New Andersen WD hitch

[JBarca]

A fellow camper bud showed me this. It's new and different.

Anyone using one?

Andersen WD hitches

A U-tube video with the factory guy explaining it. You have to get past MR Truck doing his intro. Interesting 5th wheel hitch too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvM7mCnqmwo&feature=related

It looks like this



I'll hold my comments for a short while to not cloud your thoughts. Ideally we can find someone here using one to quiz them on it.

John

[Ron3rd]

JBarca wrote:

Ron3rd wrote:

rexlion wrote:

bobbyg123 wrote:
This sounds like a fantastic product. The W/D concept makes sense to me, but I'm still not clear about how the anti-sway works. If this product works as advertised, I'm going to give it a shot.

How the anti-sway works: take one hand and grip your other wrist. Try to turn your wrist. Now slide your hand a little ways up your arm, but keep the hand's diameter the same, and try again to turn your arm. It's harder.

That's how the Andersen works. The hitch ball and shaft are a solid piece of metal. The shaft has a bit of a taper to it, so it gets larger toward the ball end. It fits into a socket lined with grippy brake material. As the weight of the tongue pushes down on the ball, it wedges that tapered shaft down into the brake material in the socket, which makes the shaft hard to turn. The chains force the shaft to turn right along with the trailer; the trailer does not pivot on the ball, rather the trailer, ball and shaft move as one.

I'm not following you; what do you mean by "shaft"? It looks like the tongue sits on a conventional ball and there are 2 chains that have plastic springs at the end. Sorry, but I'm trying to understand this new hitch.

See this link to the pics of the shank (aka shaft)on the tow ball and the friction material lining. The tow ball shank is machined on a taper that wedges down into the tapered brake material liner held by the tapered socket of the hitch shank in the truck receiver. The weight of the trailer tongue applies a force down on the tow ball shank wedging it into the brake pad material.

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/25717515/gotomsg/25720162.cfm#25720162

The tow ball shank is pinned to the bottom chain plate which is held from rotating by the chains and urethane springs. The chain plate can only move a small amount by the spring compression at the ends of the chain however the truck as it turns moves the hitch shank a lot if needed. The hitch shank slips around the tow ball shank. Since the to ball shank/shaft are held by the chains and springs there is still a lot of resistance from the brake material between the truck and the camper. Sway forces agasint the side of the TT are resisted from making the TV and TT connection pivot at the tow ball by the amount of grip (friction) from the tow ball shank in the brake pad material.

Does this help?

Thanks John, now I see what's happening. The few photos I saw of the hitch assembled didn't show the shank and friction material but it makes sense now seeing it broken down.

[Clanton24V]

Glad you were able to work around the missing parts. And great info with the measurements

[PHS79]

I got the Andersen hitch all setup, it would have only taken 30-40 mins to assemble everything. But my hitch was missing 1 of the big washers that goes between the nut and bushing also I had to put 1 link extension in the chains because the brackets were too close to the propane tank for my taste. Luckily my dad owned an excavating company until he retired 4 years ago, he had everything in his shop that I needed. Everything went together very well, the directions were good also.

I don't know what the actual weight transfer is but here are the measurements that I had. We did weigh the tongue of the trailer the other day with a 1000lb scale we had in the shop, tongue weight was 648lbs.

Also all these were with 1/4" compression of the bushing.

truck empty-- front 40 1/4", rear 40 1/4"
camper hooked no WD-- front 40 3/8", rear 39 1/4"
camper hooked with WD front 40 1/8", rear 40"

Hopefully we will be going camping in about a month, so I will report back with more then.

[JBarca]

Ron3rd wrote:

rexlion wrote:

bobbyg123 wrote:
This sounds like a fantastic product. The W/D concept makes sense to me, but I'm still not clear about how the anti-sway works. If this product works as advertised, I'm going to give it a shot.

How the anti-sway works: take one hand and grip your other wrist. Try to turn your wrist. Now slide your hand a little ways up your arm, but keep the hand's diameter the same, and try again to turn your arm. It's harder.

