Transkrypcja: HITCH BATTLE 2021 /// Testing 6 Different Weight Distribution/Anti-Sway Hitches for 100's of Miles

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Welcome back friends. Hey, we've got six of the most popular weight distribution anti-sway hitches on the market today. And I've taken the last year and I've tested each one of them with the same truck and the same trailer. This is a video I'm super excited to bring to you guys. Everyone always says that their hitch is the best. Well, we're gonna find out which hitch really is the best. We're gonna declare a winner today. Stay tuned. Okay. Let's go over a couple of ground rules before we get started because I know the comment section is gonna get lit up on this video and I encourage that.

A lot of people will disagree with me, I'm sure, but keep in mind, this is my experience. There's two things I can guarantee you on this one. One, I know how to set these hitches up. Gosh, especially now more than ever. And two, this is just my truck, my trailer, my experiences. Now a couple of other rules here that I tried to follow, I did follow. All of these have experienced either high winds or thunderstorms. All of them have been in the mountains. I've took all of these hitches in the mountains. All of them have been on expressways with semi trucks. So they've seen at least the very minimum 400 miles.

Most of them have seen anywhere from six to 800 miles. So that was part of my scoring process. Performance was a huge deal to me. We'll talk about that in just a second. But to figure out that performance, I wanted to spend a significant time with these hitches. And that's why it's taken me over a year to compile this information. Speaking of the scoring process, so we had three different categories for all of these hitches. The first category was cost and that was scored one to 10. The second category was build. That was also scored one to 10. And the third category, which I found to be doubly important obviously was performance and that scores one to 20.

One question we've gotten throughout this process is, hey, where's my Anderson hitch? Or hey, where's my Husky or Reese hitch? Well, we reached out to those guys and they ignored our requests. For those of you who have not been following the channel, let me introduce the participants for Hitch Battle 2021. This is the Blue Ox Sway Pro. We've got the Kurt True Track. We've got the Blue Ox Trek Pro. We've got the WaySafe Trueto. And we've got the Equalizer. All right, we also have the ProPride 3P. The ProPride is still on the trailer. Please don't read into that. It's just simply the last one we tested.

But those are our participants for those of you who are just now seeing this. Yeah, I did a video back in March introducing all of these. But yeah, just wanted to reiterate who's participating. One more thing that needs to be noted, all of the hitches were tested using this 2020 F250 with a 7. 3 liter quote unquote Godzilla and a 2018 Grand Design Imagine 2800BH with a weight of around 7500 pounds and a length of 32 feet. Okay friends, you can see up on your screen the scorecards, I've got a little cheat sheet here in my hand. Coming in sixth place was the Blue Ox Sway Pro.

Ironically enough, I ran this hitch for over two years and I was relatively happy with it until I used these guys back here. So there's a significant difference in how these things perform. I think the main concern here was the chain design. I'm not a big fan now that I've used friction type hitches with just the bars, but there's also some other things I don't like about the build. I'm gonna grab you off the tripod here in just a second and show you the build concerns. Let's talk about the scorecard for just a second. You'll see the cost category is a five of 10. These range anywhere from 650 to $775. That is for the same tongue weight, same bars.

I don't know why they vary so much, cost to steel, cost to labor, who knows with this whole COVID thing. But regardless, that's about how much they cost. Yeah, the build, again, we'll go over that in just a second, scored a six out of a 10, and the performance, nine out of a 20. So I thought the performance was okay when I was using it before I used these, but now that I've used the bar types instead of the chain types, I just have to give this one lower scores in that category. You do get a little bit of sway, you do get a little bit of truck suck.

It's a lot better than not having a hitch at all, but after using some of these back here, yeah, this came in sixth place. Let me get you off the tripod again and show you the build issues. Okay, this is how most of the video will go. I'll talk to you while the hitch is in front of me, talk about the scorecard, and then we'll go over the hitch itself. So the build issues. This is my second set of saddles. The first set, this nut stripped off. You have to use a wrench that comes with these saddles, and yeah, it's stripped. Now Blue Ox customer service was very good.

They sent me out others within a few days, but I would rather that have not have happened. The other issue with the build is these bars. These bars are thin, you'll notice, we'll talk about the next hitch as well, and they produce a lot of porpoising for me. As far as the other hitches are concerned, I didn't have that as much except for the other Blue Ox product, but because of these designs, the way they thin out, yeah, a lot of people may like that because it kind of cushions the blow, but I didn't really care for it. Now, here's another issue I have, and I have had one of these disengage on me.

