Andersen WD Hitch Periodic Maintenance?

[CRM]

42 minutes ago, Geronimo John said:

 

Adding grease to the ball is exactly what the vast majority of hitch MFG's suggest.... to reduce wear

 

 

Anderson isn't one of them. For their WDH they say not to grease the ball or coupler.

 

[jd1923]

30 minutes ago, Geronimo John said:

I seem to recall that such parts from Anderson were being provided to OTT owners at no cost. Am I dreaming again? GJ

I think that was back in the @John E Davies days, many years ago!

I just purchased the 2 5/16" ball and friction cone. It is the friction cone ONLY that has a lifetime warranty but you must pay shipping ($18 part and $13.50 for shipping)! 🤣

My total was $90 just purchased this month.

[Geronimo John]

On 5/16/2025 at 11:13 AM, jd1923 said:

It is the friction cone ONLY that has a lifetime warranty but you must pay shipping ($18 part and $13.50 for shipping)

$94 at Tweety's.  A bit more expensive than free.  Drats. 

Thanks for the heads up.  At that cost it will be worth an inspection of the ball and it's shaft.  If the shaft is good,  Get the free cone for cost of shipping and install the ball 180 degrees from OEM and wear out the other side of the ball.

Another reason to lube the ball... get longer life out of the new looking front side!  Sorry CRM I could not help myself on that one!  🙂

GJ

 

 

Edited May 18 by Geronimo John

[Galileo]

I had to replace the ball/shaft and the body.  I waited too long and the friction material wore enough that there was some metal-to-metal contact that galled the aluminum body. The friction material was worn completely through at the lower, aft end of the ball shaft. I was able to smooth it out a bit, but felt more comfortable replacing both metal parts along with the friction material. 

Probably why I was asking about “preventative maintenance”. Apparently three years exceeds the service life of the friction material. It would be nice if the Andersen folks were a little more forthcoming about service lives, actual PM schedules, and other specifics. 

I guess I have nothing to complain about. We’re pretty much “full-timers” 8-9 months of the year and put almost 80,000 miles on the TV over those three years. 

I purchased (another) friction cone and snap ring and I’ll just make it a practice to check/replace it every season. Perhaps rotating it 180 degrees if it looks good. 

Again - I’m pretty OCD about parts that create ugly scenes should they fail. I had actually considered replacing the Bulldog couple and the hitch ball every couple of seasons just to be as safe as possible. (Pilot mentality) I don’t want to test that old rule of thumb about crossed safety chains “catching” the trailer tongue should a hitch component fail.

I also had to dig out my old BIG snap ring pliers as the cheapo Ace hardware ones don’t have the oomph to get the big snap ring off and on. It’s been added to my “trailering” bin.

[rich.dev]

19 minutes ago, Galileo said:

I purchased (another) friction cone and snap ring and I’ll just make it a practice to check/replace it every season. Perhaps rotating it 180 degrees if it looks good.

The friction cone is covered under warranty, but shipping cost to Canada is $53.46 so I’m looking at buying one locally. Apparently (per Anderson) there’s an old style and a new style Anderson WDH cone, the correct friction cone for my 2023 WDH is blue and looks like the one in the image I have put below. The white friction cone is for the old system, which one did you get? 

 

[topgun2]

1 hour ago, rich.dev said:

Apparently (per Anderson) there’s an old style and a new style Anderson WDH cone, the correct friction cone for my 2023 WDH is blue and looks like the one in the image I have put below. The white friction cone is for the old system, which one did you get? 

For what its worth - there is also a "red" friction cone.

Bill

[ScottyGS]

On 5/16/2025 at 5:13 PM, jd1923 said:

I think that was back in the @John E Davies days, many years ago!

 

Anderson did replace my WDH that came with my trailer in 2016.  The issue was water getting into the cone and destroying it.  Made one helluva racket too.   The replacement came with a ring fastened to the top that kept water out.  I think those days are gone. 

[Galileo]

14 hours ago, topgun2 said:

For what its worth - there is also a "red" friction cone.

