Lets talk Hensley Arrow Hitches

[BillTex]

Originally Posted by GStephens

When my wife does help me back into a spot, she uses a walkie talkie to communicate with me. I just turn mine on and she does all the talking. I do all the listening. With the walkie talkies, I don't have to see her for signals. We've also found that using the directions "passenger side" and "driver's side" rather than "right" and "left" works wonders. That way no one has to think. It is obvious to both of us which way "passenger side" is.

GStephens

While I don't use an HA-I could have written this post myself!
The walkie talkies and passenger/driver side lingo eliminates all the confusion (and yelling!). We have a great system now...

Bill

[thecatsandi]

When I got my new truck I installed a backup camera on the top of the reciever. Makes single person hitching up a snap.

[Royce]

Originally Posted by Tim A.

We have always hooked up our Hensley using extendable antennas glued to strong magnets as guides. This is much like the commercial product mentioned above except that they can be stored collapsed. One goes on the hitch and one on the stinger and then I aim the two together while backing. My wife refuses to give me backing directions because of my notorious lack of understanding of her directions. She is right, darn it!

Tim,

Great idea that! Was going to build one myself but hadn't thought to use antennas to make them easy to store.

[Jim Clark]

Originally Posted by Royce

Tim,

Great idea that! Was going to build one myself but hadn't thought to use antennas to make them easy to store.

I was at PEP Boys yesterday and found extendable magnetic parts retrieves’ in the cheap tool bin section. They have 2 different sizes, if you pull the handle off of the larger one the smaller one slides right in, you will have to remove the pocket clip by taking the screw off of the top of the smaller one. I did have to round the end of one of the larger one to get the smaller one to fit in. I will paint a orange section on the smaller ones and have a nice long collapsible hither upper guide. I will post a picture this weekend in the under $100.00 mod section and the haha user guide section. Cost total was around $8.00 plus I now have 4 magnetic parts retrievers.

BTW you need 2 to get the necessary hight.

Thanks Jim

[silverback]

We were experiencing the same problems until we started uising the Hitch Helper. We actually bought it when we picked up the new trailer (with Hensley Arrow) but hadn't used it. We have decreased our hitching time from 30 to 40 minutes to ~10 minutes. Buy it today.
-KL

[sander17]

We have a brand new set of walkie talkies for this season and a new set of those flourescent yellow magnetic sticks. With a diesel, it is tough to yell instructions back and forth. To make matters worse, last year Dodge had a "safety" recall on the diesel trucks such that if you open the driver's side door while the truck is in gear, the horn starts blaring "honk, honk, honk" It really makes you popular in campgrounds.

As mentioned previously and in the other thread, getting the vertical angle to match between the truck and the hitch makes things work so much better. You just use the weight distribution rods to tilt the stinger to the right angle and the trailer jack to set the height. The hitch helper is nice too, even for a conventional ball hitch mount.

[silverback]

Dave is right between the hitch helper and the spring bar adjustments you can dial it in pretty quickly. We also use walkie talkies to get the stinger bar a couple inches from the hitch for final adjustment. One other thing is loosten the spring bars until close to sloppy when you un-hitch.
-KL