Hensley or....

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.