Luckily, I was just leaving the storage facility, but there's no way to tell when this is fully engaged. Okay, now obviously it should come all the way down, but there's no way to know. You just can't see in there. Same thing when you place the bars inside the hitch head. There's no way to know with this contraption here that this little, what would you call it? I guess a little nut is fully inserted into your bar. You just can't see that. Now, on the flip side of that, they kind of fix that, and you'll notice the Blue Ox Track Pro will do better. They fixed that with the Track Pro.

So now you've got through pins, which I much prefer. That being said, you can lose those. You can't ever really lose these, but again, I prefer having those and an extra couple laying around than not being able to 100% know that my bars are locked in. One more thing to note about the Blue Ox Sway Pro is it produced the most porpoising out of any of the other hitches, and I think it has to do with two things. The thinner bars that are made to flex and the chains. Obviously the chains can only help you out in one direction.

Another important side note, I was able to use my tailgate with this hitch just barely by about a half an inch, and you can back up with this hitch along with all of the rest of them. All right guys, coming in fifth place is the Blue Ox Track Pro. Now you'll notice that the Blue Ox products come in fifth and sixth place. I think that has a lot to do with their bar design. I'm just not a fan. I'll talk a little bit more about that in just a little bit, but let's talk about the scorecard. So I've got my cheat sheet here. Cost is a seven of 10.

I don't know why this one is less expensive than the Sway Pro, but it is. I may have to do something with the cam saddles of the Sway Pro, not sure, doesn't really matter, but anywhere from $525 to $575. That scores a seven out of 10. Just to put this in context, you can go grab a Husky with Sway Control, the old Sway Control that you have to disconnect to back up for like 280, 300 bucks. So keep that in mind. So that's one of the reasons I'm basing, that's one of the ways I'm basing these cost scores. And then the build is an eight of a 10. I really liked the build.

I'm not a fan of these bars, but they made some vast improvements over the Sway Pro. I'm gonna take you off the tripod in just a minute and talk about that. Performance 11 of 20. We still get some porpoising. We still get some sway, not as much as the Sway Pro, ironically. But yeah, I think, again, the bar design, the fact that these bars are shorter, I think that hurts the design. If you think about it, if you've got longer handles on a wheelbarrow, you're gonna be able to pick up more weight and handle more weight easier. And yeah, they just have short bars. Also, part of the build was, I could not use my tailgate with this hitch.

I could use my tailgate with the Sway Pro by about a half an inch. I missed it by about a half an inch with this particular hitch. Let me take you off the tripod again and show you some more about the build. All right, we'll start by taking a look at the brackets. Love these brackets, heavy duty, nice big pins, nice big cotter pins as well. Yeah, these are great brackets. When you install, they will be at a little bit of an angle. They're designed to be that way. But yeah, these are great saddles. These are one of my, probably maybe my favorite saddles. The WaySafe's really good too. Yeah, we'll talk about those later.

But I love the fact that they kind of corrected my concern with this hitch head and it has the through pins now. The only negative to that is if you lose that, always have a couple extra on board, right? But yeah, I do prefer that style. The bars, I think Sway was better. Now keep in mind, this is a Sway Control hitch. All of them are Sway Control hitches, by the way, except for the ProPride. That's a Sway Elimination hitch. We'll talk about whether or not it does that. But yeah, these are Sway Control hitches. And I think it does that better than the Sway Pro, but not as good as the rest of those.

Porpoising is a concern, again, because I think of the thinner bars. Some of you may like that. Again, cushioning the blow wouldn't be so rough. But I don't like as much as these two Blue Ox products produce. All right friends, we have a tie for third place, but it's for different reasons. Technically they score the same, but you'll see their categories are way different. So best bang for your buck in all of this competition is right here, the Kurt True Track. Very good performance and at a great price, all right? Now we'll talk about some of the negatives as well, but let's look at the scorecard. Kurt True Track, the cost is an eight of a 10.

So you're getting anywhere from, you can find this anywhere from $475 up to $525. Build is a seven of 10. We'll talk about that. I'm gonna show you around here in just a second. Performance is a 13 of 20 for a total score of 28. All right, so performance, this definitely outperforms both of the Blue Ox products. I like the build on the Track Pro a little bit better than I like the Kurt. The Kurt is made in China, so that's something that I'm not a huge fan of, but it is what it is. And the Warrantyke, I feel like could be a little bit better. So that took away from the build scores a little bit.

