Hitch recommendation

[AAFD]

Wife and I are looking at our next RV. We really like the Classic 33. Plan would be to tow with a F250 with a 6.7. What kind of hitch would you all recommend?

Thanks

KC & MC

[BayouBiker]

tell me about your driving style, how fast, how careful. How comfortable are you in panic situations? What terrain you expect take the trailer through, all paved? Steep mountains, windy roads? Do you often have to traverse uneven slopes, steep laterally sloping driveways or hills. Tell me more about the truck, is it 4x4 or elevated? What about the trailer, will you leave it stock height? How heavy do you intend to load it? What about the truck? What receiver does the truck have?

[AirMiles]

Wow, welcome to the Forum AAFD! As you can tell you have asked one of the hot button questions that all of us asked on our first post to AirForums. This question gets asked frequently and usually creates a heated debate that always ends with "everyone is usually happy with the weight distribution hitch they choose".

I have both a Blue Ox Swaypro and a Propride 1400. I like the simplicity and cost of the Blue Ox. I like the sway control of the Propride. I've switched back and forth several times since I've owned both. I initially had sway problems with my F250, Blue Ox Swaypro and my 25' Airstream. I made a lot of modifications to my F250 to try to make it work with the Blue Ox. My last modification to the F250 was Caster Shims and a new front stabilizer shock. That modification has made it possible to go back to my Blue Ox Swaypro. I think you will be happy with any name-brand weight distribution hitch. There won't be any real consensus on which one is best and it depends how you define "best". Overlooking cost, weight, complexity and difficulty of installation, the "best" hitch in my opinion is probably the Propride. But I prefer to use the Blue Ox. Good luck with your decision!

[AAFD]

Originally Posted by BayouBiker

tell me about your driving style, how fast, how careful. How comfortable are you in panic situations? What terrain you expect take the trailer through, all paved? Steep mountains, windy roads? Do you often have to traverse uneven slopes, steep laterally sloping driveways or hills. Tell me more about the truck, is it 4x4 or elevated? What about the trailer, will you leave it stock height? How heavy do you intend to load it? What about the truck? What receiver does the truck have?

Im a easy going driver, I have drive 55' firetrucks and 35 wreckers towing. Traveling mostly paved roads but hills and mountains sure. The truck will be a 4x4 and would be stock height. How loaded, not sure yet but I don't or haven't taken any of my RV to max weight.

KC

[BayouBiker]

The Reese Straight-Line is an excellent choice, Blue Ox is good, likely not your best choice, not as much sway damping which I think you could use but it's easy to manage and you sound like a calm diver so a little sideways jog from time to time may not bother you. I find the Equalizers to be too stiff and unforgiving but for that you get excellent performance. The Hensely's and Pro Prides have superior performance, but may be overkill for you. You should look at their website, you may decide they're great. The Andersen could possibly work if you're getting a new model with the EZ coupler, It puts some strain on the coupler, but it's easy on the truck and trailer especially backing up over uneven terrain. It's due to horizontal tensioning, but for the same reason you may have a bit of an issue getting enough tension for your set-up. If you have your eye on others, let me know and I'll comment.

[AAFD]

Originally Posted by BayouBiker

The Reese Straight-Line is an excellent choice, Blue Ox is good, likely not your best choice, not as much sway damping which I think you could use but it's easy to manage and you sound like a calm diver so a little sideways jog from time to time may not bother you. I find the Equalizers to be too stiff and unforgiving but for that you get excellent performance. The Hensely's and Pro Prides have superior performance, but may be overkill for you. You should look at their website, you may decide they're great. The Andersen could possibly work if you're getting a new model with the EZ coupler, It puts some strain on the coupler, but it's easy on the truck and trailer especially backing up over uneven terrain. It's due to horizontal tensioning, but for the same reason you may have a bit of an issue getting enough tension for your set-up. If you have your eye on others, let me know and I'll comment.

Thanks Pro Prides is about a hour and half or so away from my home

[uraljohn]

Nice choice. Have the selling dealer install the Dexter Axle Lift Kit as part of the deal. The 33' is a long, long trailer and it is not to hard to drag the rear end when entering fuel stops, RV Parks or any place that has a deep swale or off level entry. The kit runs just a couple hundred $$$. Installed is about $1k at the Airstream dealer. If your dealer will not install it go somewhere else. It is fine with Airstream and does not effect your warranty.

We have a 2019 FC 25 RBT. I installed myself but I have been turning wrenches for a long time. Install was in the driveway( A friends as I needed the lift to get in my driveway) and straight forward after watching a couple videos on how to do it. No effect on towing. I have a steep driveway with a swale so the lift was a must have. Enjoy the Classic. Happy travels.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by AAFD

Thanks Pro Prides is about a hour and half or so away from my home

Great Start... Do you plan to do the install yourself? It's the quickest way to 'learn' the hitch.

We got our Hensley the 3rd year of ownership, best safety up-grade we did to ease the the towing experience.

Bob
🇺🇸

[rmkrum]

Ditto. Both on the ProPride or the Hensley Engineering hitches. They both work the same. Installing them yourself means you read the directions carefully and follow them.

Personally I prefer ProPride, and with a lighter weight Tacoma 4x4 it works really well. Won’t tow without one.

[jaybauman]

Once you quickly figure out the nuances related to ProPride, the hitch/unhitch process goes quickly and cleanly. And using your cordless drill to infinitely adjust the spring bars (no chains and levers required!) is definitely a selling point. Plus, the ProPride customer service is fantastic.

[BigSxyWhtGuy]

I’ll throw in something else to think about, how much do you want to spend?

We had our Blue Ox installed by the dealer and included in the deal. We had to have a larger ball drop also installed, you can negotiate both of those in the deal. Free was a damn good deal to me! Some of these other ones can cost a lot of money, although it’s all a small price to pay for safety.

[HopJockey]

Originally Posted by AAFD

Wife and I are looking at our next RV. We really like the Classic 33. Plan would be to tow with a F250 with a 6.7. What kind of hitch would you all recommend?

Thanks

KC & MC

We just purchased a 2017 Classic 31 and I pulled it back from Denver to Phoenix using an Equalizer hitch. We have a ProPride on our 2018 Arctic Fox 28F (about same length and weight as our new AirStream). I've found that the ProPride hitch really really helps when towing the Arctic Fox (it's much taller). That said, I found that my Equalizer hitch tows the AS just beautiful. So much so, we are selling our ProPride hitch with out Arctic Fox. I honestly feel I don't need it with the AS. For reference, we tow with a 2018 Ram 3500 diesel, 4x4, crew cab, longbed.