Well I went and mess up, bought a bigger camper.

[Firefighter1406]

We have been looking for a while at campers. My son is 15 and 6’ and counting. We currently have a 2008 Cougar 26BHS. Great camper and never thought about upgrading, but the kid will not stop growing. So we just bought a 2011 Outback 312BH. Great shape and well cared for. Worried a little about the sway being that long so I am in the market for an Hensley Arrow and hope to never have to worry about sway again. We will see. I really hope I dont regret the extra 6’. I figure it will just be a learning curve.

[chuckster57]

Congrats!! Why a Hensley? Why not an E4

[sourdough]

Congrats on the new to you trailer! A Hensley is mucho bucks and that trailer with a 3/4 ton shouldn't need one. Don't know what hitch you have now but I've pulled a bigger bumper pull with a 3/4 ton and an Equalizer 4 point with great success. I would recommend one of those and save a bucket of money.

[Firefighter1406]

Originally Posted by chuckster57

Congrats!! Why a Hensley? Why not an E4

The E4 I have heard is a great hitch. However the trips I take are a lot of interstate and the sway with the wind and semis really drives me crazy. Now I do admit that the set up I have now isn’t the greatest so I don’t have any experience with the E4 or similar. Just know the standard weight distribution hitch and friction sway control I have now don’t work for crap. I was looking at a used Hensley. About $1,100. It’s a lot I agree. But everything I have read and reviews I have watched says there is NO sway. And I like that concept for sure. I also looked at the Weigh-Safe weight distribution hitch but that’s just as expensive also.

[Firefighter1406]

Originally Posted by sourdough

Congrats on the new to you trailer! A Hensley is mucho bucks and that trailer with a 3/4 ton shouldn't need one. Don't know what hitch you have now but I've pulled a bigger bumper pull with a 3/4 ton and an Equalizer 4 point with great success. I would recommend one of those and save a bucket of money.

Did you do a lot of interstate travel or smaller 2 lanes?

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by Firefighter1406

Did you do a lot of interstate travel or smaller 2 lanes?

All of them. I traveled many, many thousands of miles on 2 lanes, rural 2 lanes with no shoulders and all kinds of interstates. What kind of hitch and sway control do you have now? It sounds like you have a bad setup and just want to go straight to overkill to eliminate the possibility of sway. I've never seen a Hensley on a HD truck but I have on smaller trucks and SUVs.

[Firefighter1406]

Originally Posted by sourdough

All of them. I traveled many, many thousands of miles on 2 lanes, rural 2 lanes with no shoulders and all kinds of interstates. What kind of hitch and sway control do you have now? It sounds like you have a bad setup and just want to go straight to overkill to eliminate the possibility of sway. I've never seen a Hensley on a HD truck but I have on smaller trucks and SUVs.

You’re exactly right. I probably have a terrible set up. Embarrassing to admit, no laughing. I currently run a Harbor Freight Weight Distribution Hitch with 2 of the “sway” control friction bars. I am hitch stupid. I don’t know in’s and outs and they are too expensive to experiment. So I figured I would just go big and call it done with the Hensley.

[chuckster57]

The harbor freight WD isn’t a BAD hitch, it uses bars and chains for the WD part and the “brake pads” squeezing a bar for sway control just like the more expensive hitches that use the same set up.

I have installed both the bar/chain and the equalizer type and have only heard praise for the equalizer style.

[travelin texans]

Originally Posted by Firefighter1406

We have been looking for a while at campers. My son is 15 and 6’ and counting. We currently have a 2008 Cougar 26BHS. Great camper and never thought about upgrading, but the kid will not stop growing. So we just bought a 2011 Outback 312BH. Great shape and well cared for. Worried a little about the sway being that long so I am in the market for an Hensley Arrow and hope to never have to worry about sway again. We will see. I really hope I dont regret the extra 6’. I figure it will just be a learning curve.

If towing it with the Ford I doubt you'll notice that extra 6'. If you're planning towing it with the Armada DON'T with any hitch!!
That's most likely your sway issue if towing either rv with the Armada, too much rv, not enough tow vehicle.

[wiredgeorge]

Just curious... 35' bumper pull have 50A service with a 2nd A/C? I would guess a single A/C would be hard pressed to keep up with that much camper space on a hot day.

[Firefighter1406]

Ford Superduty is the tow rig.

[Firefighter1406]

This one has a single A/C. 15,000 BTU. I am hoping it is enough. We normally don’t do too much summer camping.

[Mattcoa]

I did 9,500 miles with a Equal-i-zer pulling my 287QBS Bullet without an issue. Traveled freeways and 2 lane roads. They have a set up for your heavier trailer.

[sourdough]

The Harbor Freight might be OK for a small trailer IMO. I used that type of setup with a 25' trailer and I had a terrible time with sway. It was on a 1/2 ton truck though. The little add on friction bars just don't do much IMO.

I've never owned one but I've looked at them and a Hensley Arrow not only looks more complicated but it's heavy. I think they weigh almost 200lbs. vs about 100 or so for an Equalizer. You have to put all that somewhere when parked or not in use. I think the Hensley has now become ProPride and not sure what advancements they made with that?