Bill

I’ve ordered two friction cones directly from Andersen.  The latest ones supplied  are red, but they’ve shipped me a light blue one previously. They’ve changed the material at least once. Why? Dunno.

[Galileo]

16 hours ago, rich.dev said:

The friction cone is covered under warranty, but shipping cost to Canada is $53.46 so I’m looking at buying one locally. Apparently (per Anderson) there’s an old style and a new style Anderson WDH cone, the correct friction cone for my 2023 WDH is blue and looks like the one in the image I have put below. The white friction cone is for the old system, which one did you get? 

 

Seems like an unlikely part to be covered under warranty - unless it fails prematurely. Surely it’s a “consumable” part - like a brake lining. 

At any rate, I didn’t know it would have been covered under warranty and wouldn’t expect it to be, so I bought one soon after we purchased the trailer to keep as a spare. For that matter, I also bought two of the elastomer bushings, extra tensioning nuts Acme threads) and washers since I figured these are all parts that will wear (a lot of force, friction, and dirt). That said, my original ones are still there and looking much better than I’d expect. Then again, I’ve used “NeverSeize” on the threads and thrust surfaces of the washers and nuts since early on. It really reduces the torque need to load the WD system. It also hasn’t seemed to make the nuts loosen or back off. (Blushing: I also bought spare chains with the treaded studs as I figured they would wear as the nuts would….)

Anyway, I found very little service or maintenance information available in either the Andersen hitch instructions or online. So I did the “belt and suspenders” approach to having spares in hand.

[jd1923]

26 minutes ago, Galileo said:

I’ve ordered two friction cones directly from Andersen.  The latest ones supplied  are red, but they’ve shipped me a light blue one previously. They’ve changed the material at least once. Why? Dunno.

We had a blue friction cone and the replacement they sent just a month ago was also blue. From the Andersen website: "Replacement cones may vary in color, but it does not affect the cone's performance."

Our original blue cone (10 years old?) was almost as thick as the new one, not nearly needing replacing. I did replace it though, since I had purchased a new ball to upgrade to 2 5/16" and the old cone had horizontal wear marks from turning. I wanted a new friction cone on the new ball which is the right way do do it. Yes, funny the warrantied is the wear-out maintenance item. Free $18 part for the $13.50 CONUS shipping.

Feels more secure with new Bulldog and Andersen parts, over-engineered to 12.5K LBS GTWR. One thing I learned in this maintenance is never use the Andersen hitch without attaching the chains. Without the anti-sway plate bolted below only the snap ring would be holding the tapered ball from coming up and out hence decoupling the trailer.

[Galileo]

5 minutes ago, jd1923 said:

Our original blue cone (10 years old?) was almost as thick as the new one, not nearly needing replacing.

Seems odd that after three years, my friction material was toast (literally) and yours showed little wear after ten. Perhaps I’m cranking on the chains too much?

The instructions are kinda vague - elastomers should show a “bulge” - which, being strictly visual, is subjective. 

I generally find that trying to get as many threads showing as they suggest after the hand tightening of the nuts seems like it takes quite a bit of force. But, to do any meaningful “weight distribution” it would seem like a high amount of force -would- be required.

The only time I’ve heard any noise or seen any significant wear on the (old) ball is if I don’t make the chains tight -enough- allowing some play in the system. 

The experiment continues!

[jd1923]

3 minutes ago, Galileo said:

Seems odd that after three years, my friction material was toast (literally) and yours showed little wear after ten. Perhaps I’m cranking on the chains too much?

The instructions are kinda vague - elastomers should show a “bulge” - which, being strictly visual, is subjective. 

I generally find that trying to get as many threads showing as they suggest after the hand tightening of the nuts seems like it takes quite a bit of force. But, to do any meaningful “weight distribution” it would seem like a high amount of force -would- be required.

The only time I’ve heard any noise or seen any significant wear on the (old) ball is if I don’t make the chains tight -enough- allowing some play in the system. 

The experiment continues!

