Airstream / Intrepid

[Road Ruler]

John / JD

I finally found the test data on the Can Am / Hensley performance tests.

Use of the Hensley in every case increased performance.

The use of the 34' Airstream performed better than the 31' conventional trailer ( sandcastle).

The Chrysler Intrepid, top performance

[John]

Wayne,

Thanks for the going away present !!!

Love it-John

[RoadKingMoe]

There's no doubt the Hensley and Pullrite are much more stable in an emergency manuveur and this shows it.

Let's look at the mechanics of what happens when you are going down the road and a person or animal steps into it from the right side and you crank the steering wheel to the left hard. The front of the tow vehicle moves left with respect to the rear axle and the tail moves right with respect to it.

With a conventional hitch, when you turn left, the trailer first turns right toward what you are trying to avoid, then with further forward motion, gets pulled back across the straight line of former travel to the left. In essense, it has made the bottom half of an S turn that can initiate sway, and at the same time has gotten closer to what you are trying to avoid.

With a Pullrite hitch, pivoting at the rear axle, the trailer remains in forward motion until the tow vehicle rear axle begins moving left of the straight line of former travel. Regardless of how hard the swerve, the trailer remains in a straight line until time to turn left.

With a Hensley, the front of the hitch moves to the right with the rear bumper of the tow vehicle, while the rear of the hitch stays with the trailer in a straight line (that's how a Hensley turns... the front of the hitch moves opposite to the directionof the turn).

When you straighten out in the left lane,

With a conventional hitch, the pendulum (trailer) still swinging to the left will overshoot the tow vehicle's path and then overshoot it again going the other direction. With sway damping, these oscillations should dampen out and the trailer get back behind the tow vehicle. However, during that time, the trailer is using the lever arm of the distance behind the tow vehicle rear axle to yaw it back and forth in the opposite direction from the trailer.

With a Pullrite hitch, the trailer may also overshoot the tow vehicle's path and may oscillate a few times as above, but this has absolutely no effect on yawing the tow vehicle, which remains stable as a rock in a straight line.

With a Hensley, as the trailer approaches the straight line path of the tow vehicle, the link bars prevent it from overshooting, as it transitions into "motorhome" mode (i.e. a straight frame vehicle with no pivot point). It may move the whole rig, in a straight line, over in the lane to a path parallel to the tow vehicle's straightline path, but the vehicle operator can steer to the right to counter this, just as he would in response to a crosswind.

[Chas]

That's what the brush guard is for! No need for evasive maneuvers!

Seriously, don't you have to relocate your spare on most all pickups to install a Hensley? My truck does double duty as my service vehicle and tow vehicle, no room in any other place to mount the spare. Hensley is the one with the big radiused steel track under the rear, correct?

Chas

[kamadeca]

Chas,

Nope the Hensley fits into a standard 2" receiver. I think the pull-rite is the one with the big sweep underneath.

Malcolm

[RoadKingMoe]

Malcolm is correct... that's the Pullrite that requires spare tire relocation and/or exhaust modification. However, Pullrite now has "custom" hitches that require neither... unless you have oversize 4WD tires.

The Hensley mounts entirely on the trailer tongue and as long as the drop bar is the correct height, any tow vehicle with a 2" receiver can be used to pull that trailer with the Hensley.

[JD1]

Hensley

Also in the News Letter along with the Intrepid, Hensley tests was this blurb of another V6 - Airstream story. I'll paste it here for anyone who is interested

We bought a Ford Windstar to pull our 34' Airstream trailer. The only modification we made to the Windstar was to fit low profile tires, and a transmission cooler fitted by Can Am. If we had any doubts about the ability of the Windstar to pull a 34' trailer they were dispelled in the mountains of Pennsylvania. We took an alternate route in the mistaken belief that alternate meant that it was a truck route with less hills. How wrong we were, we soon found ourselves going up and down 10% and 12% hills. As an added bonus, between some of the hills would be a small village with a stop light to ensure we tackled the 12% hill leading out of the village from a standing start. But the Windstar never faltered and even had some power to spare.
The Windstar, Airstream combination is very stable and tracks very well. We have had no problems backing it into campsites or negotiating city streets. Our best gas mileage when towing has been 16.5 mpg. Of course once we are set up in the campground we have a very comfortable minivan in which to explore the local area, plus the added bonus of gas mileage in the 18 -28 mpg range.


