Yes, our Haha is new. We had it installed by the dealer when we bought our new Safari three weeks ago. We have not done anything with the Haha except I wrapped it in a heavy duty trash bag. Will make a better cover for the Haha and the jack, hopefully sometime very soon.
Will pick up some Boeshield and Allis Chalmers paint. Orange. And, clearcoat.
We did tow the AS 1200miles with the Haha. The short distance I towed, I really could not tell the AS was back there. but, I have nothing to compare it to because I never towed our 28' wb.
Thanks for the info--I am still trying to get it all straight. Yes when the tongue of the trailer went up the rear of the tv did go up as well consequently when we put tension on the spring bars down to the first mark the trailer was up at the front and down at the rear and the tv was up in the rear and down in the front. And the only way we could get anywhere near level was to lessen the tension on the spring bars way above the first mark. My husband just talked to Jerrod at Hensley and he said we need a 6 inch drop instead of the 4 they originally sent us and is sending one to us today. We will give that a try and see if it makes a difference although I hope it won't make it harder to hook up. I will continue to check out the threads on weight distribution for additional help.
Do you have the "air ride" suspension on the suburban? If you do, the tensioning on the spring bars will be differend from other systems. The air suspension pumps up the rear shocks to level the suburban after the trailer is hooked up.
If you tension the spring bars too much under this system you will put too much weight on the front axel and eventually wear the tires on the front of the vehicle.
Ask me how I know.
Mark.
__________________
-Life is a journey, not a destination.
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Yes we do have the air ride suspension and the suburban does try and level itself after it is hooked up. What do you mean by the tensioning on the spring bars will be different--is there something we should be doing different because of the auto ride suspension. According to Hensley you need to have the jacks down to at least the first mark so that they don't loosen as you drive. If we do that then the tongue of the trailer goes way up and the rear down putting it off level--and also puts too much pressue on the front of the tv. They say we need a 6 in drop on the hitch bar instead of the 4 they originally sent us. We will see if that helps--hopefully we will be able to tension down to the first mark without putting too much weight on the front of the tv.
We have a new Haha and I am going to order the emergency parts kit. Should I order any other accessories? I want the hitch helper, but my husband doesn't think we need it. What about grease, etc?
Thank you!
Pat
Pat --like 2air says you really don't need the hitch helper. In fact I was going to order one with my haha and the fellow at Hensley told me they were not necessary. I took his advice and having hitched up several times now I think it would have been a waste of $$----------pieman
I have a question about the HAHA hitch - When traveling slowly (under 30 mph) on a winding country road is it normal for the hitch move to one side or the other as I make a turn in the road? I can hear the "bump sound" in the hitch when it does this. i have checked the hitch and all seems OK, just need some reassurance or advice. Thanks! Pecos Pete
When traveling slowly (under 30 mph) on a winding country road is it normal for the hitch move to one side or the other as I make a turn in the road? I can hear the "bump sound" in the hitch when it does this....
hi pete
take a look at the photo in post #102
the 4 link contraption does collapse inward on sharp turns..
and at speed on the highway actually moves side2side 2 inches...
but i've never felt a bump from this, maybe perhaps others have.
some folks might hear the linkage movement, i don't.
it is common to get a bump IF the trailer brakes are reacting slower than the tv brakes...
and on tight curves it's not unusual to brake a little,
so check your controller setup and consider boosting it a little...
this assumes the struts are 'tight' on each side and the brackets aren't loose...
cheers
2air'
as i recall you had a hydaulic brake leak recently...was your setup re-calibrated after this repair?
__________________ all of the true things that i am about to tell you are shameless lies. l.b.johnson
we are here on earth to fart around. don't let anybody tell you any different. k.v.
the setup was re-calibrated after the repair. I was hoping you would respond to my post. I think the haha is operating as is supposed to, I just wanted to make sure. The bumping sound was not major, just there, if you know what i mean. The struts are "tight" and the brackets are not loose. The hitch performs like a dream on the highway - this was just the first time we have been on a (terrible) winding country road - thanks to our GPS. Never again, lesson learned!
In my post #192 I outlined problems we were having with the spring bars and I appreciate all the response I got. We talked to Hensley and they said our problem was the drop–that we needed a 6 inch instead of the 4 inch we had. We were able to hook up with no problem using the 4 in drop although we have only towed the trailer a short distance a couple of times we have hooked and unhooked 6 times–and found it quite easy–other than the fact that we were not able to tension the jacks very much–only part way down towards the first mark. We did all the measurements before and after hooking up and got the car back to within half inch of the original measurements at all 4 corners–it was slightly lower all around. This was, as I mentioned, with the jacks barely tensioned. If we tensioned the jacks to the first mark the rear of the car went up quite a bit as did the front of the trailer. So—today we tried the 6 in drop and could not even get hooked up! With the 4 in drop the trailer hitch and the car were pretty well lined up but with the 6 in drop the car is now quite a bit lower than the trailer and try as we might we could not get them hooked together. So I guess my question is how important is tensioning the jacks to the first mark–we were told by Hensley that it should be at least to the first mark or they would probably loosen off as we drove. I think our problem is also compounded by the fact that we have "auto ride" on our suburban so that it automatically levels itself after we hook up the trailer. We sure don’t want to continue fighting with the 6 in drop when we were able to hook up so easily with the 4 in drop. Also is it possible to bend the Hensley at all–when we asked at Hensley if we would have trouble hooking with a 6 in we were told we might have to ram it a bit–which we did–enough to shift the trailer back a foot even with blocks under the tires–but not enough to get it hooked! Now the Hensley looks like it is on a downward angle. Things were going along so nicely–I was actually feeling quite smug because we had been able to hook up so easily–now I feel quite humbled! And of course we are due to leave a week today for our 3,000 mile trip home from Palm Desert to Ontario, Canada.
I should add that we have been hooking up without a load in either the trailer or the tv so don’t know how that would change things–if we are loaded would we then be able to tension the jacks more and not have to go to the 6in?
Any help would be appreciated!
Yes there are 3 holes showing and we are using the 1000 spring bars. We have a suburban tv --not a 4 x 4 but it has 20 in wheels. We will talk to the chevy dealer and see if there is some particular way we should hook up. I will try and post some pictures--if I can figure out how . We have not weighed the setup nor have we tried hooking up with a load. We only got the trailer in Jan. and have not been anywhere in it yet. We have been waiting for the 6 inch drop which just arrived (apparently held up by a slow train) to see if that would help with the tensioning of the jacks. But can't see if that helps since we were not able to get it hooked up and at this point I am feeling that we are running out of time. The trailer is in storage and we will head over there tomorrow to try again--beginning to wonder if trading in our 33ft Winnebago and tow vehicle for a suburban and airstream was the right decision Sorry--feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment--sprained my ankle the other day and being on crutches is not helping me get organized and packed for our trip I am sure we will get if all figured out eventually!