That said, I never had any issues. I never had anything break, anything like that happen, okay? I do think this is your best bang for your buck. And yeah, it just works well. So let me take you off the tripod and show you around. Okay, I can't get this one to stand up. It is very heavy. But you can see here, we've got some ease of adjustment there. That makes for easy adjustments as far as the tilting of the head is concerned. So if you're looking at it at your hitch like this, you can adjust this one way or the other. That's a nice feature.

But it has this nice little ball feature here that when this hitch head's moving side to side, it locks back in when you're straight in. I'll make sure to link or put a card up for the Kurt video showing you that. But that's a cool little feature. Concerns on the build, I'll show you here. These brackets and the pins are the smallest of all brackets. Now, somebody made a good point. This is a tiny little pin compared to the others, but it's steel. So yeah, there's a different metal there. So maybe it's okay. It hasn't failed on me.

But you can see compared to some of the others, these are the, I wouldn't say cheapest, but they're the least impressive of the brackets. The bars are impressive. They're very heavy. Obviously we've got some surface rust going on. But yeah, I thought that the build of this wasn't quite up to par to the next three competitors. But as far as bang for your buck, the Kurt TrueTrack definitely wins. All right, one thing I certainly need to add, it wasn't a concern with the two Blue Ox products. They're pretty quiet, but this one gets really loud. So you gotta keep them greased up pretty good. And there's got easy to reach zirks right there to do that.

But yeah, from here on out, I'll make sure to mention how much noise it makes. And this one makes a lot of noise. Just make sure you keep it greased up. It's still gonna make some noise. There's just nothing you can do about metal scraping on metal. I know people will talk about inserts here in a minute when we get to the equalizer, but they don't send you that with the product. So I'm just using what they sent me in the box. Tying the TrueTrack for third place, albeit different scores in different categories, same total score, but you'll see that score card in just a second, is the equalizer. And guys, this is a really, really good hitch.

I can't say enough good things about the equalizer. The fact of the matter is the next two hitches we're talking about, second and first place, sincerely outperformed it. So that was a major issue for the equalizer, although it performs very, very well. Let's take a look at the score card. So you'll see the cost of the equalizer hurts its score compared to the current TrueTrack. Four of 10, anywhere from 750 to $950. Again, I don't know why the variation in costs or prices there, but yeah, it's big. Now make sure when you're shopping for these, they do sell just hitch heads, just shanks, just a ball. So you're shopping for the whole setup.

That's what I'm pricing, okay? The build is a nine and a half out of a 10. I love this build and I love that it's built in the USA. I love the fact that it has a lifetime warranty. It has USA steel and you'll just see, there's only one tiny little spot that I took that half point away and I'll show you that when I get you off the tripod here in a second. Otherwise, the build is very good, as you can tell from the score. The performance, 14 and a half. Considering the other two hitches, what they scored, I couldn't give it a 15. I had to bump it back a little bit.

There is a distinct difference between how this hitch performs and the last two we're gonna talk about. So that said, it performs very, very well. Now, obviously if this costs the same as the Kurt TrueTrack, then this would blow the Kurt TrueTrack out of the water, but it doesn't. You can buy almost two Kurt TrueTracks for one of these. So there you can see our final score is also a 28, all right? Again, let me get you off the tripod. Let's talk a little bit more. All right, I'm gonna start with the one area that costed a half a point from a 10, and that is this little tiny pin here.

I just wish they would use something more substantial or even one that loops around. You could loop it around the top of the bar, the bottom of the bar, whatever worked, but that drives me nuts. I would love to see something more substantial, or again, something that loops around. Other than that, I can't see where any improvements could be made to this hitch. You can see the brackets are just beast mode. I love that they use these, see, they do the wraparound here, but not here, right? So I love they do the wraparound pins there. None of the other hitches do that. This is nice thick steel here, American steel, big heavy bars. It's just a, it's a good looking hitch too.

Now, obviously surface rust, that's gonna happen to all of them. So you can't take anything away from that. Doesn't affect its performance. It is very loud. That was another performance hit it took. This is the loudest hitch of all of the hitches. And like I mentioned on the True Track, I know some folks are gonna talk about, hey, we need to get the plastic inserts. Well, they didn't sell me the plastic inserts. They didn't send them. They think that this is their best hitch, at least in my opinion.

