Our ProPride Experience

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by out of sight

I understand your frustration. You were sold an expensive hitch only to find out it was a waste of money. So go ahead and take out your annoyance on someone else. It will make you feel better.

You focus on expense, you haven't used a PPP so why not limit your comments to things you have experience with.
We were not "sold" an expensive hitch, we bought the hitch we decided was the best for us.
Probably exactly what you did...
Your frustration stems from the annoyance you feel from posts that disagree with your opinions. Perfectly understandable.


Al & Missy

The "Bump"...
I eliminated it with equal strut bar adjustments, equal length and tension on both sides.
I use a TruControl Gold controller which assures that the AS brakes engage before the TV, there is no gain adjustment, set it once for load and forget it, all condition adjustments done automatically.

Bob
🇺🇸

[Jaxon]

Originally Posted by out of sight

I'm still waiting for some statement of substance.

Wow... been on the forums two months and already pickin a fight...

All four posts thus far have been antagonistic and argumentative.

[out of sight]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

You focus on expense, you haven't used a PPP so why not limit your comments to things you have experience with.
We were not "sold" an expensive hitch, we bought the hitch we decided was the best for us.
Probably exactly what you did...
Your frustration stems from the annoyance you feel from posts that disagree with your opinions. Perfectly understandable.
🇺🇸

Actually I came here with an open mind trying to find out what's so great about a sway control hitch and why do people buy them when Airstreams don't sway. Still looking for an answer.

[rmkrum]

Any trailer will sway under appropriate conditions, period. The problem is knowing when it will happen. Sway control or prevention techniques are necessary to expand the envelope of safe towing.

I’ve experienced sway at 55 miles per hour on the downhill side of the Cajon Pass in California with an essentially empty 22 foot Airstream. Once. I’m an engineer, and not a slow learner, so did the research and went with the best design I could find, and the ProPride is the implementation I chose.

Since I added the ProPride hitch system, I have not experienced even the beginning of sway over that exact same course, in very high cross winds across Texas, and whilst being passed by big rigs anywhere. No more stress and ‘white knuckle’ driving experiences.

Bottom line is that if you are towing without sway control of some sort, a proper setup, and the right adjustments, you merely have not experienced sway yet. It can happen with little warning, and cause massive control problems in a heck of a hurry.

As the old saying goes, “learn from the mistakes of others, because you won’t live long enough to make all those mistakes yourself!”

And another good one is, “everyone is entitled to at least one fatal error.”

[ROBERT CROSS]

"Airstreams don't sway"...I didn't know that.
I wonder then... what was it then when our Safari was dancing left & right and didn't stop until we added dual friction sway control? 🤔

Bob
🇺🇸

[dznf0g]

Yeah, I should start a new thread though. Out camping right now. I'll try to remember to do that tomorrow. Been an interesting weekend in the AS. April 27th and we got about 3 inches of wet heavy snow and 27*!

[out of sight]

I probably have a different definition of sway. To me sway is what you see in those Australian videos showing back end loaded trailers whipping back and forth and then rolling over. That will never happen with an Airstream, at least not the newer ones. I have seen some older Airstreams that look questionable. For example, there's that classic photo of the guy towing the Airstream with his bicycle with 20 lbs of tongue weight. I wouldn't want to tow that over 40 mph.

Then there is what some people refer to as sway when you are doing 75 mph and a Greyhound bus passes you doing 85 mph. You're going to feel the trailer wiggle but that is normal and not dangerous. A sway control hitch will mask the wiggle but the wiggle is not going to cause a loss of control.

[dznf0g]

Originally Posted by out of sight

I probably have a different definition of sway. To me sway is what you see in those Australian videos showing back end loaded trailers whipping back and forth and then rolling over. That will never happen with an Airstream, at least not the newer ones. I have seen some older Airstreams that look questionable. For example, there's that classic photo of the guy towing the Airstream with his bicycle with 20 lbs of tongue weight. I wouldn't want to tow that over 40 mph.

Then there is what some people refer to as sway when you are doing 75 mph and a Greyhound bus passes you doing 85 mph. You're going to feel the trailer wiggle but that is normal and not dangerous. A sway control hitch will mask the wiggle but the wiggle is not going to cause a loss of control.

Oh, it happens with airstreams.

[ROBERT CROSS]

OOS...yes for sure, your definition is a lonely one, and I think it is recognized as such.
But opinions are like heartbeats...everyone has them.

Bob
🇺🇸

[out of sight]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

OOS...yes for sure, your definition is a lonely one, and I think it is recognized as such.
But opinions are like heartbeats...everyone has them.

Bob
🇺🇸

Ah, the master of useless platitudes has spoken. I bow to thee and thy useless wisdom.

[Manning G]

If one is freaked out about $3000, buy used. My Hensley (wanted a PP) cost $950. I see them regularly for under $1500.

[ISUboy]

While I do not have an AS, I do pull a 7900 lb, 34' box behind me with an F150. I have used 3 hitches over the last 6 years. Fastway E2, Equalizer, and now 3P. I only have a few hundred miles on the 3P but so far they have been a good improvement over the Equalizer.
I think we could all agree that most decent sway hitch on the market will greatly reduce the chances of the "out of control" sway. That is the fear everyone goes to right away. However I can say from my experience with the 3 hitches thus far, the 3P is the best for a variety of reasons.
The E2 was not a good hitch. Just not strong enough for a long trailer. 25' and under it does ok.

