Hensley or....

just wanted to say I love my Pro Pride, never any problem. But these are complacted hitches that most dealers don`t understand or want to devot the time to under stand the
Bobby
m.

Well, I hooked everything up today and took her for a spin. Everything is working as it should. Going to chock this one up to having the snap up brackets mounted to far back.

Most certainly.

When you are all hooked up and such again, take a bunch of pics so we can see the setup. Even as far as standing in the bed of the truck and shooting down on the assembly, perhaps zoomed out a bit...

Thanks!

eipo wrote:

93Cobra2771 wrote:

eipo wrote:
Ok, here is my hypothesis....

When the dealer installed the hitch, he placed the snap up brackets at 26.5" back from the coupler. They were forward as far as he could get them without moving the propane tanks forward. This left the chains at a measured 20 degrees from being plumb. So I pulled the LPG bracket and placed the brackets at the required 25.5", but still didnt like the angle on the chains so I called Hensley and I was told I could cheat them forward .5" so thats what I did. Sitting at 25" the chains are ALMOST plumb....

Now, my hypothesis is the previous angle on the chains was pulling the head back not allowing it to self center with the minor amount of pull I was putting on it in my driveway. 1000 pound bars with the chains sitting at 20 degrees will place a fair bit of pull on the head.

I am still working on my battery upgrades so I haven't been able to test my hypothesis now that I have the snap up brackets moved. I hope to have the majority of my battery upgrades done this weekend.

Now you see why I wanted you to slow using the brake controller. This would tell me whether it centers properly with some force applied to it. Sitting in the driveway and moving it around isn't enough force. I've had the bottom part (not the orange part) be shifted to one side or the other after making a turn in a campground. This happens because no rear force has been applied to the trailer in the slow speed of a parking lot, or the road is slightly downhill.

Slowing down with the brake controller will tell you if it is truly centered while driving down the road.

It will not center if:

Strut bars are incorrectly adjusted/off center (addressed)
Snap up brackets aren't equally mounted distance wise from the tongue.

I suppose the snap up brackets forward position could cause the black bottom to "settle" to one side or the other. However, I would think even a minimum amount of rear force to the trailer would pull it back into position.

Prior to snapping that picture I did manually engage the trailer brakes to see if it would pull the hitch straight, It did not. There was enough braking force to bring the TT and TV to a stop, but perhaps not enough to get the hitch straightened out.

Ill know more when I get it put back together and pull it down the road. 20 degrees on the chains would put quite a bit of force on the bars....

If this doesn't change anything I would drop the w/d bars completely and try it for a short distance. Hope it all works out!

93Cobra2771 wrote:

eipo wrote:
Ok, here is my hypothesis....

When the dealer installed the hitch, he placed the snap up brackets at 26.5" back from the coupler. They were forward as far as he could get them without moving the propane tanks forward. This left the chains at a measured 20 degrees from being plumb. So I pulled the LPG bracket and placed the brackets at the required 25.5", but still didnt like the angle on the chains so I called Hensley and I was told I could cheat them forward .5" so thats what I did. Sitting at 25" the chains are ALMOST plumb....

Now, my hypothesis is the previous angle on the chains was pulling the head back not allowing it to self center with the minor amount of pull I was putting on it in my driveway. 1000 pound bars with the chains sitting at 20 degrees will place a fair bit of pull on the head.

I am still working on my battery upgrades so I haven't been able to test my hypothesis now that I have the snap up brackets moved. I hope to have the majority of my battery upgrades done this weekend.

Now you see why I wanted you to slow using the brake controller. This would tell me whether it centers properly with some force applied to it. Sitting in the driveway and moving it around isn't enough force. I've had the bottom part (not the orange part) be shifted to one side or the other after making a turn in a campground. This happens because no rear force has been applied to the trailer in the slow speed of a parking lot, or the road is slightly downhill.

Slowing down with the brake controller will tell you if it is truly centered while driving down the road.

It will not center if:

Strut bars are incorrectly adjusted/off center (addressed)
Snap up brackets aren't equally mounted distance wise from the tongue.

I suppose the snap up brackets forward position could cause the black bottom to "settle" to one side or the other. However, I would think even a minimum amount of rear force to the trailer would pull it back into position.

Prior to snapping that picture I did manually engage the trailer brakes to see if it would pull the hitch straight, It did not. There was enough braking force to bring the TT and TV to a stop, but perhaps not enough to get the hitch straightened out.

Ill know more when I get it put back together and pull it down the road. 20 degrees on the chains would put quite a bit of force on the bars....

eipo wrote:
Ok, here is my hypothesis....

When the dealer installed the hitch, he placed the snap up brackets at 26.5" back from the coupler. They were forward as far as he could get them without moving the propane tanks forward. This left the chains at a measured 20 degrees from being plumb. So I pulled the LPG bracket and placed the brackets at the required 25.5", but still didnt like the angle on the chains so I called Hensley and I was told I could cheat them forward .5" so thats what I did. Sitting at 25" the chains are ALMOST plumb....

Now, my hypothesis is the previous angle on the chains was pulling the head back not allowing it to self center with the minor amount of pull I was putting on it in my driveway. 1000 pound bars with the chains sitting at 20 degrees will place a fair bit of pull on the head.

I am still working on my battery upgrades so I haven't been able to test my hypothesis now that I have the snap up brackets moved. I hope to have the majority of my battery upgrades done this weekend.

Now you see why I wanted you to slow using the brake controller. This would tell me whether it centers properly with some force applied to it. Sitting in the driveway and moving it around isn't enough force. I've had the bottom part (not the orange part) be shifted to one side or the other after making a turn in a campground. This happens because no rear force has been applied to the trailer in the slow speed of a parking lot, or the road is slightly downhill.

Slowing down with the brake controller will tell you if it is truly centered while driving down the road.

It will not center if:

Strut bars are incorrectly adjusted/off center (addressed)
Snap up brackets aren't equally mounted distance wise from the tongue.

I suppose the snap up brackets forward position could cause the black bottom to "settle" to one side or the other. However, I would think even a minimum amount of rear force to the trailer would pull it back into position.

BarneyS wrote:

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 am using "head" somewhat lackadaisically. The head (orange) is adjusted square with the trailer tongue and struts are adjusted correctly and tight.

The distribution bars attached to the lower unit being pulled by the chains I hypothesize is my issue from the brackets being incorrectly installed by the dealer.

BarneyS wrote:

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.

It isn't. The head (orange) is indeed square with the trailer tongue. Any appearance of the head not being square is a byproduct of camera angle.

BarneyS wrote:

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.

I apologize for using two different terms interchangeably.

BarneyS wrote:

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.

Ive double checked these measurements, both prior to and after moving the brackets. The head (orange) is square to the trailer tongue.

BarneyS wrote:

If has nothing to do with the pull on the hitch head(orange) unless you run out of chain length.
Barney

That is not correct. Any force applied to an object when the connecting link (the chain) is at an angle will apply force on 2 planes rather than 1.

Climb a tree with a rope and attach something to the rope. With the load directly under you when you pull on the rope the load goes straight up. Now set that same load 10' away from the vertical plane you are on and start pulling the load up. It is first going to want to go plumb before it starts being lifted. Some of the energy you are exerting to life the load is being spent on pulling the load squarely under you. The same thing will happen with the chains on a WD system. You wont see it on a normal WD set-up because there is nothing that can move independently like there is on the Hensley.

I measured the angle my chains were from plumb and they were both sitting at 20 degrees.

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