# Husky Centerline Broken Discs.



## Jim P

My new Husky Centerline hitch has just failed on me. The two discs that mount between the sway springs and the bar mounts both broke into pieces, on the road. No problem getting the parts replaced at a dealer who was local to the camp ground, at no cost. He was very helpful and sent me to a local garage to have them use the air gun to transfer over the new head. The dealer even took the broken head assembly, and told me that he would look after sending it back to Husky. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had the same problem, and if so was it corrected as easily. One thing that concern me is that when I phoned our dealer on Friday evening, I didn't even get it all out of my mouth, and he finished my sentence, asking if the discs had broken. he told me that he has sold four Centerlines so far this year and this is the second that has failed that he is aware of, the other poor guy's broke in Georgia, no that big a deal unless your from Southern Ontario...

I'm wondering if this is a known problem with a flaw in the steel, and if so, if Husky will do a recall on the hitches.

I'm not looking to throw darts, because the local dealer fixed me up real fast under warrantee. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had the same problem. Luckily we were on a short weekend trip (1-2 hours travel time), but I wouldn't want to loose all sway control on a longer trip, especially with a bad cross wind.

Thanks

Jim


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## Nathan

Hmm, not sure about that particular hitch, but many of them are a special Iron referred to as ADI (Austempered Ductile Iron). It is a high grade iron that gets special heat treatment to improve the microstructure. If it is this, I'm wondering if they had a bad batch....


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## Carey

Most hitch heads are cast, I would bet they would have to have heat treatment. Let us know what you hear back.

Carey


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## Jim P

Colorado~DirtBikers said:


> Most hitch heads are cast, I would bet they would have to have heat treatment. Let us know what you hear back.
> 
> Carey


The actual head assembly is real solid, I think it would take an atom bomb to dent it. These two discs slide into the head and provide wear points for the sway arms, and a means of shimming up the sway. It almost looks like the "weakest link" in the whole unit. I'm hoping there was simply a bad batch.

Jim


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## CamperAndy

There is a lot of experience on this web site and I am not sure we know exactly what part you are referring to. Can you post pictures of the failed part?


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## Bull Island Dave

I just left the local RV dealer today where the sales staff were discussing a fix for the Centerline Hitch defect. They said that they had just received a shipment of parts to fix them. Must be a known defect. Had something to do with the parts not being tempered correctly as I recall.


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## Jim P

CamperAndy said:


> There is a lot of experience on this web site and I am not sure we know exactly what part you are referring to. Can you post pictures of the failed part?


Here are a few pictures of the hitch. The last one shows the new disc beside the one that broke (that's all that was left of both discs).


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## Nathan

Thanks for the pictures. That's an interesting hitch design.


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## Jim P

Nathan said:


> Thanks for the pictures. That's an interesting hitch design.


The hitch is a unique design. It works well. I hope this problem is only an isolated incident.


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## SoSF_Jim

I have a Husky Centerline hitch towing an Outback 210RS 2011 Model. I will check with my dealer about defects in the pressure plate that broke on your hitch.

I pulled a tent trailer for 20 years behind a Suburban. If there was sway, I didn't notice.
This trailer is 8 feet wide and three times the weight or more. I was paranoid of driving it and the blogs talked about sway and white knuckle driving. I concluded from the blogs that the Equalizer was a good answer and I was about to buy one when I heard about the Husky Centerline. I liked the idea of forcing the trailer to stay centered rather than reacting to sway by damping it. Well, I have had the trailer on the road about 5 times. I've been passed by large trucks, driven on windy roads and in cross winds. Guess what? NO SWAY and NO WHITE KNUCKLE DRIVING. Just they way I wanted it.

I do have a SAFETY WARNING for anyone who gets this hitch.

When you remove the spring bars, make sure the tow vehicle and trailer are reasonably straight. If not, the stored energy in the trunnion springs will swing the spring bar out very fast and far enough to hit you if you stand in the wrong place. I don't believe any other anti-sway weight distributing hitch will do this. The manual tells you where to stand but my truck was at an angle because of the tight placement of the trailer in my driveway. When I used the provided wrench to lift the spring bars off, the bar swung out about 18 inches very fast. It startled me. It would have broken my leg easily if I was standing one foot closer. I plan to always straighten the tow vehicle and the trailer or take the springs bars off before I back in a tight place.

FYI. Payed $650 + tax for it from a local dealer in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Husky Centerline Web Site URL http://www.huskytow.com/FTP/HuskyFeaturedProducts/HuskyCenterLine/Featured_CenterLineHitch_hv.html


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## Carey

It looks like the washers dont hurt the integrity of the hitch. Cool design. Hopefully they will get it right.

Carey


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## fltdoc

Does anyone have any information on how this turned out? I just bought one of these hitches last week, and one of the pressure plates broke before I arrived home (about 15 miles). My dealer replaced it, and I left to camp that evening. When I arrived at the campsite (about 20 miles) the other side was broken. I e-mailed Husky, and have no reply as of this posting. Any info would be appreciated!!


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## hitchguy

fltdoc said:


> Does anyone have any information on how this turned out? I just bought one of these hitches last week, and one of the pressure plates broke before I arrived home (about 15 miles). My dealer replaced it, and I left to camp that evening. When I arrived at the campsite (about 20 miles) the other side was broken. I e-mailed Husky, and have no reply as of this posting. Any info would be appreciated!!