That's how the Andersen works. The hitch ball and shaft are a solid piece of metal. The shaft has a bit of a taper to it, so it gets larger toward the ball end. It fits into a socket lined with grippy brake material. As the weight of the tongue pushes down on the ball, it wedges that tapered shaft down into the brake material in the socket, which makes the shaft hard to turn. The chains force the shaft to turn right along with the trailer; the trailer does not pivot on the ball, rather the trailer, ball and shaft move as one.

I'm not following you; what do you mean by "shaft"? It looks like the tongue sits on a conventional ball and there are 2 chains that have plastic springs at the end. Sorry, but I'm trying to understand this new hitch.

See this link to the pics of the shank (aka shaft)on the tow ball and the friction material lining. The tow ball shank is machined on a taper that wedges down into the tapered brake material liner held by the tapered socket of the hitch shank in the truck receiver. The weight of the trailer tongue applies a force down on the tow ball shank wedging it into the brake pad material.

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/25717515/gotomsg/25720162.cfm#25720162

The tow ball shank is pinned to the bottom chain plate which is held from rotating by the chains and urethane springs. The chain plate can only move a small amount by the spring compression at the ends of the chain however the truck as it turns moves the hitch shank a lot if needed. The hitch shank slips around the tow ball shank. Since the to ball shank/shaft are held by the chains and springs there is still a lot of resistance from the brake material between the truck and the camper. Sway forces agasint the side of the TT are resisted from making the TV and TT connection pivot at the tow ball by the amount of grip (friction) from the tow ball shank in the brake pad material.

Does this help?

[Clanton24V]

.

I'm not following you; what do you mean by "shaft"? It looks like the tongue sits on a conventional ball and there are 2 chains that have plastic springs at the end. Sorry, but I'm trying to understand this new hitch.

Honestly. You should look at the andersen website and watch the video. It shows it pretty well.

[Ron3rd]

rexlion wrote:

bobbyg123 wrote:
This sounds like a fantastic product. The W/D concept makes sense to me, but I'm still not clear about how the anti-sway works. If this product works as advertised, I'm going to give it a shot.

How the anti-sway works: take one hand and grip your other wrist. Try to turn your wrist. Now slide your hand a little ways up your arm, but keep the hand's diameter the same, and try again to turn your arm. It's harder.

That's how the Andersen works. The hitch ball and shaft are a solid piece of metal. The shaft has a bit of a taper to it, so it gets larger toward the ball end. It fits into a socket lined with grippy brake material. As the weight of the tongue pushes down on the ball, it wedges that tapered shaft down into the brake material in the socket, which makes the shaft hard to turn. The chains force the shaft to turn right along with the trailer; the trailer does not pivot on the ball, rather the trailer, ball and shaft move as one.

I'm not following you; what do you mean by "shaft"? It looks like the tongue sits on a conventional ball and there are 2 chains that have plastic springs at the end. Sorry, but I'm trying to understand this new hitch.

[rexlion]

bobbyg123 wrote:
This sounds like a fantastic product. The W/D concept makes sense to me, but I'm still not clear about how the anti-sway works. If this product works as advertised, I'm going to give it a shot.

How the anti-sway works: take one hand and grip your other wrist. Try to turn your wrist. Now slide your hand a little ways up your arm, but keep the hand's diameter the same, and try again to turn your arm. It's harder.

That's how the Andersen works. The hitch ball and shaft are a solid piece of metal. The shaft has a bit of a taper to it, so it gets larger toward the ball end. It fits into a socket lined with grippy brake material. As the weight of the tongue pushes down on the ball, it wedges that tapered shaft down into the brake material in the socket, which makes the shaft hard to turn. The chains force the shaft to turn right along with the trailer; the trailer does not pivot on the ball, rather the trailer, ball and shaft move as one.

[bobbyg123]

This sounds like a fantastic product. The W/D concept makes sense to me, but I'm still not clear about how the anti-sway works. If this product works as advertised, I'm going to give it a shot.

[PHS79]

Thats GREAT to hear!! My hitch will be here tomorrow, I hope to get everything set up some night this week after work. I will post my impressions of the hitch and also measurements of what it does to my truck.

I was thinking that I may not get to use the camper and actually try out the hitch until our first reservations in June. But if the weather stays as nice as it has been the last 2 weeks (highs in the mid-upper 70s) we may try and sneak out at the end of the month.

