great. It's very easy for me to hitch up now that I'm in my 3rd year with it - I usually get it in the first try. However, I would still keep it even if it took me 45 minutes to hitch up. I would trade anything to not have the sway and apparent loss of control I had with my previous hitch.

I just purchased my Hensley in April of this year and I can assure you there will be a learning curve in the hitching and unhitching but the pleasurable towing experience will make up for any of these problems. I have found that you need to have the trailer wheels well chocked front and back to prevent any movement and have a large enough block under the tongue jack to allow for any movement when hitching and unhitching. As an example while backing the stinger into the hitch I had my jack stand close to the edge of a 4X4 while using the cheap plastic wheel chocks and knocked the jack off of the 4X4 bending the jack tube.
I have also found very few campsites where the truck is without a side to side and front to back angle especially if you needed to level the trailer side to side before unhitching. The Hensley requires you to try to have your truck in line with the trailer and the hitch set at the same angle as the stinger so that they slide together with minimum resistance.
Like you my previous hitch was an Eaz Lift with the snap up brackets which I was accustomed to using on the WD bars but since my Rockwood has the coupler mounted under the A Frame I had to go with the standard screw jacks on the Hensley W.D. bars. If your coupler is top mounted you may be able to use the newer snap up brackets however I do not know if it will make the setup more easy.
Also if you are close to the payload on your truck keep in mind that the Hensley and associated hardware weighs about 200#.
As you can see I’m still learning and read all the post on this subject for any hints others recommend but I would not trade the Hensley for any other hitch.
Terry Powell at Hensley is very helpful with any problems that you may experience with the hitch as well as other general towing questions you may have.

peirek wrote:
Love my Hensley! Some secrets I have learned to hitching and unhitching:
1) I made note of the height of my rear wheel well unloaded. I use this as a gauge to decouple.
2) Loosen the WD bars significantly to allow the head to move up and down as needed for any odd angles. This helps in unhitching and hitching.
3) Use of a backup camera for aligning the stinger to the center of the hitch (with near proper angle). With the hitch head loose (slack in HD bars) you just need to get the correct height before starting the stinger in the hitch. The head will follow the needed angle and height (if not too far off).
4) Apply lube to the stinger wedges and receiver entry.

In a normal hitching event, I get out of the vehicle once to check/adjust the height of the receiver head and the rest is done via the camera. And yes the camera is critical in my opinion. Check my signature...... :B

Yes! I forgot we too did all of this, along with using the Hitch Helper. Just a note, as I originally stated, we purchased the emergency parts kit when we bought the hitch, but in the 4 years we owned it, we never had to use it.