Pro pride wt distribution jacks

[crispyboy]

Originally Posted by SSquared

In particular, I worry about how to release them in a controlled way when they have tension on them. Especially for a person who is not too strong.

Seems like the operator could raise the tongue jack higher to relieve the pressure on the straps when unhooking.

[turk123]

My wife and I pulled our AS out of storage yesterday so I had a chance to use the new straps I installed last week. My AS is in a pole barn with a concrete floor that is a bit elevated from the driveway coming up to it. My F250 as it backs in to reach the hitch goes through an elevation angle change that makes the Pro-Pride a challenge. That said, we tried our first attempt at using the new straps.

With the straps, all loose, the head of the PP is not supported very much from turning and angling. As you try to connect, the head moves on you, a lot! We had a difficult time. I am new to the PP to start, installing it last fall and with very little experience with hooking it up. My experience may be clouded with inexperience, but at least it will be fresh.

We also struggled with the issue of the driveway angle that certainly played a big part. If you tighten the straps a little to get more support, you risk in getting the head to point down in the front. That caused us the most problems. I normally back the TV up to the hitch using the rear cameras with my wife offering distance information. We switched roles as it became clear someone was going to have to "muscle" this thing a bit to get it to line up.

With the tongue jack, I was constantly adjusting the height as the vehicle moved in. If the narrowest part of the hitch hit the side of the PP wider opening, it caused the head to angle and the hitch would not go in. I learned a lot about how the PP hitch has to be perfectly level for anything to work right. I learned a lot about my wife and I’s relationship too!

How to get the PP head to stay level was the problem. I finally used a car jack under the head of the PP to raise and level it. Hitch went right in.

So the towers do perform a needed service. They stabilize the head much better than the straps ever will. That said, you cannot carry a full size rolling car jack with you camping.

I have the trailer home in our driveway and I will try to hookup in more similar to camping situations. If the problem persists, I may need some suggestions from you all.

Adjusting the straps is very easy. I am using my 24” torque wrench I carry anyway, but the leverage to tighten the straps are not that great. A smaller wrench might be easier as the large handle gets in your way. The process of tightening is like any other ratchet strap out there. I tightened the straps without using the tongue jack. Loosening is a little unnatural, but not stressful at all. You have to tighten a bit to remove the tension off the ratchet, pull the lock forward and let the strap down about 3 clicks. You engage the lock and reposition the torque wrench and start again. It takes about three times to relieve all tension. Of course, you could just use the tongue jack to take all the tension off, and probable the safest way to do it. It seemed so natural after hooking up and pulling the trailer out of the barn, that I forgot to use the tongue jack to make final adjustments before going down the road to home. You can see the reaction of the TV and the trailer as you tighten the straps.

The straps have “dots” on them that tell you where you are at on the strap. I have 4 dots showing on the top.

More later!

[ClaireBambi]

I have had a pro pride for 8 years and I am more than happy I made the investment tin a good hitch
I drive a sequoia Toyota 8 cyl I can get my back open when hitched
Buy one
Eileen

[crispyboy]

I figured this would happen with the straps when hitching the trailer/tv that are on different planes.
About the only advice I can give is to keep the stinger square to the hitch head on both the vertical and horizontal planes - and it sounds like you understand this. The easiest way for me is to keep the trailer, hitch head, stinger and tv perfectly in a straight line when hitching. Practice, Practice!
If you get a chance post a picture of the hitch hanging loose so some of us can study the issue better.

[turk123]

After pulling the trailer home to my driveway, I proceeded to unhook and then pull forward. Everything looks fine. Today I decided to try hooking up again. Adjusted the tongue height, put a little tension on the straps and backed in to hook up. Went perfect and the first time with no help.

I think the issue I had earlier in my barn, was that the angle of the drive going to the flat barn floor was changing as I would back up. Today was as easy as it's ever been! I'm guessing as long as you are on reasonable level ground, the straps will not add any difficulty to the process. I will continue to report as I do more experimenting, but with today's experience, I'm very much encouraged.

