Evolution of the Perfect Hitch

Hensley Mfg. has now been in existence for 15 years. That's quite an accomplishment for any company, especially one tied to the RV industry. We have tens of thousands of loyal customers, and they often ask how all this got started. After all, it's an unusual design and it must have caused quite a stir when first introduced.

It did.

The original idea for the Arrow came from a man named Jim Hensley. Jim is a self-taught inventor who understood a basic physics concept called a 4-bar linkage system. Think of a trapezoid with all 4 points in motion. Lock down two of the points, and you can control the motion. That's a simple explanation. If you want to hear the whole thing, call me and I'll be happy to bore you into a coma.

Jim built a few hitches based on his idea, but had problems with the design, not to mention the marketing. One day a friend introduced him to Colin Connell, a man who had just bought a 24' Starcraft and was terrified by the way the trailer fishtailed behind his Lincoln Towncar. Colin tried Mr. Hensley's hitch, knew right away it was a brilliant idea, and purchassed the manufacturing rights.

You see, Colin wasn't just a guy with a trailer. He was an entrepreneur and a man who had spent most of his life in the machine tool industry in Michigan. He knew the hitch was pretty good, but he also knew, with the right people, he could make it better. After finding investors, some of who happened to be engineers, he completely re-designed the Hensley hitch, named it the Arrow, and set about producing and marketing the safest hitch in towing history.

Since then, Hensley Mfg. has considered different designs. The most notable was a yoke system, where the hitch is held in place by a single member attached under the center of the A-frame. That was ten years ago. It seemed like a good idea, but produced more problems than it solved. In fact, even if it had worked, we realized that all we did was change the mounting location. Big deal. There was no improvement in performance. See? Even in a successful company, there are moments when you realize you spent a lot of time on something that really wouldn't have improved the product or reduced the cost. So much for the yoke system.

We also tried an adjustable hitch bar. Which worked great (all 50lbs. of it) until the safety chains caught on the extra length and just about destroyed the hitch. The solid hitch with the free exchange program is still the best way to go.

We've tried reducing the weight, which was partially successful in that we came up with a lighter hitch (the Cub) for smaller trailers, but we found that the big trailers still needed a lot of steel to meet our durability standards.

We've even considered electric spring bar jacks. But it would be cheaper to sell a cordless drill with each hitch with a socket driver to raise and lower the jacks.

Okay, I've talked enough. I love this company and the people I get to meet, so I spend a bit too much time talking about it. And, of course, I have a trailer and an Arrow on the front. I wouldn't have it any other way.