Hensley or....
With the purchase of our 35' (OAL) trailer, I am curious if a non top of the line hitch will prove satisfactory? It isn't abnormally tongue heavy for the truck, but will certainly benefit from sway el...
Forum Discussion
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!