[Medjrd]

My husband installed the new pro pride yesterday, and took it out today for a trial run. Still working on adjusting and finding the "sweet spot ". The towers do limit access to our front compartment, but not too bad( which was my original ask of this post).

[turk123]

After extensive experience with the strap tech solution, I went back to the ProPride towers. The straps just don't afford enough support in most situations. I took them off and have a much better success rate the first time with the propride towers.

If you would like to try the straps, I will sell you a set for half price. : )

[RVDreamer]

Originally Posted by turk123

After extensive experience with the strap tech solution, I went back to the ProPride towers. The straps just don't afford enough support in most situations. I took them off and have a much better success rate the first time with the propride towers.

If you would like to try the straps, I will sell you a set for half price. : )

I am using the straps and love them. They are much better than the towers. The towers are a PIA and get in the way of the front compartment. I have had no trouble using the straps. I find them much easier to release, much quicker, and a lot better in general. I can be hitch up and un-hitch much faster and easier than before. Besides your towers will eventually fail. Both of mine failed after about 3 years of heavy use. They can be fixed but just aren't worth it compared to the easy to use straps.

[sheriff1]

Originally Posted by RVDreamer

I am using the straps and love them. They are much better than the towers. The towers are a PIA and get in the way of the front compartment. I have had no trouble using the straps. I find them much easier to release, much quicker, and a lot better in general. I can be hitch up and un-hitch much faster and easier than before. Besides your towers will eventually fail. Both of mine failed after about 3 years of heavy use. They can be fixed but just aren't worth it compared to the easy to use straps.

I’ll take those straps. PM sent.

[rmkrum]

The usual failure of the WD jacks is breaking the shear pin. That’s one of the interesting problems I’m heading for with the power-operated jack setup I’m fiddling with. Turn out the added motors have enough torque to eventually shear the pin. Looks like some kind of lower limit switch is in my future with this bit of overkill engineering.

[RVDreamer]

Originally Posted by rmkrum

The usual failure of the WD jacks is breaking the shear pin. That’s one of the interesting problems I’m heading for with the power-operated jack setup I’m fiddling with. Turn out the added motors have enough torque to eventually shear the pin. Looks like some kind of lower limit switch is in my future with this bit of overkill engineering.

Yes, shear pin failures and I have also had the retaining clips on the gear pins snap in half. I don't think the tower internal parts are designed to handle the loads that they get.

Like I said they can usually be easily repaired but the strap system is so clean and easy and built 10 times heavier than the towers. Plus they don't obscure the front storage door nor do they make removing the propane tank cover difficult like the towers do.

[turk123]

Originally Posted by RVDreamer

Yes, shear pin failures and I have also had the retaining clips on the gear pins snap in half. I don't think the tower internal parts are designed to handle the loads that they get.

Like I said they can usually be easily repaired but the strap system is so clean and easy and built 10 times heavier than the towers. Plus they don't obscure the front storage door nor do they make removing the propane tank cover difficult like the towers do.

How in the world did you get the support for the spike to go in without turning? I had a horrible time with this. My front Head (receiver) has a tendency to point down. So does the spike as per Shawn's recommendation. Those two angles make it impossible for the spike to enter. I had to level the spike and put the towers all the way down. Am I doing something wrong?

[DBinSD]

After reading all the input to this thread we went straight to the straps. Never did the towers.
The instal of the entire PP unit and straps went well.
We then took off immediately for a 2000 mile trip.
Towed like a dream !!
The straps I found easy to use. When slack and ready to hitch up I just get close and step on the bar a little to raise the hitch head and it goes right in. Obviously the more level the level the two vehicles are the easier it is.

