Hensley with bent/broken sway bars

[Herm26U]

Has anyone experienced severely bent sway bars with a Hensley hitch? I just returned from my first trip out with the new AS; an uneventful one hour road trip except my last turn where I heard banging and popping at the hitch. I stopped at the campground office where I found the right sway bar bent at nearly a 45 degree angle and the left sway bar was in two pieces, dangling by the pins. The sway bar pin hole in the hitch was ripped clear out on the far left side hole.

Upon my return, I managed to put one good sway bar together and put it on the right (since the left pin hole was compromised) and again, 25 miles later, the sway bar was ripped apart and again ripped the pin hole out of the hitch on the outside hole!

My friend and I installed his hitch, then mine. We did it exactly the same way and his was fine. He was behind me all the way, made all the same turns on the same streets. No sudden stops, uneventful trip except my Hensley hitch is ripped, torn and bent all to hell.

Any insight would be very helpful, thanks!

[dznf0g]

Something wasn't right with the install, or maybe your tongue jack wasn't retracted and your spring bars caught on it. Pictures posted here might help. That took a lot of force for that kind of damage.

[SteveSueMac]

Sorry to hear this! Hope everyone is ok.

I'm not sure with the Hensley but with the ProPride (a later version of the Hensley) the manual is adamant that the safety chains be placed in a particular location (see description in step 9 in the attached photo). Is there anything like that in your Hensley manual and if so, do you know how the safety chains were attached? Good luck!

[moosetags]

I have been using a Hensley for eleven years now with three different Airstreams. I have always installed the Hensley myself. The only thing that I can think of that could possibly cause your would be if you ran the safety chains outside the of the weight distribution bars and made some sharp turns.

Brian

[Herm26U]

I did find that in the manual on page 25. Mine were outside the bars but I had far more than 1" of clearance, more like 3-4" below the hitch. Maybe that was it?

My friend's were outside his bars too today and survived the same journey, same turns as I made.

It was a ton of force, there's no doubt about that!

[dkottum]

As above, be sure the chains are positioned correctly, and especially be sure the tongue jack is withdrawn completely up to its limit. If the bars contact the tongue jack in a turn, and they will if it is not withdrawn, the bars will bend.

[Herm26U]

The tongue jack was retracted to about 2", well above the spring bars so that wasn't it. I'm guessing the safety chains must have gotten caught up. I don't doubt it was operator error but wow. Look at how it bent the sway bar!

Once I get a new head and sway bars, I'll route the chains straight down.

[dznf0g]

OK, that's not the sway bar. That's one of the struts. It was definitely the chain placement that did that.

[Herm26U]

Here's where the sway bar ripped out of the head and was dangling in two pieces.

[Herm26U]

Rich,

Yes it's a strut but is not part of the anti-sway functionality of the hitch?

[dznf0g]

Also, many times you will need to lengthen the chains, from the length supplied by AS, by about 6 links each since the tongue is further away from the receiver with a Hensley and PP. What happened to you is most likely a combination of too short chains and mis-routed chains. With my present receiver I am utilizing 4 links of the 6 added to the stock chain.

[dznf0g]

Originally Posted by Herm26U

Rich,

Yes it's a strut but is not part of the anti-sway functionality of the hitch?

Well, sorta. The struts hold the orange portion of the head rigidly in place, in alignment with the tongue centerline. The spring bars (or WD bars) are sometimes referred to as the sway bars, so that's what I thought you were talking about.

The true anti sway functionality of the PPP hitches is in the geometry of the links which attach the orange upper head to the black lower head...but the whole thing operates as a system.

[dkottum]

We also added four links on each side to our safety chains for our ProPride hitch.

[Herm26U]

Thanks, Rich! I would call the weight distribution bars the "spring bars" and not the anti-sway bars. I assumed that these performed some degree of anti-sway and took off this morning without any struts but the pivoting Hensley head moving without any struts was like a ride as Six Flags pulling my trailer today! I got about 2 miles before pulling over and taking the parts off both struts and building one functional strut. It worked good until it snapped loose too. :/

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by Herm26U

Here's where the sway bar ripped out of the head and was dangling in two pieces.

If those safety chains are still in the position they were in when you were towing, I think that would be the issue.

[andreasduess]

Make sure that your safety chains are positioned down and forward from their trailer attachment points on the inside of the sway bars, then run to below where the arrow is in this image, then from there are running forward to the vehicle underneath the orange hitch head.

The chains should cross over underneath the hitch head, or just behind. That way there is no chance of the chains catching anything.

[guskmg]

Just call/email Hensley and send them pics. They will tell you what happened. Your replacement parts may be covered under warranty. They are pretty liberal with the warranty program. If that is the case all you do is pay the freight.
guskmg

[Tom_T]

Hey Todd,

Let's use the Hensley terminology for what you broke - they are the struts (L & R) & their attachment point(s) at the head unit & possibly at your A-frame brackets.

Second - I disagree that the safety chains would've bent your struts & ripped out the mount at the head as shown in your pic above, & possibly at the A-frame bracket(s).

This was either an improper install or defect in the head, as I cover below. If a defect, then it will be covered b your lifetime warranty, if operator error, then Hensley folks can guess at what you did wrong & advise you on what & how to do it right - but you pay for parts.

Have you contacted Terry Powell or someone at Hensley about the problem yet & sent them pix of everything?
>>>> If not, then do so immediately.

Anyway - I don't know why you would've run the safety chains outside of the struts, since part of their "job" in a hitch failure is to catch & cradle the tongue/A-frame of the trailer - as well as to keep the trailer crome completely separating while you make an emergency stop & got off the roadway.

As Andreas said & shows in the pic of your broken head above - the chains go UNDER the head & cross each other L-to-R, making an "X" - as shown in the Hensley manual.

The struts are NOT supposed to move at all when you tow - EVER - & you're supposed to check them EVERY TIME to crank them tight. If they are not tightened until rigid & secure, & if they are not securely attached at the head & A-frame brackets, then you can't make them solid to brace & hold the head in it's place.

If you can get ANY wiggle out of either strut, then their either installed improperly &/or they are not tightened enough.

You also need to re-torque the A-frame bracket bolts after the first few 100s miles, & every 500 or 800 thereafter - as it says in your manual.

Since you did 2 hitch installs in sequence, my guess is that you probably forgot something on the strut install & tightening on yours, once you got confident on the 1st install, or if in a hurry.

Otherwise if not, then it may have been a part defect.

Please don't tow with just one strut or a compromised hitch system, as that just puts you & others in jeopardy for injury & further damage. The Hensley's are not designed to tow with just one strut on one side, & it's not an trivial matter. You're very lucky the whole hitch didn't come apart on your ill advised tow home with one strut!

Be Safe!
Tom
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[DavidsonOverlander]

Originally Posted by Herm26U

Here's where the sway bar ripped out of the head and was dangling in two pieces.

Is that orange paint rubbed on the side of your coupler or a reflection? If it's paint then it looks like something prevented the lower part of the Hensley (the black part) from pivoting in relation to the upper orange part. That appeared to put a lot of stress on the strut which broke it and allowed the orange upper part of the hitch to pivot on the ball. If that wasn't caused by the chains then perhaps there is something wrong with the internal parts of the hitch that's causing it to bind.

This photo gives you an idea of how far it should easily pivot:

If you don't see anything else that restricted the movement of the hitch you might want to disconnect the trailer, insert the stinger into the hitch and see if you can move it in each direction at least as far as shown in the photo above.

[lucca53]

If you don't want to worry about all those bars making noise or taking them off when you backup I got rid of all that and got this air safe its great and easy check it out plus if you still want bars you can add them good luck....