The story goes on to tell of a great vacation to the east coast and then down to the Carolinas.

You can see the Hensley in the image.

[Chuck]

ya know, the thing I'm always thinking about in this recurring debate is the fact that any not-so-overzelous cop could pinch you (but good) for driving a rig like this: "oversized load". perhaps this only applies to commercial vehicles....but it shouldn't.

[Chas]

Unfreakin' believable,

Similar to the worries that I have here when seeing a 3/4 ton truck pulling a 30' gooseneck with a backhoe on it.

Tell you one thing for sure, if either one of these setups ends up killing some innocent person there will be hell to pay!!

Looks like most Canadians have some rather large ones if you know what I mean!!

Chas

[Road Ruler]

Man 0 Man.....
What a looker. All we need now is to have the "Bay Watch" babes running down the beach in the back ground.


Unfortunately I have not seen one of these combo's in the flesh, probably because of the rarity. It is good to hear of the positive performance data that the owners experienced. No doubt the Hensley was a major factor in the overall rating. This info can be used as a bench mark for possible combos in the future. With the promise of so many interesting vehicles coming down the pipe it would appear that the Windstar / 34' A/s combo will be taking a back seat to a newer breed of high performance vehicles. The new V6 engines are now approaching the 300hp / 300 ft. lb. torque ratings with even better gas mileage. The future looks very good for Airstream owners and a new era of tow vehicles. Anyone seen a Hydrogen fill up station yet????? Ya, Ya I know....we are still a couple years away from that.

[crazylev]

I am starting to believe that my 2001 VW Eurovan w/201 hp engine 116" wheel base would be able to handle the 19' Bambi of my dreams. I have read just about everything on the internet about hitches, etc, and have come to the conclusion that my wife and I should pay the piper and look at nothing but a Hensley Arrow for this vehicle, even though it is mind-numbingly wallet depleting expensive. My theory is buy once and enjoy, which is why I am looking at AS in the 1st place.

[Road Ruler]

crazy l

You are lucky! In Canada with our devalued dollar and 15% sales tax the Hensley would cost well over $5,000.00

That is almost as much as we paid for the whole trailer. Please note that one is on our wish list if we go for a bigger A/S in the future.

[Silvertwinkie]

I'm not sure how to respond to what I have just seen and read.

Next will we see a Yugo modded out to pull an Airstream.

I am glad that those that have this rig are happy, safe and that it works.

I guess I am just too old school to buy into the hype. I modded out my LT1 Caprice with the Class 3/4 hitch with weight distribution, sway, rear cargo coils, better trans cooler, lower thermostat, deeper trans pan (for more fluid to keep it cooler), ram air scoop to continue to drop the trans temp, etc.

In all I have a $9,000 Caprice with about $1,100.00 in extras including the hitch setup and that I would think is less expensive.

At any rate, GM rates the LT1 Caprice from the factory to be able to pull up to 5,000lbs. In reality, it most likely could pull 7,000 if I geared it right. The bottom line is that if I decided to go with anything larger than lets say the Safari, I would want something a bit more robust than a unibody and something that is at least 5,000lbs in weight. The Airstream in these photos not only is far larger, but prob weighs several times that of the car pulling which to me, laws of physics being what they are, kind of has me a bit worried fo the people operating these rigs.

It's just too hard to believe. I wonder what they could do to my Caprice to make it even better that it already is?

Eric

[John]

Wayne,

I saw a 24' Trailer Lite being pulled by a Nissan minvan with a Hensley. I walked over and the guy was from Canada and I asked if Can-Am Andy set him up and he just looked at me and said, "How did you know that?" I told him about the discussions going on here and he said that he truly loves his setup! He's had it from 5yrs now!

John

I saw him in FL!!

[RoadKingMoe]

Originally posted by John

I saw him in FL!!

Where else do retired Canadians live this time of year?

[Raptorrider2001]

That looks a lot alike the video Hensley sends out.

[Chas]

Sorry, more from another unbeliever,

It is hard to believe there is enough substantial steel beneath the rear of these Intrepids, Windstars and the like.

What are they using to attach the proper hitches to them, a bunch of toggle bolts??

Chas

[John]

Two daps on each side

[Raptorrider2001]

Maybe a couple of Aristream pop rivets?

[53flyingcloud]

Maybe a couple of Aristream pop rivets?

Make that without "gaskets"~!!Plse

ciao