[kraftee]

First, by way of background, I am towing a 2018 Outback 324CG toy hauler with a 2018 Nissan Titan XD crew cab diesel. Loaded with dirt bikes, water, full fuel in the truck, my wife and I (and dog) and we scale out at about 80 pounds under our Nissan's GVWR with tongue weight at 12% of total trailer weight.

This is my first large travel trailer - but by no means my first large trailer (towed big race car hauler trailers for 20 years.) When I bought the Outback this summer, I brought along my trusty old Reese round bar WDH. We installed it during a rainstorm at the dealership, the tech "eyeballed" it, gave it a thumbs up, and we drove into Ohio construction traffic in the pouring rain. SCARY time with concrete barriers on both sides and 5 o'clock traffic. On top of this trial by fire, it turns out that the hitch was nowhere near being adjusted properly. Pretty much a white knuckle experience for 300 miles before we stopped for the night and I took up another link on the bars. The remaining 200 miles the next day were much better, but I knew things were not really adjusted to my satisfaction.

When I got home, I went through the process of properly setting ball height, angle, and bar positions. I towed the rest of the summer with not too many problems - unless you count one of the round bars falling out of the hitch as we crested a slow hill and turned into a campground! Anyway, the rig towed great with ZERO sway even in crosswinds or when passing a semi (I typically tow between 72 and 75 mph on the highway.) Driving the rig was simple with only one hand lightly on the wheel.

However, after using the CAT scales to get real official weights and making further adjustments, it became apparent that my 10,000 pound hitch with 1,000 pound bars was not quite adequate for the load (9,800 pound trailer with 1,100 pounds of tongue weight.)

On top of that, we had a few complaints with this style hitch. First, the "jounce" over concrete highways with expansion joints or secondary roads in less than stellar condition REALLY bothered the wife. We also were annoyed by the clanking and clunking from the WD bars. Another issue was that I am a bit of a klutz and managed to ruin several pairs of jeans on the greasy WD bars and hitch ball. So, with all this in mind, I set to researching WDHs. At first, I was leaning towards one of the Hensley types - but I just couldn't see spending over three grand on a hitch, when in reality, I was quite satisfied with the overall handling and performance of the rig.

So after much research, I purchased an Andersen WDH from HitchSource (SUPER-fast free shipping and awesome customer service, BTW.) After installing it and checking adjustments, we left our summer place in New York for the 1,200-mile haul to our home in Florida. To make this very long story somewhat shorter, the hitch was FABULOUS. Absolutely silent in use, no grease to ruin any more of my limited wardrobe, super simple to connect and disconnect, and best of all, the jounce is pretty much all gone. Those urethane cushions really get rid of the issues on rough roads. The O.P. might consider an Andersen when he upgrades all the other issues. It will definitely help with much of the rough ride.