In your situation with the 3/4 ton and 7800lb. gvw trailer (current Cougar) other things could be at play. Is the hitch set up correctly? If not they can make matters worse than if you didn't have one. The tires on the tow vehicle can allow sway; are they in good shape and aired up to max. Tires on the trailer can also help induce sway if they let the trailer start wallowing around. They need to be aired up to the max psi on the side. Springs and shocks on the tow vehicle can allow sway to amplify itself if they are weak and don't stop or dampen it.

Here's a link to the manual for the 1k/10k Harbor Freight. Don't know what you currently have but they will all be similar. Check it out and see if your hitch is set up properly. If you get a new hitch for the new trailer I would be looking at 1200lb. bars. With a gvw on the new trailer of 9k your tongue weight if fully loaded could approach 1200lbs.

https://manuals.harborfreight.com/ma...3175469557.pdf

It's obviously your decision and I know you want to be able to tow without fighting sway (btdt) and more importantly, stay safe. Having pulled a larger trailer with my 3/4 truck I just feel that you would be spending money you don't have to....but that's your call. Too bad I'm not back home - I've got an Equalizer sitting in the barn taking up space but - I'm in FL, it's in TX and you're in Indiana so doesn't do you much good. Good luck on getting it squared away.

[jxnbbl]

We went from a Bullet 273 to a Bullet 330 after a year and in two years of travel we have gone over 16k miles with an E4. The weights are probably comparable

The roads everything but a good mix as one trip a year from NH to FL, we bypass NYC by going over to the Garden State Parkway and DC by taking the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel/Bridge.

We feel "nothing"..exaggeration but we have encountered some crazy conditions on bridges, interstates under construction (just enough room for the trucks/campers to pass)....passing modular homes where they had to move over and travel in the breakdown lane for the miles of backup to pass....etc.

Being a newbie at all of this I was skeptical that I'd be white knuckling it 10-20% of the time.

[dutchmensport]

I had a 35 foot Outback travel trailer with only 1 air conditioner. Factory, it came with a 13,500 BTU. It did NOT cut the mustard. I swapped it out for a 15,000 BTU and it did pretty good. However, we did have to keep fans going to get the cool through the entire trailer. We never camped in extreme heat. Maybe 100 degrees was ever the hottest.

About the Hensley? Not only the cost, the difficulty of hitching is somthing you REALLY need to consider. Unlike a traditional ball hitch with weight distribution bars, the Hensley stay connected to the trailer all the time. It never disconnects. To disconnect the hitch from the tow vehicle, the hitch shaft has to be removed from the receiver hitch. That means pulling the pin on receiver hitch. Now that creates some problems.

Unhitching is probably no problem. Pull the cotter pin and pull the retainer pin out of the receiver hitch and simply pull the tow vehicle away.

The problem is hitching. The alignment of the Hensley hitch shaft has to be perfect to align to your truck receiver hitch. Then you have to back the truck up and align it absolutely perfect in order to get that hitch pin and cotter pin in it. If the hitch is even slightly off, those holes do not align. That's a nightmare to do and absolutely takes 2 people to do it at all. One to drive the vehicle and the other to hold the hitch shaft to angle it just right and then to get the pin in the receiver hitch (shaft).

I had a Reese with the square bars and chains and an separate friction sway bar. I used it on my 31 foot Keystone Springdale and it worked well. But when we got the 35 foot Outback, the Outback was heaver and actually bent the hitch itself. That's when I switched to a 14,000 / 1400 Equal-i-zer with the Outback. And now, I STRONGLY STRONGLY suggest the Equal-i-zer 4 point weight distribution system. You will not regret it.

[Weldon]

Originally Posted by chuckster57

The harbor freight WD isn’t a BAD hitch, it uses bars and chains for the WD part and the “brake pads” squeezing a bar for sway control just like the more expensive hitches that use the same set up.

I have installed both the bar/chain and the equalizer type and have only heard praise for the equalizer style.

I have a "small" TV and a "small" TT, and used the exact same HF WDH and 2 sway bars for a year. I never traveled more than 8 hours from home on interstates but finally upgraded to the E4 and the difference is night and day. Sway was the issue i had when 1, or definitely 2, rigs passed me at the same time. I suggest you do what feels right to you and be safe out there. I don't regret my upgrade at all. If you like your current WDH, stick with it. Since you bought it used, it could be difficult to change now. So if you like it, keep it.

[Brantlyj]

I have an F-250, my bumper pull is 33 ft hitch to bumper, running about 9000lbs. I have an Equalizer 4-point and I have yet to have a sway event. Even when I've been in 30 mph side winds.

You don't need a Hensly or ProPride. The only thing they are good for is pulling a trailer to large for the TV. Also they are a bitch to hook up unless you are dead on level and straight when you disconnect. Tons of people complaining on the FB pages how difficult it is to hook up.

[hlh1]

The Equalizer 4 WDH looks pretty much like my Husky WDH with spring bars, but the Husky is cheaper. I've been very happy with my Husky.



https://www.amazon.com/Husky-32218-C...4-dc28e6d374b3

[Firefighter1406]

I appreciate everybody’s thoughts. I am gonna have to see if the equalizer offers any type of money back guarantee or anything. I will have to load the new camper and run it across the cat scales to see where I am at.