The chains should be taught, not loose, not overtight, easy to say, right?

After coupling but before tightening the chains, check the sitting angle of your tow vehicle. At this point mine looks about 2" low in the rear and I can see an opening in the front wheel wells also about 2" greater than normal (as compared to when not towing). I usually get about 6 threads on each side when tight. At this point, I see the rear has raised 2", the front wheel gap has gone down. The tow vehicle now looks level and it performs well set at this point.

I use a 1/2" ratchet 10" long with the Andersen supplied socket and it never gets so tight that I cannot one-hand the ratchet. But then I am a big guy with "tool hands" from years of wrenching.

[CRM]

1 hour ago, Galileo said:

I generally find that trying to get as many threads showing as they suggest after the hand tightening of the nuts seems like it takes quite a bit of force. But, to do any meaningful “weight distribution” it would seem like a high amount of force -would- be required.

The only time I’ve heard any noise or seen any significant wear on the (old) ball is if I don’t make the chains tight -enough- allowing some play in the system. 

The experiment continues!

I've found the easiest way to get the adjustment "just right" is to couple to the TV and then use the front jack to jack the back of the TV up about 2" . I then snug up the chains just enough to take the slack out of them before lowering the jack back down which then adds the needed tension to the chains and keeps the TV sitting level. Seems to work out perfectly every time and there's no tightening force applied to the nut and threads. 

Edit: This method works great in reverse, too. Just jack up little higher than when you first attached and the whale tail will fall right off after pulling the pin. 

Edited June 3 by CRM

[Galileo]

3 hours ago, CRM said:

I've found the easiest way to get the adjustment "just right" is to couple to the TV and then use the front jack to jack the back of the TV up about 2" . I then snug up the chains just enough to take the slack out of them before lowering the jack back down which then adds the needed tension to the chains and keeps the TV sitting level. Seems to work out perfectly every time and there's no tightening force applied to the nut and threads. 

Edit: This method works great in reverse, too. Just jack up little higher than when you first attached and the whale tail will fall right off after pulling the pin. 

Is that raise the TV up 2” from its normal, un-hitched ride height, or up 2” after lowering the trailer into the hitch with no tension on the chains?

Either way sounds like it will give you minimal WD from the chains.

I guess it depends upon how stiff your suspension is. Our previous TV seemed to have a stiffer suspension, and it would depress less than our new TV seems to. So I find myself going tighter on the chains than I did previously to maintain a level TV.

As touchy-feely as they are, I try to follow the Andersen instructions as written (both from their site and as reprinted in the OTT manual) and I seem to get the indications right. 

We switched to a “higher” truck around the first of the year, so the hood pretty much always seems “high” these days - and this seems to be the lowest-slung Sierra GMC builds unless you do some aftermarket stuff to lower it.  This truck (supposedly) also has some “active suspension”, but I don’t know what real effect that has or if it’s even active when a trailer is attached. (And it -knows- when a trailer is attached!)

[CRM]

3 minutes ago, Galileo said:

Is that raise the TV up 2” from its normal, un-hitched ride height, or up 2” after lowering the trailer into the hitch with no tension on the chains?

Either way sounds like it will give you minimal WD from the chains.

I guess it depends upon how stiff your suspension is. Our previous TV seemed to have a stiffer suspension, and it would depress less than our new TV seems to. So I find myself going tighter on the chains than I did previously to maintain a level TV.

As touchy-feely as they are, I try to follow the Andersen instructions as written (both from their site and as reprinted in the OTT manual) and I seem to get the indications right. 

We switched to a “higher” truck around the first of the year, so the hood pretty much always seems “high” these days - and this seems to be the lowest-slung Sierra GMC builds unless you do some aftermarket stuff to lower it.  This truck (supposedly) also has some “active suspension”, but I don’t know what real effect that has or if it’s even active when a trailer is attached. (And it -knows- when a trailer is attached!)