Now you can get the plastic inserts, but then you're gonna, you ask yourself, okay, what's gonna be better for sway control, metal on metal or plastic on metal? And you have to know that metal on metal is gonna be a little bit better. You don't wanna lubricate anything in this area per what most people say. Now I know people do, but yeah. So it is very loud. The noise doesn't bother me, but I know some people will be concerned about it. But yeah, just a great looking hitch. I love that it's USA made with a lifetime warranty with USA Steel. That is our third place equalizer. All right friends, coming in in second place is the WaySafe Trueto.

Now I can't say enough good things about this hitch. You know, it's a little pricey. Yep, you can see, we'll talk about the scorecard here in a second, but its performance is noticeably better than anything else behind me that we've already talked about. Is it noticeably better than the equalizer? Yeah, it was. Even Brooke sitting in the passenger seat could tell an improvement over the equalizer. 98% of sway is just gone. Even the only time, so I'm testing these things now. So I'm like looking for sway. I'm looking for trucks to push me over or suck me in. You know, I'm looking for those things. And if a truck would pass me relatively quickly, I might get a little bump.

That's about it. I mean, this is a very, very good performing hitch. And I think almost all of that has to do with having the scale, being able to dial it in with the app. You'd nail it the first time and it's dialed in perfectly. You measure from your axles, your trailer axles, all that good stuff. And you dial it in perfectly the first time and it really does perform. Let's go over the scorecard right quick. It's starting to rain a little bit. Cost category, it is pricey. $999 shipped to your door. Three of a 10 there. Build is a nine of a 10.

So the things I didn't like, we'll talk about in a second, these little cheap, chintzy pins and some powder coating. It's kind of questionable. Performance was 17 out of 20. Again, I can't say enough good things about the performance. No porpoising, very, very little sway. Yeah, it's just really, really good. And then final score was a 29. So let's take you off the tripod. Again, it's raining, so hopefully we can get this in, but let's take a tripod and look around. All right, I wanna start with the hitch ball, which to me is a work of art in itself. Stainless steel, it's just, I'm a nerd. I think that's pretty.

You can see the, we're getting some powder coating coming off here, but that's not a big concern. That's not gonna affect how long it lasts. Big, thick saddles here, nice thick pins. Yeah, I think you get what you pay for. You get your locking pins here, and you don't get those with the other hitch. You can see that this shank is made for this hitch. So you're not gonna be able to use that shank for anything else. I kind of like that. It locks it in nice and tight. You got a nice locking pin with a cover right there. The other hitches come with pins, but they're not locking pins most of the time.

And see, you got your scale here. We've done a video on this one, so you can check that out as well if you want more information on it. You're gonna get a lot of the same sentiments, but nice deep cuts here for setting into the hitch head. I like that. Bars are nice and long like the other square bar versions. But again, the only thing I didn't care for, a lot of moving parts, and this little pin right here that drives me crazy. They need to fix that with an over the top pin or something. Somebody's gonna lose these, 100% guarantee. Also from the performance, again, I had to adjust this, adjust your distributed weight.

So when you dial it in, it's gonna give you a ton weight, and then it's gonna give you a distributed weight, and that's what you're gonna base your setup on. But to adjust that, you have to move this nut, tighten or loosen that nut. And I had to do that a few times, so that took away from the performance category a little bit. Otherwise, a really great hitch. Not very loud at all. Much quieter than the Kirt or the Equalizer. Okay friends, the winner of the 2021 hitch battle is the ProPride 3P. Even with this extraordinary price tag, this hitch outperforms all of the other hitches, and it's noticeable. It's very noticeable.

You know, I was thinking, I was almost thinking that the WaySafe might take this title from the ProPride. When I first got the ProPride, there's a learning curve when you're starting to hitch this thing up with the stinger and the hitch. And I was getting a little frustrated, but as you learn, you understand, you go on the forums, you realize there's a learning curve there, and hitching becomes very easy actually. It's once this, once you figure this out and you get it working well, the angles and all of that good stuff, it actually itches up much easier than the rest of them. So it kind of, it's a wash there.

It can be frustrating at first, but then after you figure it out, it's much easier than the rest. So it's kind of a wash there. The points I took away from it was the hitching part. That was a small part. And then also it does porpoise a little bit. You can see the performance numbers there. But let's talk about the cost. You know, I almost could have given this a zero to be honest with you, but technically you can purchase it. So maybe I should have gave it a. 5, and then we would have had a tie. That would have been crazy. But I didn't want to have a tie, and I think this hitch deserved to win.