Equalizer is a good hitch. Most cases, I'd say 80% of the time it did well. Not much truck push, although would get some. Wind under 15 mph it was pretty stable and true. However it's always windy in the Midwest so if it got 20 mph or more, it made for a stressful drive.

Was I moving all over the road? No, but it took alot of steering correction and had to slow down to 55 mph or less. Yes, one can argue it still works. But it's stressful and makes for a long drive to or from the campsite. It made us start to schedule our departure times around the forecasted wind which eats into camping fun time. One of my last trips of the year last year I had to go about 45 mph due to the cross wind. Luckily we were only going 40 miles but it was not fun. I told the wife I'm getting a big f'ing truck this spring.

Spring is here and I did look at trucks. I am right at the limits I feel my truck can tow safely so I was considering the ram 2500 vs a 3P hitch. I researched it since December and test drove HD trucks. I really didn't want to go away from my f150 due to daily driving. There were 2 things I found consistent in my research.

1. A big truck gives me lots of spare payload and ratings, and helps reduce the feel of (let's call it) wind sway. However it does not eliminate it.
2. I could not find a single post about Hensley or 3p that claimed it didn't perform as advertised.

Since my trailer is still within my trucks ratings we decided to try the 3P. It has a 90 day return policy so figured we wouldn't be out much. I put new LT Michelin tires on my truck as well. This enhanced the feel of it quite a bit.

It was windy the other day so I took the trailer out for a test drive. I made a movie for people to see. In 30 mph cross winds you can see the trailer wasn't moving around. At all. The truck/trailer was moving as one but the trailer was not. This has eliminated that stress and steering feel I had end of last season.

Now I may upgrade to a 2500 eventually due to weight capacity, but so far the hitch is a big improvement. I'm not going to use the phrase "night and day" because the Equalizer worked well most of the time.

3k is a lot to spend on a hitch, but the comment typically is coming from someone who's driving around in an HD truck pulling a $60k+ rig. Well my 3k hitch was significantly cheaper than trading trucks!

Link to my video

https://youtu.be/Zdob59ZYKgw

[thewarden]

Originally Posted by out of sight

Actually I came here with an open mind trying to find out what's so great about a sway control hitch and why do people buy them when Airstreams don't sway. Still looking for an answer.

Airstreams don't sway? Tell that to this poor guy! Based on this post, and pretty much all of your posts on this thread, you clearly don't know what you are talking about. You are not looking for answers, you are simply looking for a fight.
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/...nt-184777.html

[thewarden]

Originally Posted by out of sight

I probably have a different definition of sway. To me sway is what you see in those Australian videos showing back end loaded trailers whipping back and forth and then rolling over. That will never happen with an Airstream, at least not the newer ones. I have seen some older Airstreams that look questionable. For example, there's that classic photo of the guy towing the Airstream with his bicycle with 20 lbs of tongue weight. I wouldn't want to tow that over 40 mph.

Then there is what some people refer to as sway when you are doing 75 mph and a Greyhound bus passes you doing 85 mph. You're going to feel the trailer wiggle but that is normal and not dangerous. A sway control hitch will mask the wiggle but the wiggle is not going to cause a loss of control.

Never happen to an Airstream eh?
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/...nt-184777.html

[out of sight]

A picture of an accident tells us nothing. I'd be willing to bet that uncontrolled sway was not the cause.

You can do a search of 5th wheel accidents. Get's pretty ugly. But 5th wheels don't sway, right?

[kellycox7]

I'm only on my first trailer, but have had no complaints with my Blue Ox and fairly stiff riding GMC 2500HD. Hate to show my ignorance, but had never heard of an AirSafe; looked it up and it's an interesting concept. Did you always use it, or had some bumpity-bump problems with just the Blue Ox? Do you notice smoother / less reactive motion due to the AirSafe in particular? They "claim" that it may save wear and tear on your tow vehicle's transmission, etc...which caught my eye. Thanks.

[jcl]

Originally Posted by out of sight

A picture of an accident tells us nothing. I'd be willing to bet that uncontrolled sway was not the cause.

OOS, you could always read the article, and not just look at the pictures. Sure sounds like a sway event. Especially with the trailer having completed a 180 before rolling.

“We’ve been all over the country,” the man driving the motor home told St. George News. “We were headed home to Henderson.”

He said the pickup truck and trailer started to swerve in front of him and he tried to slow down but the trailer hit the median wall and slid across two lanes of traffic directly in front of him.

[thewarden]

Originally Posted by out of sight

A picture of an accident tells us nothing. I'd be willing to bet that uncontrolled sway was not the cause.

You can do a search of 5th wheel accidents. Get's pretty ugly. But 5th wheels don't sway, right?

Did you not read the entire thread, including a detailed account of the incident by the driver!? Your ignorance is really starting to show here. It's clear you are not here to learn anything or listen to anyone. Time for you to move on already.

[out of sight]

Swerve is not sway. Any vehicle can swerve.

[jcl]

Originally Posted by out of sight

Swerve is not sway. Any vehicle can swerve.

The combination of tow vehicle and trailer swerved in front of him according to the eyewitness. It went one way and hit the divider. It came back and crossed in front of him, rolled, and spun 180.

How do you get a trailer to go from side to side, and then roll, without swaying? Seriously, your position is that it wasn't swaying? That's what you are going with?