Andersen Ultimate 3200 last check before purchase

[Garypowell]

Looking to purchase the Andersen Ultimate 3200 Rail Mount and want to double check my math and have some general questions:

1. According to instructions in my 3500 short bed I put the short end of the Anderson towards the rear. Doing the math this puts the center line of the where the ball hooks into the 3200 a little more than 4.5" to the rear of where my old center line was (with my Curt Hitch). The rails are installed so they are 2" in front of the rear axle of the truck.

2. The adapter for the king pin has an offset of about 4" and if I attach this with the ball hole towards the rear this effectively moves my trailer forward that 4". Which means, give or take, my 5th wheel is pivoting about 1.5" in front of my axle.

My two questions:

1. Is my math correct above and I don't think I have to be concerned about losing 1/2".....but just curious?

2. I also have a standard (non pivoting) 5th Airborne pin box. Anyone use this with their Andersen 3200 rail version and how does it work.

I ask that second question because one of the promotions of this hitch is less bucking......well that might be true for the turnover ball version but there is probably going to be some slack in the connection to the rails on mine.....so I am just curious how that works out in practice....i.e. did you see less bucking with your new Anderson 3200?

Thanks!

 

[Garypowell]

Re: Andersen Ultimate 3200 last check before purchase UPDATE

It was interesting that no one replied to my question. But then again I usually write fairly narrow questions....and so I guess there are not many "rail users" out there. So I'll answer my own question and bring up one concern that showed up.

First, the hitch arrived on Monday.....a thing of beauty. Quickly got it out of the box and found out it would fit my rails. I put them in to fit my Curt...and knew the Anderson should fit but needed to see for myself.

There is absolutely no play at the rear rails. The front rails I can lift the hitch up slightly. I tried using one of the "hitch pads" that I bought for the Curt to keep it from rattling and think they will work once I put the weight of the trailer on the hitch. The Curt tore a set up each trip......it will be interesting to see what happens with the Andersen as it has a much smoother finish.

The answer to my first posted question is that by mounting the hitch with the short side towards the rear (as they recommend) and then placing the pin adapter so the ball hole is towards the rear of the rig....the whole assembly puts the pin just about exactly where it was with my Curt....which is like 2" in front of the rear axle.....which is right where it should be.

The 5th wheel pin adapter was my biggest surprise. You can see in the picture below it now has this large red neoprene collar. Really nifty and much nicer than the steel cup of the previous version.

I had also decided to buy a set of chains for this new set up. I really don't think I need them but got to thinking if I ever got stopped or if in an accident an insurance company could use that fact to get out of paying for the damage.....so it was fairly cheap insurance.

the Andersen chains showed up on Tuesday. But as I laid things out.....I determined (see picture) that the new eye bolt was not long enough to go through the collar....bummer.

I called Etrailer this morning and sent the picture. I was really surprised they called back this afternoon and said, "Sorry this is Andersen's fault and we can't help you with it". Now Etrailer has always been a very customer proactive in my opinion. So out of 15 purchases they blew it once. I realize this is an Andersen snafu but I bought the stuff from Etrailer and I think they should have carried the water to solve the problem.

So I called Andersen and as in my prebuy questions they were terrific. I was told they decided to use the same part number for the new chain bolt system and just let the old too short bolts just flush through the system. So they are shipping a new set to me today. Anderson should have foreseen this problem and worked with their distribution on a change that made an optional part not work.....not just let it flush through the system. But again in the scheme of things not a big deal.

So if you are buying a Andersen hitch right now.....and a set of chains you might want to question whoever you are buying them from to see if you are getting a new or old eye bolt.

I am delayed a few days in putting it all together.....but not leaving until February....so there is time.