Hitch my wife would like

[Wesair]

Currently we have a Huskey WD hitch and I'm happy with it. My wife wants to be able to hook things up but the swing/tension bars are too heavy and awkward for her to manage. The Hensley and PridePro systems allow you to back into the hitch assuming you can tread the needle. Other than that, are these hitches easier to manage than the more traditional weight distribution systems?
In addition I know they have great reputations for towing and sway control.

[Overloaded]

Well my first thought is to use the tongue jack to pick up both tongue and truck at the same time to engage bars much easier. Yes threading the needle is an important part of the Hensley. But Hensley has two different setups standard lift and latch bars or the optional jack screws. The jack screws require operating wrench/ratchet, this can still be a bear. I have added cordless impact gun to ease things along. Cordless drills don't get it done.

[Tim A.]

Originally Posted by Overloaded

The jack screws require operating wrench/ratchet, this can still be a bear.

I have not found the Hensley jack screws difficult to use, but that might be because the tongue weight of our 19' Bambi is relatively low. If I were to find it difficult, I would simply use the tongue jack to raise the tongue and tow vehicle to make the process easy.

"Threading the needle" is greatly helped by the tow vehicle having a backup camera.

The stinger of a Hensley or Propride is understandably heavy and might still be difficult for your wife to place in the receiver of the tow vehicle.

Tim

[Overloaded]

Originally Posted by Tim A.

I have not found the Hensley jack screws difficult to use, but that might be because the tongue weight of our 19' Bambi is relatively low. If I were to find it difficult, I would simply use the tongue jack to raise the tongue and tow vehicle to make the process easy.

"Threading the needle" is greatly helped by the tow vehicle having a backup camera.

The stinger of a Hensley or Propride is understandably heavy and might still be difficult for your wife to place in the receiver of the tow vehicle.

Tim

The screw jacks are hard for the wifey manually. She can handle the stinger OK. We do great with aligning the stinger without a camera. It just takes practice.

[Countryboy59]

Just raise the vehicle after engaging the stinger. Then use a cordless drill for the WD bars. They don't recommend an impact driver as it can wear the screw jacks.

I prefer lifting the stinger to wrestling with WD bars any day. I've even hitched and unhitched on our steep driveway.

[CRH]

Originally Posted by Overloaded

Well my first thought is to use the tongue jack to pick up both tongue and truck at the same time to engage bars much easier.

X2 and save a pile of cash by not buying a new hitch.

[Airtandem]

Sorry to ask the personal question of your wife, but how big is she? You will be getting many answers from men that are probably bigger and stronger than your wife.

[Al and Missy]

Originally Posted by Overloaded

Well my first thought is to use the tongue jack to pick up both tongue and truck at the same time to engage bars much easier. Yes threading the needle is an important part of the Hensley. But Hensley has two different setups standard lift and latch bars or the optional jack screws. The jack screws require operating wrench/ratchet, this can still be a bear. I have added cordless impact gun to ease things along. Cordless drills don't get it done.

With my Propride I use a Ryobi 18V cordless drill/driver in low gear and it works fine.

Al

[Foiled Again]

I recently changed to a Blue Ox hitch from.a Hensley. EVERYTHING about the Blue Ox is easier. This is a 69 year old female with bum shoulder and knees speaking.

The bars are light weight, easy to set up and remove, two simple grease zerks (not messy) and helped by a Barker jack with a very high rise, virtually NO stress to engage the chains to proper tension. I did throw out the tensioning tool provided by barker and use a breaker bar with a 1 inch socket instead. I was a bit afraid that the breaker bar might get away from me when I first tried to tension or release the bars... then I realized that I wasn't raising the jack anywhere close to its limit. Another 2 inches and a strong six year old could lock up or release the bars safely.

Feels solid and tracks flawlessly too... and I will tow over 55 Only if my life depends on it.

Paula

[Airtandem]

I agree with Paula as far as ease of hook-up. I also went with the breaker bar. I don't want to get into the hitch argument' but I will say that I have also had the Equ- i- lizer and the Andersen and as far of light weight and ease of hook up, The Andersen is easiest and lightest. I now have the Blue Ox.

[rmkrum]

I’m staying with ProPride with the jacks for WD. Hensley makes similar. Won’t get into the discussion about what is “superior”. I have zero issues hooking it up, and I’m old, fat, tired, and older than Paula[emoji3][emoji3][emoji30][emoji30]

Even the manual jacks require little force if you run the tongue jack up a bit to take the load off the jacks. The ProPride supplied ratchet wrench is about 8” Long and that’s more than enough leverage.

That said, I’m going to a powered set of WD jacks as soon as I can for other reasons. See the “Powered ProPride WD Jack” thread—or whatever the heck I called it.

I have the scars from the snap-type WD tensioner, and I agree, if you are not big, strong, or darn careful, those things can savage you. Besides, I can crank in whatever I want with a jack...not limited to links...

[Dan and Liz]

If you’re talking about the weight of the individual bars (as I think you are) and inserting them into the hitch head — Paula’s answer is best.

[SailorSam205]

Agree that any of the 18 or 20 volt power drivers can handle the jacks. Especially if you adjust before raising the tongue jack. And the driver is great for manual stab jacks.
If your TV has a backup camera, "threading the needle" is a piece of cake.
If I recall, the ProPride stinger weighs in at about 50 pounds. Somewhat heavier than a hitch ball and . Though it can be left in the TV receiver - just watch your shins.

[m.hony]

With my Equal-i-zer, I never remove the heavy weight bars.
When I uncouple from the truck, I raise the truck and trailer with the tongue jack till I can pull the pins and slide the weight bars back till the other end goes under the front of the trailer and leave them sitting balanced in the L-brackets.

[mrdfred]

We used a Hensley for 13 years on 2 different trailers. We now have an Anderson WD hitch which used chains to apply the tension for Weight Distribution . As mentioned before, use the hitch jack to raise the TV and hitch and then attach the chains to the bottom of the receiver ball. No bars to attach, no stinger to align, no screw lifts to adjust. If adjustment is needed, there is a tension nut to tighten or loosen using the included socket wrench. I never adjust the tension after the initial setup, I use the raising of the TV and hitch for hitching up. Works well for me, additionally the Anderson is about $2000 less than the Hensley, added benefit!!

[Vich]

For smaller AS - Try Anderson, good sway control, Very UN heavy, super easy on, off.

[graywhale]

I agree with Vich; Andersen is really the only option for light and easy. I don't have one now due to the question about Atwood compatibility, but had it on my last trailer (similar size and tongue weight) and loved it!!

[kdickinson]

For me the simple answer is a hitch is not something anyone makes friends with. For me my hitch is kind of like how the kid saw the furnace in their house in the movie A Christmas Story - I really think it dislikes me. There are often people around that are more than happy to help out including the people at the office where you may be camping. I'm betting that the introduction to the process of hitching up is a key factor to people choosing a motorhome over a trailer. But - that said - I agree that leaving some of the weight on the tongue jack when when you are cinching up the load bars make the job both easier to do and also safer.

[CAV]

69 y solo female. Can handle my Equalizer with 1000lb bars all by myself. Do use electric jack to raise and lower to put bars on the bracket.

[tjdonahoe]

With the Hensley your tow vehicle has to be on the same level as the trailer, side to side.we go to a lot of rustic areas and don’t need this, we like the Reese with cam for our 31’ Classic ,easy to hook up..use the tongue jack to lift and the cam works easy...