Re: [A/S] Hensley question

["maurice_riggins" <maurice.riggins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hensley installation was a piece 'o cake.  The truck wasn't even 
involved in it.

I can see why Phil says remove the stainless trim pieces from the 
tongue.  They slide easily and I don't think you could tighten the u-
bolts enough to stop that.

The 25.5" put the mounts just behind the tank cover.  No way those
tanks are movin' on mine... the base is welded to the tongue.  I 
installed the mounts and jacks first, then used a 3 ton floor jack to 
lift the big orange Hensley up into the coupler and snapped it shut.  
Installed the equalizer bars, then the struts.  After I was happy 
that everything was aligned, then I drilled the tongue and installed 
the shear bolts.

At first, I had to drill out the rivets holding two gas line clamps 
on to drop the line enough to clear the u-bolt plates.  The clamps on 
the electrical cable were aligned so that I could pull down a little 
dip in the cable to clear the u-bolt plates.

I'd heard about the drop bar paint causing it to get stuck in the 
Arrow or in the truck so I put a thin coat of grease on it too.  When 
the overcenter latches are released, the drop bar literally falls out 
of the Arrow... no sticking.

No problem with the u-bolts being too long... even a 3/8" drive 
Craftsman deep socket worked fine on the 75 ft-lb torque wrench.

BTW, on this jack loosening problem.  The first jack I extended was 
real easy... just hand-held the bottom and spun the nut on top with a 
wrench.  The second one was harder... had to stick a phillips 
screwdriver through the holes in the bottom to get enough leverage to 
keep it from turning when I back the nut on top off.  Wanna bet which 
one vibrates loose?

One tip... I used Loctite 242 on the set screws in the jack 
retainer.  Looked like too much potential for loosening there to me.

Finally, the 6" drop bar is gonna be perfect for the F250SD 4WD 
SC/LB.  With 1" of truck sag, the top of the Hensley ball is going to 
be 18-3/4" just like A/S says it should be.  And the angle of the 
truck backing shouldn't be a problem from what I can tell.

--
Maurice