[BAB]

I had to smile at the comment about backing up your trailer with a ProPride. I back my trailer from the street up a 60 foot driveway (that’s not perfectly straight), it goes through gates with a total of 12’ opening (remember, the trailer is 9’ wide -- if you have the RELAX awning, the arms add about 6” to the 8 1/2 foot wide trailer. After I back it up the 7 degree concrete drive into the pole barn, I’m done. Oh, the pole barn has exactly 11 feet of width. I have done this routinely for the past 3 plus years with my 15’ Classic. With a ProPride (that’s supposed to make backing difficult?) I’ve got around 60,000 towing miles on it. No evidence of manhandling -- no popped rivets, nothing. (And, I have towed it on awful roads.) Just sayin’ -- my experience with two ProPrides (I had one on a 28’ Intl CCD), has been just fine. Yup, I did have to learn about getting close to the best angle between stinger and hitch. I also learned that if I don’t have it just right, I can shake the hitch back and forth....and it moves right onto the stinger.

[rmkrum]

Yup. I flat don’t understand why some folks claim issues backing up or hitching/unhitching with either Hensley design.

Makes no sense to me at all.

[mojoe7009]

Originally Posted by rmkrum

Yup. I flat don’t understand why some folks claim issues backing up or hitching/unhitching with either Hensley design.

Makes no sense to me at all.

Ditto. No issues with my ProPride. Zero complaints about any of it. Just kudos to Sean for great customer service.

[JFScheck]

ProPride with a 25FB Classic towed by diesel Touareg, ProPride with 30 Classic with F350 SRW no problems & ProPride with 27 International with 2500 no problems.

Towed each thousands of miles, worked like champ!

And YES - Sean is the best in support, both before AND after the sale!!!

[Ephraim]

Originally Posted by rmkrum

All I know is that I see how the AS behaves in relation to the TV in turns, and the trailer goes to the inside of the turn quite a bit more than when I towed with a conventional on-the-ball hitch. I have to allow for this effect when I'm making turns unless I want to hop the curb with my Airstream--which upsets DW, so I compensate a lot--like driving an 18-wheeler. They always start a turn wide, thence the comparison...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ---THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!

I wish I'd read this yesterday!

I have a very narrow drive at right angles to the road. I've pulled my AS Classic (only 2 weeks old) into this drive 5 times with the Equalizer hitch attached to it. On Friday, I installed the ProPride hitch and took it for a spin yesterday to test things out. My drive is not even close to level so I had to get to a parking lot to test my guesstimate measurments and then tow it back to the house to make those changes. While pulling into the drive, I pulled in EXACTLY like I have with the Equalizer hitch. The trailer tracked to the inside by about 8" and the edge of the driveway crumbled under the weight, dropping the weight of the vehicle onto large rocks that line our driveway (to warn people not to drive to close to the edge. It's not a big drop or anything and if the rocks hadn't been there, there would have been no damage to the AS. Sadly, I buckled the sheet right behind the step and damaged the LP line. I'm headed to HomeDepot today to get parts to fix the line and will bring it into the dealer after our trip this week to see how much repairing the damage to the panel will cost. ARGHHHH!!!!

At least the first dent/scratch is over and done with and I can stop worrying about every usage mark that it will accumulate.

We had to use shovels to remove the dirt under the rocks to get them out of the way and then winch the truck and trailer forward out of the small ditch as the truck couldn't get enough purchase to pull it out. It's been raining here and the dirt is very soft - not a normal situation here in the SW. When I leveled it on the Andersen levelers, they sunk halfway into the dirt.

Also, installing the hitch did take me 8 hours, but not because of the hitch. I had several interruptions along the way that were irritating. (An emergency call into work, A dinner call, A neighbor visit to admire the trailer, etc...) I ended up finishing the install in the dark with a headlamp. I think actual time was about 3.5 hours and much of that was spent getting my bearings after interruptions.

[rmkrum]

Sorry. Timing is everything, and I guess I was a few moments behind when your time ran out.

I happen to have a slightly bent step assembly because of a slight turn radius miscalculation as well.

The ProPride does track a lot like I would expect a fifth wheel setup to behave. I’ve never owned a fifth wheel trailer, but I can really see where the trailer appears to pivot around a point near my rear axle center. Which is how the PPP trapezoidal linkage is supposed to work.

We won’t talk about the slight skin buckle beauty mark in the rear corner from dragging a skid on a driveway one evening, either.