theboondork's RV blog

I hope I'm not sorry I did this

7/23/2017

One of my sunsets while boondocking in the Pike national forest

I'm on my way back to Denver but I decided to stop for the night at the Bass Pro shop in Colorado Springs to avoid the traffic problems on I -25 that normally happen on Sundays when people are all sunburned and tired, with a car full of screaming kids coming back from a fun weekend in the mountains.

I haven't posted on my blog for a while because my Internet, for some reason was terrible at 11 mile Reservoir State Park. Everything worked okay when I was there a week or so ago but for some reason even with my phone antenna up I couldn't get enough cell strength to use my phone data. Sometimes I could get on the Internet for maybe five minutes but then it would go away and I couldn't get on again for a couple of hours. After a while the whole thing became so frustrating that I gave up and figured I would catch up with the blog when I got back to civilization.

I did something today that I hope I'm not going to regret . After weeks of deep and studious thought, accompanied by many pregnant pauses. Hours of research on the Internet taking copious notes, I finally pressed the magic button on Amazon today and ordered a new fifth wheel hitch.

Now I don't regret ordering a new hitch because the 24K Curt hitch that I'm currently using was giving me some problems and if there's anything in this world that you don't want it's an IRS field agent knocking on your door, or a fifth wheel hitch that's giving you problems, because your life can be forever altered by either one of those things and its inconceivable it's going to be in a good way

The reason I hope I don't regret it is because I ordered an Andersen ultimate hitch. And if you click on that link you will see why there may be a wee bit of consternation about my choice. First of all it doesn't look like any other 5th wheel hitch in the world. In fact it looks kind of weak and spindly compared to a regular 200 pound hitch. but from all that Internet research I did it appears that the vast majority of the people that use them swear they'll never go back to a regular 5th wheel hitch again.

I think one of the biggest reasons I wanted to try this Anderson hitch is because of their contention that you can easily hitch up, or unhitch when the truck and the trailer are not lined up very well. I've had this happen to me several times while boondocking and even in some state parks were some campsites can be incredibly unlevel, I've had to back the truck under the trailer from two or three different directions to try and get it to lock up, even though my Curt hitch will tilt from side to side and front to back, just not very much.

There's many other reasons why its supposed to work better than a regular hitch but I consider that just gravy if this thing will hitch up quicker, easier, and safer, than my 10 year old Curt hitch.

The weird hitch will be here early next week and since it's supposed to be very easy for me to install it I guess I will know shortly whether or not this was a wise decision or not. in about a week I'll be heading for Montana and if I return to Colorado still pulling the Arctic Fox my decision may look brilliant. On the other hand if I'm back in Colorado and the Arctic Fox and half of the hitch is still back in Helena I guess I will look like a fool, but what the heck I've looked that way before and it probably won't be the last time.

theboondork

This is the South Platte River that feeds 11 mile reservoir. There's about a 4 mile section of the river that is known locally as the Dream Stream, because of the size and quantity of the trout that inhabit the river

Cloudy days at 11 mile reservoir state Park Colorado

This is what most of my afternoons looked like while boondocking at 11 mile reservoir state Park, cloudy and rainy with a little bit of fog thrown in,

8 Comments

Vall & Mo link

7/24/2017 12:07:06 am

Hi Tom,

We think you made a good decision regarding the Anderson Ultimate. We too researched it a few months ago and decided we will have one installed in our rig from the get go due to its solid reputation and many advantages over the conventional hitches.

Hope it works great for you, and please keep your blog posted on how it goes.

Cheers,
--
Vall & Mo.

theboondork

7/24/2017 07:45:30 am

Well it sounds like "great minds think alike". It does seem that there's a lot of good things about the Anderson hitch, and I was surprised to see how few complaints there were. In fact most of the complaints were not from people who actually owned one but from people saying that it wouldn't work right for various reasons but had never had one in the back of there truck before.

I have to admit they don't "look" as strong as my big heavy hitch, but my big heavy hitch has a lot of moving parts and the more moving parts you have the more things can go wrong. In fact it was those moving parts that was causing me some of my problems.

When I would be unhooked for a while, out in the desert, or especially on Padre island Texas, sand and dust would blow into the hitch causing the hitch to not lock up properly and sometimes the only way I could get locked up was to spray the inside of the hitch with some kind of penetrating oil to get the parts moving again. And a couple of times a year I would have to disassemble the hitch clean everything and put it back together, then it would work just fine until more stuff got in it again. By the way if you end up getting a regular hitch buy a cover for it it'll save you a lot of headaches.

According to the tracking number the hitch will arrive tomorrow and my opinions will start forming shortly thereafter. And since it is such a unique thing I'm quite sure that over the next couple of weeks you will hear and see more information about the Anderson hitch than you ever wanted to know.

Tom

Barney Ward

7/24/2017 09:27:50 am

Howdy Tom,
This is my first time to know about the hitch you ordered. To me it looks as good as the goose neck ball adapter systems. The only part of their website I have any worry over is the lack of a lube between the ball and its cup. I have been a fan of a very light misting of WD40 right before coupling. If it is enough to run wipe it off. If the new system has some sort of other lube then OK. but when I see metal to metal contact I want some very light lube to prevent metal galling. WD40 has been the best in my 50 years of towing since it does not stick around and collect sand grit and act like sandpaper. I think you will find the new hitch to be pretty good.

7/24/2017 01:02:34 pm

You're right about that, metal to metal contact is never good. I'm not sure how real gooseneck hitches are lubricated but in the case of the Anderson Ultimate hitch there is some kind of a built-in pad of silicone or Teflon or something slippery that's inside the female part of the ball hitch and the company says no other lubrication is necessary.

From what I read on the Internet from people that have the Anderson hitch they say the company is great about fixing any problems you have for free so if somethings not right I assume they will fix it. In fact one of the most often mentioned things from the hitch owners is the company is very easy to deal with and does their best to keep everyone happy. Which makes sense when you consider all of the safety issues involved if a trailer hitch manufacturer doesn't pay attention to potential defects.

Back in Denver where its toooo hot. Tom

darrell

7/25/2017 08:27:25 am

Great sunset picture. I've never seen nor heard of that hitch in your post. Interesting design. Power of the Pyramid? Be safe out there. Have fun.

7/25/2017 01:13:30 pm

Its kind of a new concept to me to Darrell. But then again so is the cell phone, the computer, and determining your sex based on how you feel at the moment. But I got used to the cell phone and the computer so I guess I'll get used to this hitch.

Thanks for the compliment about my sunset picture, I do love a pretty sunset.

Tom

Ken Hufnagel

7/25/2017 10:36:26 am

You might want to check on the laws about this. In general, a ball hitch requires safety chains, and this appears to be a ball hitch.

It looks like it should handle the twisting you get when off pavement much better than a conventional 5th wheel hitch.

7/25/2017 01:16:15 pm

You're very right about that, there are a couple of states that require chains and I ordered a set of Anderson chains to come with it. But the laws are rather ambiguous because this isn't a gooseneck hitch it's actually a fifth wheel hitch that uses a ball instead of a kingpin. So it seems nobodies actually sure whether chains are required or not but just to be on the safe side I'm going to put them on anyway.

Thanks for the heads up, I would sure hate to be going down the interstate, look in the rearview mirror, and see nothing but empty space.

Tom

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I hope I'm not sorry I did this

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