Yes, 2" up from unhitched height. Once chains are snug at this height you should get plenty of tension when you lower the jack. If your TV isn't sitting level when you're done you might have to repeat the procedure by jacking a little higher before snugging the chains. So far I've used the 2" height on two separate vehicles and it worked perfectly for each.

[jd1923]

3 hours ago, Galileo said:

We switched to a “higher” truck around the first of the year, so the hood pretty much always seems “high”

Measure from bottom of each fender to center of wheel (or to the ground) on all 4 wheels. They should be the same left to right, but often the rear height is greater than the fronts in a truck that is weight balanced.

Hitch your Oliver and take the same measurements. The numbers will usually be lower on the rears and taller up front.

Tighten the Andersen chains until you have the same numbers measured when the truck was unhitched. The only way this method is not accurate would be from a worn suspension or being over capacity in the truck bed. Once you get it right, count the number of threads and go for this number. Also, it does not matter if left to right you are off a thread or two. The hitch will adjust to make chain pressure equal on both sides.

If you look very closely at these pics, the first one is tongue weight loaded, about 2" or so drop in the rear of the truck. The second pic shows truck and trailer in a perfect level line after tightening the Andersen WDH! 😂

Edited June 3 by jd1923

[ScottyGS]

21 hours ago, CRM said:

I've found the easiest way to get the adjustment "just right" is to couple to the TV and then use the front jack to jack the back of the TV up about 2" . I then snug up the chains just enough to take the slack out of them before lowering the jack back down which then adds the needed tension to the chains and keeps the TV sitting level. Seems to work out perfectly every time and there's no tightening force applied to the nut and threads. 

 

I did this for years when I had an F150....  Over time I noticed that the receiver developed what I thought was an excessive amount of play.  So much that I started to get a clunk sound every now and then when stopping.   Now I have a new TV and generally just use a ratchet to tighten the chains.   I think the 2" method would be better and am tempted to try again...   Has anyone else experienced the receiver developing excess play? 

TIY,

Scotty   

[CRM]

12 hours ago, ScottyGS said:

I did this for years when I had an F150....  Over time I noticed that the receiver developed what I thought was an excessive amount of play.  So much that I started to get a clunk sound every now and then when stopping.   Now I have a new TV and generally just use a ratchet to tighten the chains.   I think the 2" method would be better and am tempted to try again...   Has anyone else experienced the receiver developing excess play? 

TIY,

Scotty   

I was getting clunking even before I started using the front jack to raise the TV. One of these fixed it right up. Rhino USA Hitch Tightener

[jd1923]

12 hours ago, ScottyGS said:

Has anyone else experienced the receiver developing excess play?

The only way this occurs if your Andersen chains are loose! When tight enough the ball of the hitch is pushed forward to the point of being tight.

We get absolutely NO noise from the hitch at all when the Andersen is dialed in to the right tension. When coupled and adjusted. Push your foot down on both chains. They should flex a little and nothing else.

We took our flatbed trailer out a few weeks ago. Simple hitch, no WDH. I opened the windows thinking, what os all that noise back there?

[CRM]

52 minutes ago, jd1923 said:

The only way this occurs if your Andersen chains are loose! When tight enough the ball of the hitch is pushed forward to the point of being tight.

We get absolutely NO noise from the hitch at all when the Andersen is dialed in to the right tension. When coupled and adjusted. Push your foot down on both chains. They should flex a little and nothing else.

We took our flatbed trailer out a few weeks ago. Simple hitch, no WDH. I opened the windows thinking, what os all that noise back there?

Without the hitch tightener I had some clunking even with the chains fully loaded. Only happened over humps in the road and during start/stops, but it was there. 

Edit: Thinking about it.. isn't there really only upward force on the Anderson hitch inside the receiver of the the TV when the chains are tight? With a sloppy fit you could still get movement at times.

Edited June 5 by CRM

[Galileo]

2 hours ago, CRM said:

Thinking about it.. isn't there really only upward force on the Anderson hitch inside the receiver of the the TV when the chains are tight? With a sloppy fit you could still get movement at times.

