Re: [a/s] RE: Austin

["John Hilty" <jhilty@xxxxxxxx>]

Don,

Sounds like you have it pretty well mapped out. I have been to most of the
spots you mentioned, but not with  the time that you will have. A couple of
years ago at Christmas we were taking an alternate route to Tucson through
Artesia/Alamogordo and headed up the road toward Cloudcroft. We got to
Mayhill and went in for coffee/pit stop and when we came out it was snowing.
We went on up the road and it was really coming down with about 6" of fresh
snow at the summit in Cloudcroft. As we went back down to Alamogordo it
cleared again. It was a most memorable and Christmasy 45 minutes.

About the Hensley. As you know I have (according to Hunter) the dreaded
short wheel base Ford Explorer. This is the primary reason I went with the
Hensley. It was actually much less expensive than even the depreciation and
sales tax on another larger tow vehicle.  But, back to the Hensley. We left
Dallas on I-20 West and met an incredible wind from the SW. This slowed us
down some, but there was no instability or sway. We saw other trailers
(SOBs) having some serious sway problems, but I experienced none and had no
problems with the large trucks passing at 70 plus while I maintained a
pretty consistent 60 mph. This was a big contrast to the Draw Tite WD hitch
w/sway control I was using. On one occasion I had to make an almost panic
stop and did so with no problem. The only problem, if you want to call it
that, was that backing is just a little different because of the movement of
the linkage on the Hensley. It takes a little getting used to.  I spoke with
two other streamers at the Davis Mountain state park, and both had the Reese
hitch with the stabilizer strut from the spring end to the trailer frame
with no anti sway dampening bar. This seems to be a similar geometrical
philosophy to the Hensley, and on the longer wheelbase vehicle apparently
does a good job according to them. If you go with the long wheelbase F250 it
might be a cheaper option for you.

John H.