I really do. As much as I love the Waste Safe, this Pro-Pride, the fact that it eliminates all sway, it just took it over the top. It really did. But the price is a one of 10, $3,600. You can buy three and a half of any of the other hitches over there in the garage right now for one of these. But the build is also a 10 of 10. So there's no expense spared. There's not one nut, bolt, pin, anything that I would replace with something better. All of the welds look great. I think they're all robotically welded now, so they're pretty much perfect. And yeah, I have nothing but great things to say about the build.

Now, the performance, you see it didn't score a perfect 20 on the performance, and that is because it porpoises a little bit. Not nearly as bad as the Blue Ox Sway Pro or the Blue Ox Track Pro, but yeah, it does porpoise a little bit. Some folks have asked me to adjust my jacks on that. Well, the thing is, my truck and trailer are sitting perfect right now, so I really don't want to adjust my weight distribution. The fact is, it just porpoises a little bit, and that's okay. Secondly, and again, the reason I took away from the performance is that hitching up. In the beginning, it was a huge pain, very frustrating.

I just thought to myself, there's no way this thing's gonna win the hitch battle when it's this hard to hitch up. But after several times, after a lot of practice, after you're listening to the forums and saying, hey, you just gotta practice, you gotta know what angles you need to hitch this thing up, it actually becomes much easier than the rest of the hitches. So it's kind of a wash there. I took away a point for it, but I did take away four points for it, which I probably would have in the beginning of ownership having this thing here. But yeah, I'm not gonna take you off the tripod for this one. The video right before this is all about the ProPride.

You can check that out. Go check that out if you want to see more on that. But yeah, the ProPride has won Hitch Battle 2021. All right, guys, so this is probably the most important part of this video. While I love competition and I love declaring a winner, the real goal of this video is for you guys to make a better decision on which hitch is for you. And there's three takeaways that I gather from comparing all of them. So you see all six hitches here, and there's three takeaways I wanna talk about. First of all, is the way safe within a half a point of the ProPride? And I say yes, absolutely.

I looked at these scores, I tried to digest them and make sure that I really felt this way towards all of these hitches. And yes, I do think that the way safe is within a half a point, but also think that the ProPride deserved to win even with its price tag. The second thing I take away is the Blue Ox Sway Pro really six points below the fifth place number and the fifth place hitch. And yes, I do think so. I'm just, I think for my style, for my, I guess my preferences, the Blue Ox Sway Pro, the chain type hitches just aren't for me.

And then finally, a third takeaway, does the equalizer and Kurt TrueTrack really tie? And they do in this one, I think the equalizer is a better hitch. Let me be very clear about that. It outperforms, as you can see, by the performance score. Is the performance that close? Yeah, it is. The Kurt does a really good job. The fact that it's made in China, the fact that it doesn't have the greatest warranty in the world, those are concerns as far as the build it goes. But the cost is really good. Again, it's the best bang for the buck. And while the equalizer is a better hitch, when you include the cost category, the Kurt certainly ties it.

But here's a good example of all of these next to each other. Is the ProPride only one and a half points higher than the Kurt? Considering the cost of the ProPride, yeah, it is. And also the same thing for the WaySafe. I mean, the price of the Kurt really helps its score. You can see the build and performance is lagging significantly behind the WaySafe and the ProPride, but we're getting those performance scores and that cost score really helps it. All right, friends, I'm quite certain you guys will have more questions when it comes to different aspects of any of these hitches. And I've actually came up with a specific email address for you guys to email those questions to.

You can comment in the comments below. I do end up missing a lot of those. But if you wanna make sure I answer your question, just email hitchbattle at gmail. com and I'll do my very best to answer any questions that you may have. Again, I know I've missed some stuff, but hopefully I can answer any further questions there. I'm gonna link all of these hitches in the description box below. So if you're wondering how much they weigh, et cetera, yeah, just check that out. And also you'll notice I didn't score the weight distribution aspects of these hitches. And that's because they all distribute weight. You can all adjust them to distribute as much or as little weight as you'd like.

So they would have all scored a 10 in that category. They all do a great job of that and they're all adjustable. So I wanted to put that in before we finished up. Anyway, I hope you guys have enjoyed this video. This has been a very interesting learning experience for me. I've enjoyed learning these hitches. They do all pull a little bit different. And so in the end, I think you're better off to have one than not have one at all. But yeah, hopefully this will help you make a decision on which one's right for you. I hope you guys enjoyed. Please share the video. It always helps. And as always consider subscribing. See ya. .

Wandering Weekends

HITCH BATTLE 2021 /// Testing 6 Different Weight Distribution/Anti-Sway Hitches for 100's of Miles

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