If I’m picturing it correctly, you’d have upward force at the aft end of the receiver, and downward force at the forward end of the “ball carrier” (ball mount) well inside the receiver. It’s more of a “torque” than just an upward force. The WD hitch “lifts” the back of the vehicle as its trying to force the front of the vehicle down. That’s quite a bit of force and I would think that between those contact points - and the pin holding those two parts together - it would immobilize movement in all but the sloppiest fits between receiver and ball carrier. I guess if you’re going over some horrendous bumps it could unload that assembly enough to move - but I think all the other noises you’d hear (stuff flying around your truck cab, passengers screaming, etc) you’d hardly notice noise from your hitch. 

[CRM]

1 minute ago, Galileo said:

If I’m picturing it correctly, you’d have upward force at the aft end of the receiver, and downward force at the forward end of the “ball carrier” (ball mount) well inside the receiver. It’s more of a “torque” than just an upward force. The WD hitch “lifts” the back of the vehicle as its trying to force the front of the vehicle down. That’s quite a bit of force and I would think that between those contact points - and the pin holding those two parts together - it would immobilize movement in all but the sloppiest fits between receiver and ball carrier. I guess if you’re going over some horrendous bumps it could unload that assembly enough to move - but I think all the other noises you’d hear (stuff flying around your truck cab, passengers screaming, etc) you’d hardly notice noise from your hitch. 

Fully understand what you're saying, but it did happen for me before the hitch tightener, and my chains are always tight enough to stand on with little rto no movement and it doesn't happen now. Maybe it was side to side movement inside the receiver? 

[Galileo]

9 hours ago, CRM said:

Fully understand what you're saying, but it did happen for me before the hitch tightener, and my chains are always tight enough to stand on with little rto no movement and it doesn't happen now. Maybe it was side to side movement inside the receiver? 

Could be. The forces I’m talking about would - I imagine - prevent much up-and-down movement, but might only make side-to-side movement a little less easy to make because of the greatly increased friction between the ball carrier and receiver.

I would also guess that it has a lot to do with how much play or “slop” there is between the receiver and ball mount/carrier. With an older truck/receiver that’s seen a lot of towing - likely with non WD hitches that would move around more and create wear - I guess that clearance could open up. 

Though it’s really kinda hard to tell with a newer, well-insulated truck like our 2025 Sierra Denali (even with the radio off) the only sound I’ve ever heard from the hitch is an occasional, one-time “clunk” as the freshly tensioned WD system “settles in” when I first move the TV/RV combination. Like the ball and coupler figure out “OK - here’s where I’m gonna be for the next 300 miles. Carry on!”

Once - before I had figured out how tight to make those Andersen WD chains, I would get a clunk when braking to a hard stop. That hasn’t happened since I ate my Wheaties and got those chains tight.

If anything, I with there was a way to adjust the “pitch” of the Andersen WD assembly. Looking at it when coupled and adjusted, it seems the whale tail is higher at the rear edge than the front. But, lacking such a pitch adjustment, the only way to change that would be to lower the rear of the receiver - or the whole rear of the truck. Next time I hitch it up I’ll take a picture and post it to see if others see the same thing.

[CRM]

36 minutes ago, Galileo said:

I would also guess that it has a lot to do with how much play or “slop” there is between the receiver and ball mount/carrier. With an older truck/receiver that’s seen a lot of towing - likely with non WD hitches that would move around more and create wear - I guess that clearance could open up. 

 

Here's the slop I'm dealing with...

 

[jd1923]

13 minutes ago, CRM said:

Here's the slop I'm dealing with...

That's certainly excessive! That doesn't look like our Andersen hitch which has a long 2" square shaft that can be bolted in one of two positions. The angle of movement shown in this movie clip would not be possible in ours. I always push ours in deep and use the second bolt hole. It has minimal movement in any direction.

Also notice, your trailer hitch receiver is a very light class. Compare to my picture where the receiver has 2 layers of 1/4" steel welded. I do not believe I would tow with what you have shown in your movie clip!