[logistic]

We just returned from 2100 mile trip with the Andersen hitch. I’ll have my old Husky 1000 lb wd hitch listed for sale tomorrow. We drove the F150 w/ max tow and 29’ Cougar TT from Houston to Orlando and back for spring break. We drove through pretty bad rain storms with cross winds gusting 15-25 mph for many hours. This TV and TT combo was superb! The handling was consistent and predictable even in poor weather. I wasn’t satisfied with my old hitch and friction bars. I can’t say that the Andersen is the best hitch available, but I’m convinced it’s the best one for me.

Pluses: no sway, no bouncing, easy hitching & unhitching, easy wd adjustments, tighter turning radius, silent operation, sleek looking design.

Negatives: I have to loosen the chain nuts a turn each to unhitch due to the high amount of wd I require, this takes minute or so to accomplish.

Regards

[Ron_Gratz]

Bruce H. wrote:
-- In one of the YouTube videos on the hitch, it is stated that 1/4" spring compression puts 2000 pounds of tension on each chain. I would like to know how many pounds of tension 1/8" compression creates.

That would depend on several factors, but we can make a wild guess.

If we assume the urethane bushing has an OD of 1.5" and the hole is 0.5",
the cross section area would be about 1.56".
If the bushing is loaded to 2000#,
the average compressive stress would be about 1300 psi.

Figure 1 of this Guide shows a relationship between stress and compression strain for a typical urethane.

For the urethane composition used in Figure 1,
a stress of 1300 psi corresponds to a compressive strain of about 20%.
Let's assume a strain of 20% corresponds to a compression of 1/4".

Then let's assume a compression of 1/8" corresponds to a strain of 10%.
Figure 1 indicates the corresponding compressive stress would be about 800 psi.
So for the material used for Figure 1, the relation between stress and compressive strain is not linear over the range of 0-20% strain.

If these results are applicable to your bushings,
and assuming 1/4" of compression gives 2000# of tension per spring,
we could estimate the spring tension at 1/8" compression would be about 2000*800/1300 = 1230# per spring.

Ron

[Ron3rd]

Good info Bruce, keep it coming and thanks for sharing.

[Bruce_H_]

We put 420 miles on the Andersen hitch on our five-day camping trip last week. I alternated setting the compression on the urethane springs at 1/8" and 3/16" compression. Much of the trip was on California 99, which has to be the roughest and worst freeway in CA!

At 3/16" compression, the Honda Pilot and Lance 1575 TT seemed to be locked together as one unit, and rode like a stiffly sprung truck. Every dip in the road and gust of wind experienced by the TT seemed to push and shove the Honda around. Wasn't comfortable or pleasant, and I was constantly having to make steering corrections because of what the TT was doing to the TV.

Big difference at 1/8" compression. The Pilot handled well, like it should, with very little pushing or shoving by the trailer, and felt in control. The Lance handled well without a feeling of being rigidly connected to the Pilot--it handled dips in the road just fine. The feeling of control and balance was much more like the experience of towing my boat, which is an easy tow. My confidence in towing the Lance has grown considerably.

The Andersen hitch is rated at 14,000 pounds GTWR and 1400 pounds tongue weight. My lightweight rig is only using a fraction of the hitch's capability. In one of the YouTube videos on the hitch, it is stated that 1/4" spring compression puts 2000 pounds of tension on each chain. I would like to know how many pounds of tension 1/8" compression creates.

With all my measuring, I have determined that 1/8" compression is achieved in my setup with 1 3/16" bolt showing beyond the adjustment nut. So hooking up is easy--just turn the nut so that 8 threads are showing, then adjust with a ruler and rachet.

BTW, I tried once and my coupler does not open with tension on the chains. I don't recall if that was with the full weight of the tongue on the ball, or not. I do know that before installing the Andersen, that I could not open the coupler unless most of the weight of the tongue was removed from the ball. Going camping next week and will experiement with it.

[Mkos1980]

I cant open my latch when my EAZ-LIFT is on... Undo my bars and it opens...

[rexlion]

zues wrote:
My coupler will not open with tension on the chains

Aha! I should have known...