I have recently purchased an Andersen Hitch and done a trip from Brisbane to Adelaide and return. The "noiseless" hitch was quite noisy all the way to Adelaide - squeaks etc. Titan RV provided a new friction cone and some Boeing T9 lubricant. I used the lubricant but could not change the cone on the road.
On the way home, the hitch was good on day one but from then on made extremely loud grinding noises which were concerning and anyone within 100 metres would stop and look.
It seems that the real problem is with the type of cone material and Titan RV is working with me to sort out the issue.
I wasn't impressed with the "non sway" system but maybe I still have a lot to learn regarding adjustments.
We have had ours for 15 months and done 9000k with it. No problems, no noise, easy to use. However, I have read that others have encountered and resolved the noise issue.
Mullpad, Thanks for your reply. The noises were very loud and Titan have sent a new cone to try so hopefully the issues will be resolved. Titan believe I need to tighten up the system by about three threads to get the anti sway working.
In over 9500km there has been only 1 occasion when my Andersen was noisy - it had all the campers out that day looking to see what was causing the noise as I made a series of slow 90 degree turns navigating to my allocated camp spot. Quite embarrassing. Before leaving the camp the next day I placed 2 drops of CRC on the top of the cone. There has been silence every since. Have now travelled a further 1500+ km with no further CRC application. I am still on my 2nd cone - first cone (black) was replaced at about 4000km, it sort of de-laminated with bits stuck to both the towball taper and the tapered housing that needed to be carefully sanded off. The current cone is a white one and it looks like it will last quite a while yet. I have a spare cone ready.
I am sure the anti-sway must be working as there is no way that I can manually turn the towball within the housing - the taper grips way too strong. I only notice a brief minor sway when a large truck commences to overtake.
Mullpad, Thanks for your reply. The noises were very loud and Titan have sent a new cone to try so hopefully the issues will be resolved. Titan believe I need to tighten up the system by about three threads to get the anti sway working.
We have the Andersen version with the slightly smaller red urethane spring and our best performance is three and a half threads from the hand tightening position. We could not do any more than one more thread. I expect that the Titan advice is because you have the longer red urethane spring which has more compression capacity.
With regard to sway and not being an engineer I expect that the tighter the chains the more it pulls the ball into the cone and thus the harder it is for the triangle plate to shift left or right (ie sway). Countering that however, the tighter the chains the higher the van's drawbar will lift and less downward pressure (towball weight) on the ball and thus the cone.
Thanks for the info. I used the T9 lubricant as supplied by Titan (6 drops around the tow ball) and all worked well for one day and then the horrible noises started on the second day.
Obviously the Ubeaut Titan supplied product didn't work too well. I have received another cone from Titan and they claim I don't have to use the lubricant with the new cone. I think I will get some CRC to have on board as I don't want the noises ever again.
I don't know what life a cone should give but they are too hard to change on the road.
I am still working with them to solve the issues but won't be using the van for the next few months.
