[bobkelly]

Hi All---I've read this thread from top to bottom today and got my question answered about how others secure the trailer against theft with the Hensley hitch. Thanks to 2Air for pointing me to this thread with a PM.

My experience in getting started with a HA may benefit others. I bought my 22ft CCD from a AS dealer as a slightly used unit and it came with the HA. On delivery day, the installation of the trailer to my truck came last in a several hour check out process and was conducted by a person not very familar with the HA. Needless to say, I left the dealership without the level of understanding on how to adjust the struts and W/D bars that I needed. This is my first TT and I didn't have the benefit of previous TT towing to know what was normal feel vs something needs to be adjusted.

To others who are new to the HA, before you venture out on a trip, READ the HA manual for comprehension of the important adjustment points. These are that (1) the two struts are adjusted in length via the adjusting nut so that any play at the two attachment ends is removed and then preloaded 1/4 turn so that the strut is in a mild state of axial compression. Any looseness here allows one of the struts to be in tension during a turn and pulls on its forward lug on the body of the mechanism in a direction that was never intended. Look at that lug closely and you see very little meat on the rear facing side. This lug is too easily deformed with a tension load. The (2) important adjustment is the W/D bar preload. Mark the three dimples with a spot of white paint so you can return to the same preload consistently. How to establish the right preload for your rig is well covered by others in this thread.

After bending the struts at the forward lug attach points and shearing off the fasteners at the rear bracket to trailer frame attach point, I contacted Hensley where Jerrod was extremely helpful in trouble shooting my situation. The hardware was replaced under the lifetime warranty promptly and without any hassle at all. Very refreshing and reassuring.

I then read the installation manual for comprehension, took the HA unit off the trailer and reinstalled it from scratch in an hour or two. The feel while traveling is now very smooth and linear, a marked contrast to before.

The message I got from all this experience is that the adjustment details ARE important and must be understood for optimum performance and hardware longivity.