442john
Knoxville,Tn. 37918
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Joined: 01/12/2005
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Well, here it goes. My parents have had a Hensley Arrow since 1999 and have praised it and recomended it since. My father has been very adamant about telling everyone, and I mean everyone, he could haow great the hitch was. On June 19th his opinion changed. They were coming to me daughters' renewal of vows (her husband was in Iraq and they got married in Vegas when he was home for 2 week leave) and were pulling their 2004 30' Sunnybrook with one slide out with their 1997 Chevy 1500 van and the Hensley Arrow hitch. They were going arround a left hand curve in a light hill when SOMETHING WENT HORRIBLY WRONG!!!! I am thrilled they lived through it!!!! A witness said everything looked great going into curve and that dad was doing under the speed limit and WAS NOT DRIVING CLOSE TO THE EDGE OF ROAD!!!! He said all the sudden after dad entered the curve the trailer SWAYED VIOLENTLY, THEN DROPPED OFF ROAD. Then the trailer came back onto roadway and he said he thought dad had it, then he said it went crazy again. The trailer seperated from the van and landeed in the right hand didtch. The van fliped, landed on the drivers' side front pilar crushing the roff then flipped,VERY FAST about 4-5 times down an embankment landing right side up against a tree. The top passenger side strut pulled out of the orange part and the coupler on the trailer was bent, I guess that's when it came off the ball and seperated from van. My parents were removed and tacken to UT Hospital. Their Yorkie was thrown out of van after 1st flip, but he was found and seems ok. My parents are banged up pretty bad, but are ok. They are very concerned that the accident happened with the Hensley in use and feel it would not have happened if they were using the normal type of hitch. They also wonder if this has happened before and if people have lived to tell about it???? We were VERY THANKFULL for our witness that says he will testify to what happened. He said he couldn't understand why tge trailer started swaying violenty when dad was driving saftley and under the speed limit. I would caution anyone using a Hensley to be VERY carefull going arround curves downhill. My dad still can't believe it happened, but feels the hitch failed. If anyone else has experinced anything weird with this hitch, please let me know. Thanks and God Bless, John Potter
John D Potter Jr
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youth4him
Belgrade, MT
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Joined: 07/29/2004
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Sorry to hear about the accident, glad they are okay. I don't own a HA, but would be interested to know what the adjuster says caused the accident in relation to the hitch. Is it possible that the material failed in someway causing the problem? What about the frame connection with the receiver hitch itself? Lots of options here, which don't necessarily point directly to the HA failing.
KD
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Kenneth
Washington, the state
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"pulling their 2004 30' Sunnybrook with one slide out " Slide out ???
"The top passenger side strut pulled out of the orange part and the coupler on the trailer was bent," The Hensley Arrow hitch is stout, but any metal can be torn apart under severe stress.
"feel it would not have happened if they were using the normal type of hitch." "I would caution anyone using a Hensley to be VERY carefull going arround curves downhill. My dad still can't believe it happened, but feels the hitch failed."
Well, maybe a part of the hitch did separate. Did your father ever remove the hitch for inspection, to grease the ball, and clean and lube the various moving parts of the linkages? I know, maybe not called for in the owner's manual, but very prudent. The roller bearings do need to be cleaned, inspected, and greased periodically, maybe every five years. I do not know what might happen if a part of the hitch either seized or came apart.
It is very fortunate that no one was hurt seriously. I don't blame the hitch until an engineering examination determines that it actually did fail. All other parts of the trailer need to be examined, also. Would this have happened if an axle mounting came loose, or other running gear failure? An engineering examination will tell. I'll continue to drive mountain road with my HA, and I do give mine a complete examination at least biennially.
Please post again if you find out more info.
Ken
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lockdoc
Mn
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Joined: 02/06/2006
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I recently traded my HA in on a TrailerSaver 5er hitch and was surprised at how much wear I saw on some of the componentry. I would agree that an annual inspection should take place with these and any other type of hitch for that matter. When things work the way they are supposed to we can get complacent and not do a proper inspection as we have had no reason to. (I am not implying that your dad was complacent) I have to make myself do a good preflight in the powered parachute for the same reasons.... it is easy to get complacent when things are working well.
I wish your folks a speedy recovery from this accident. That had to have been so very traumatic for all of you!! Thanks for the heads up and will serve as a good reminder for all of us to check our equipment more closely even when things have been going well!
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Ron Gratz
full time RVer
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Joined: 12/27/2003
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Kenneth wrote:"pulling their 2004 30' Sunnybrook with one slide out " Slide out ???
I think it is safe to assume he meant "slideout" rather than "slide out".
Quote:...Did your father ever remove the hitch for inspection, to grease the ball, and clean and lube the various moving parts of the linkages? I know, maybe not called for in the owner's manual, but very prudent....
Given the lack of mention of bearing maintenance in the "Maintenance" section of the manual and given the reference to bearings which are "sealed from moisture" in the advertising material, I think it would be easy for an owner to infer that bearing maintenance is not required.
Quote:...The roller bearings do need to be cleaned, inspected, and greased periodically, maybe every five years. I do not know what might happen if a part of the hitch either seized or came apart.
According to this Complaint for Hensley Arrow Hitch, you can get severe sway if a bearing fails. Apparently the owner who filed this complaint believed the bearings did not require maintenance.