Did the dealer replace your plates with plates from another Centerline unit? Or were these plates installed to resolve the issue (like a service or replacement kit)?


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## CamperAndy

With all the breakage these new hitches sound a bit fragile.


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## Jim P

fltdoc said:


> Does anyone have any information on how this turned out? I just bought one of these hitches last week, and one of the pressure plates broke before I arrived home (about 15 miles). My dealer replaced it, and I left to camp that evening. When I arrived at the campsite (about 20 miles) the other side was broken. I e-mailed Husky, and have no reply as of this posting. Any info would be appreciated!!


Luckily another dealer replaced the whole head which included the pressure discs. A little disappointed in Husky. Our dealer called and left a message on our phone saying that Husky would be getting in touch to arrange a repair. As of yet I haven't heard from Husky, and the dealer left the message about three or four weeks ago. The dealer who replaced the part simply gave me another head from another box, it was not parts sent to the dealer to deal with a defect. I have used the hitch for two trips since the failure without incident. 
The hitch does work great, keeps the trailer as straight as an arrow, with no affect from passing trucks.

Jim


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## fltdoc

Hitchguy, The dealer just replaced it with a part from another hitch. That side held up, and the other side broke that same day. Like Jim I'm still waiting for a reply from Husky.


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## hitchguy

fltdoc said:


> Hitchguy, The dealer just replaced it with a part from another hitch. That side held up, and the other side broke that same day. Like Jim I'm still waiting for a reply from Husky.


Got it. Thanks. I am waiting to see what happens to the plates when they are replaced with some kind of service kit from Husky. Will those fail too, or will it solve the problem for good?


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## fltdoc

Hitchguy, Just recieved a call from my dealer, and Husky has sent them a new improved replacement head for my hitch. he told me that the pressure plates are beefed up in the new model. I pick it up this Friday, and were heading out to camp next week. I'll post the results when I get back.


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## jjr

Wow. This has happened to me twice with two different heads. The dealer replaced the first one with out question and now after my second short trip with the new one it happened again. Not really looking forward to my long trip!

James


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## fltdoc

Well my latest new head didn't go 20 miles without another pressure plate breaking. The Husky rep called me (after the camper dealer called him) and overnighted another new head to my camper dealer. He said that they had a prodution run of brittle metal, but all is well now. I managed to pull my camper about 20 miles without it breaking (and yes that is a record). Time will tell if I was lucky or if the problems fixed. Please post any similar experiences with repairs. Thanks!!


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## Jeffery

Have the new heads been holding up? I was also considering buying one of these untils I read this forum. I am also located in southern Ontario so I am wondering whay Jim P paid for his and where he purchased it???

Thanks in advance.

Jeff


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## Jim P

Jeffery said:


> Have the new heads been holding up? I was also considering buying one of these untils I read this forum. I am also located in southern Ontario so I am wondering whay Jim P paid for his and where he purchased it???
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Jeff


I'm on my third set of pressure discs and trunions. They seem to be holding up. It turned out that the dealer forgot to tell us about greasing the pressure discs and pins. I still don't know if I'm completely sold on that set up. I'm in Florida after a 24 hour trip from the Toronto area. The unit doesn't seem to be swaying but every once and a while it seems to kind of drift. If I didn't have so much money invested I would try something else. It was funny when I called the manufacturer about the problems they said that they were embarrassed that they forgot to call me. When I told the girl that I had heard that there were a few problems with this hitch, she asked me where I had heard that from. I told her that I read it on the net.


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## Rip

Get a Pro Pride and be done with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://www.propridehitch.com/


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## Old camping guy

Jim P said:


> My new Husky Centerline hitch has just failed on me. The two discs that mount between the sway springs and the bar mounts both broke into pieces, on the road. No problem getting the parts replaced at a dealer who was local to the camp ground, at no cost. He was very helpful and sent me to a local garage to have them use the air gun to transfer over the new head. The dealer even took the broken head assembly, and told me that he would look after sending it back to Husky. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had the same problem, and if so was it corrected as easily. One thing that concern me is that when I phoned our dealer on Friday evening, I didn't even get it all out of my mouth, and he finished my sentence, asking if the discs had broken. he told me that he has sold four Centerlines so far this year and this is the second that has failed that he is aware of, the other poor guy's broke in Georgia, no that big a deal unless your from Southern Ontario...
> 
> I'm wondering if this is a known problem with a flaw in the steel, and if so, if Husky will do a recall on the hitches.
> 
> I'm not looking to throw darts, because the local dealer fixed me up real fast under warrantee. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had the same problem. Luckily we were on a short weekend trip (1-2 hours travel time), but I wouldn't want to loose all sway control on a longer trip, especially with a bad cross wind.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Jim


I just returned from 1st trip with new jayco lite 17 ft trailer I towed with Toyota hylander and newly installed Husky Centerline hitch . The noise that thing makes is horrible and loud let alone trying to load the BARS . You can have this whole system it’s a large pain in my ass .
It works but at what price to hook up . I finally found a way to take pressure off bars (on UTUBE) I’m no spring chicken . I’ll try it again when my dings and cuts heal from this last attempt


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