[A/S] Hensley hitching

[Stan Nicholson <stan@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tony -

To add a tip re unhitching a Hensley - I cut an old broomstick to use 
as a measuring device to make sure the jack is close to the correct 
position before pulling out the drawbar.  I just parked the rig on a 
level surface, prepared everything to disconnect (using the 
procedures Lee suggested), and then when I saw the slight movement of 
the drawbar, I measured the distance from the bottom of the hitch 
receiver on the truck to the ground.  That's how long I made the 
broomstick.

So now if we're parking on uneven surfaces, I can position the 
trailer on the site, disconnect everything, then adjust the jack so 
that the broomstick fits - that is, the hitch receiver is the right 
distance above the ground.  This may not be perfect, but it gets 
things pretty close to OK so that pulling out the drawbar doesn't 
cause the trailer to drop or do other unpleasant things.

It took me several months to begin to understand that we can cope 
with nonlevel, bumpy, off-angle parking situations by creative 
adjustments of the spring bar jackscrews.  On our first trip with the 
trailer and its new Hensley, we spent 45 minutes getting the drawbar 
into the hitch, because we didn't know how to cope with the changing 
angles caused by backing the truck over a crowned campground road. 
Now that would be much less of a challenge.  We got some good advice, 
and carefully reread the Hensley manual about the "wheelbarrow" 
analogy - thinking of the spring bars as the "handles" of a 
wheelbarrow, and seeing how raising or lowering the springbar 
jackscrews changes the angle of the hitch.  So adjusting both 
springbars together changes the angle to the level road, and 
adjusting them separately lets you add some "tilt" if things aren't 
level side-to-side.  I didn't really "get" the idea until I spent 
some time at a campground just playing with the springbar adjustments 
- then the light bulb finally went on.

Hope this helps.

Stan