The design of the Hensley Arrow results in a very large compressive load on the struts. The HA principle of operation requires that the coupler be restrained from pivoting on the ball. The struts make this happen and they are subject to large loads.
If a strut fails, you effectively have three pivot points between the TV and the TT. It would be somewhat like trying to tow the TT with a short chain. It is easy to see how a TT could get out of control and take the TV with it.
Ron
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kimomjtb
NH
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Joined: 07/03/2003
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Quote:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
442john wrote:
HENSLEY HITCH OWNERS, ACCIDENT 6/19/06 ALMOST KILLED MY PARENTS!!!! IT LOOKS AS IF THE PASSENGER SIDE BAR THAT IS ABOVE THE TENSSION BARS BROKE!!!! THE 30' SUNNYBROOK PUSHED THE FULL SIZED CHEVY VAN TO THE LEFT, WHILE THE TRAILER WENT RIGHT INTO THE DITCH. THE VAN ROLLED 4 TIMES DOWN A REVENE!!!! LOOKS LIKE THE HITCH FAILED!!!! THE TRAILER WAS SITTING IN THE DITCH WHEN A WITNESS SAID HE SAW MY PARENTS VAN START TO ROLL. HAS ANYONE HAD ANY PROBLEMS WITH THESE HITCHS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. THANKS AND GOD BLESS, JOHN POTTER
Hmmmm...first (and only) post, all caps, and brings up a thread thats almost a year old, only to describe an incident that sounds VERY questionable how it could possibly happen. Sniff, sniff.....I smell a troll...
I'm not seeing how one of the struts could 'break', unless you were backing in a VERY tight turn, pushing the trailer sideways. And, that assumes the strut mounts were bolted directly to the trailer A frame (Only done that way on C channel A frames), not using the shear bolts and U bolts. Even then, the strut would bend, it would not break. Something fishy here..
If this *did* happen, either something was installed/set up horribly wrong, or something (like maybe a strut) had a horrible flaw/defect from the factory. I find the latter hard to believe, though, given Hensley's track record.
Sorry, folks, I'm not believing this one. If it did happen, there are some VERY significant details being left out...
Will
The above was posted in the towing forum and
Yeah I agree totally with Willard. does sound a little fishy. This would be a first if it actually did happen and I agree with the poster above on needing more information before we can really know what happened. I am sure the HA bashers have their fun with this one.
* This post was
edited 06/26/06 10:27pm by kimomjtb *
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pakman
Sierra Vista, AZ, USA
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Joined: 01/07/2005
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Me thinks there is something fishy in the kingdom of Denmark.....
"the trailer SWAYED VIOLENTLY, THEN DROPPED OFF ROAD. Then the trailer came back onto roadway and he said he thought dad had it, then he said it went crazy again."
Pretty wierd description....almost seems like the driver swerved! While anything is possible I find it hard to believe that a hitch failure setup this scenario.
"They are very concerned that the accident happened with the Hensley in use and feel it would not have happened if they were using the normal type of hitch. They also wonder if this has happened before and if people have lived to tell about it????"
How they can jump to the conclusions they are jumping to without an investigation into the accident beats the heck out of me. Most "normal" hitches that I have seen have nowhere near the robustness of the HA design. So I find this to be a rather fantastical statement. There is very little here that passes the sniff test...and when it smells like #2 it is most likely #2.
Just my $.02
Safety 1st....Good Times Follow
The Pakman
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The Logans
West Virginia
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Joined: 05/22/2005
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If this is true, it's way too early to bash anything. Anything could have failed, from a TT component, to a TV hitch component, to the Hensley. And even if it was the hitch, was it due to poor maintenance, a manufacturing defect, component failure due to metal fatigue, etc.
Anything can break, but in this case, there really isn't enough to go on.
"So, anyway, there I was, traveling down a perfectly straight part of Interstate 40. It was about 10PM, and everything was fine, until.... an 800 pound meteor struck the trailer right in the middle. Well, the poor thing just exploded, and blew all over the highway.... we could have been hurt! Everything would have been fine however, if it wasn't for that darn HENSLEY HITCH!"
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Ron Gratz
full time RVer
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Joined: 12/27/2003
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pakman wrote:Pretty wierd description....almost seems like the driver swerved! While anything is possible I find it hard to believe that a hitch failure setup this scenario.
If you find it hard to believe, you could remove one of your struts and then haul your trailer down the road at 50 mph into a curve on a slight hill. Just might make a believer of you.
Ron
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442john
Knoxville,Tn. 37918
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Joined: 01/12/2005
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First of all, it did really happen. Second of all, I posted this because in the post that was posted a year ago someone said that your trailer brakes had to be really tight or it could through you in a curve. I thought that maybe the person that experienced this would see this post and let us know. My father is a newly retired machinest and I believe he was maintaning the hitch properly. The witness told the deputy that, yes, the trailer swayed violently in the curve then droped off road for first tim. I really don't care if you believe what I am saying or not, soooo, if all you have to say is that I am some kind of liar, please don't respond to my post. My dad was a very big believer in the hitch and agreed that he never felt sway when big rigs past and it handeled great, until last Monday. I would and he would like to know just exactly what happened, and what caused the accident. He says he never experienced anything like it with the regular hitch, which is why we feel it had something to do with the hitch. Also, someone in the earlier post said sometning about pins or something that he was going through them. Yes the top passenger side strut pulled loose frome the orange thing. Sorry I don't know proper names of the parts, I'm just trying to get info.
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