BarneyS
S.E. Lower Michigan
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Since my Hensley hitch is about 5 or 6 years old and was really starting to get "long in the tooth" looking, I decided to re-paint it this summer. Hensley is not known for their good paint jobs and mine was starting to chip and rust quite badly. I decided to not use the original orange "steal me" paint and went with basic black instead.
The job was not hard at all. The Hensley is a very simple hitch to work on if you know how to take a wheel bearing assembly apart. Here is the process that I went through to get my Hensley looking as good as new. Hope it helps someone a bit.
First, the hardest part of the job is removing the dust/dirt caps on the bearings. Mine fit VERY tightly and I used a large screwdriver and hammer to gently tap them off with the screwdriver tip wedged under the lip of the cap. As my old caps were quite ugly looking, I purchased new ones to replace them. Found out that was not necessary as the old ones cleaned very nicely.
Here is the hitch, after dis-assembly. Notice the numerous rust spots and places where the paint had come loose or flaked off.
Here are the bearing assemblies after removal and placed so I could re-assemble them in the same place they came from. I'm not sure if that is absolutely necessary in this case but didn't want to take the chance.
Following the dis-assembly, I sent the two main parts of the hitch out to be sandblasted. I tried scraping but it would have taken me all summer and the local sand blaster only charged me $30 to do both pieces. He had them done in about an hour where it would have taken me a week or longer to get them clean.
Here are the parts after being sandblasted and ready to get a coat of primer.
Next, I masked off the openings where the bearings go and painted the top and bottom hitch assemblies with DupliColor engine paint. Not sure why I used that particular paint but hope it holds up for a while. I kind of wish I knew a good powder coat guy but don't.
Put primer on and then several coats of paint on and then let it dry for about a week before I took the parts down. I decided to use black paint as mentioned earlier as it blends into the frame of the trailer much better than the original loud "steal me" orange.
After about a week, I put the decals on and covered them with a clear plastic laminating material cut slightly larger than the decal. The original serial number sticker and orange/yellow company sticker had a clear covering over them so I tried to stick with that idea. I then sprayed the whole thing again with about three coats of clear coat paint.
During the week that the paint was drying, I re-packed the bearings with grease. The old grease looked to be fine but I wanted to make sure all the bearing surfaces were covered and lubed. I used Mobile 1 synthetic bearing grease. Lots of fun getting all gooey and messy with that stuff! I probably should have worn rubber gloves during this process for safety reasons but didn't. I kind of doubt if my life will be shortened too much by doing it that way as I have lived a good many years already and by the time that grease has done anything to me I will most likely not be around to care! 
I also use that week to polish up the parts I did not paint and to polish up the dust/dirt bearing covers
What fun!!!
Putting the new seals back into place was a piece of cake! I just used a short flat board and taped them gently into place. I was kind of dreading this step as I had heard of others having a problem but everything went very easily. The HARD part was, again, getting those dust/dirt covers back on without destroying or denting them. I had to tap them on with a hammer but couldn't use "gentle" strokes. Had to hit them pretty good. Fortunately, not any damage but it was kind of dicy.
Here is the finished hitch. Notice the nice black/silver serial number decal Hensley sent me. It goes very well with the black color of the hitch. All in all, this was a very easy maintainence project that could be done by anybody. There were not even any large or special tools needed for the job.
Barney
2004 Sunnybrook Titan 30FKS TT
Hensley "Arrow" 1400# hitch
2002 Ford F250 Super Duty, 7.3L PSD
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slowolf
Central Coast, CA
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Joined: 01/02/2007
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You really did a nice job and thanks for posting the details with photos. I've been thinking about doing this with mine. What did Hensley charge you for the replacement serial number and other stickers?
2005 Airstream Safari 28' w/slideout
2006 Superduty PSD FX4 Lariat w/ Tow Command
Hensley Arrow Hitch
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BarneyS
S.E. Lower Michigan
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LAdams wrote:
...Are the bearing covers new or did you just paint them silver??? ...
The ones you can see there are new. I did polish up the old ones with my Dremel tool, felt wheel, and rubbing compound and they came out as good as or better than the new ones. They are on the bottom. Dale did the same thing with his. I put a couple of coats of clear coat over them also so they don't deteriorate too fast again.
You can see the condition of the old covers in the pictures of the bearings above. The bottom covers (2nd bearing picture)were in really bad shape! I used the old top covers (1st bearing picture) on the bottom and put new ones on the top.
Barney
* This post was
edited 12/11/10 07:10am by BarneyS *
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BarneyS
S.E. Lower Michigan
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They did not charge me for the stickers. I don't know if that is their general policy or not but was grateful for them and was not going to volunteer to send money! I did spend some cash for the seals, dust covers, and grease zerk/bar keeper fittings though, which I ordered from them.
Barney
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LAdams
Northern Illinois
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Great write up Barney  - mine is on my winter "todo" list...
Are the bearing covers new or did you just paint them silver???
Regarding the bearings, I was always taught to keep the same bearing with it's race but that of course is with high speed applications like wheel bearings... I see no issue with bearings on the hitch if they were mixed but I think you did the right thing keeping them matched...
Les
2000 Ford F-250SD, XLT, 4X4 Off Road, SuperCab
w/ 6.8L (415 C.I.) V-10/3:73LS/4R100
Banks Power Pack w/Trans Command & OttoMind
Sold Trailer - not RV'ing at this point in time
HUNTER THERMOSTAT INSTALL
HOME MADE WHEEL CHOCKS
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Vulcanmars
Naples, FL
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Hate to admit I've never seen one of those. Great job just the same.I'm in the middel of rebuilding (mostly sandblast and paint)my Mor/Ryde pin box. It's childs play compared to your job.
Mars
06 Rage'n FA3005
04 V10 F250 SDCC 4X4
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Papatony0218
Behind me!
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Joined: 03/01/2010
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Great post, Barney. I've been wanting to ask some of you who own them: are those OUTRAGEOUSLY priced hitches really worth the money? Even I can't believe I've actually been considering buying one...
Thanks for the great info.
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BarneyS
S.E. Lower Michigan
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Papatony0218 wrote:Great post, Barney. I've been wanting to ask some of you who own them: are those OUTRAGEOUSLY priced hitches really worth the money? Even I can't believe I've actually been considering buying one...
Thanks for the great info.
To me - YES. To others who have never towed with one - probably not. There are MANY posts on the forum about the pro's/con/s of the Hensley hitch and this is not place to discuss that. Let's not divert the thread into a debate about the Hensley hitch. Just put "hensley hitch" into the search box and you will get more to read than you ever wanted! If you still have questions, send me a PM and I will try to answer them.
Barney
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JBarca
Dublin, Ohio, USA
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Barney
Great Job!! and really great picture narrative post.  It was an enjoying and interesting read.
I like the detail pics. They help a lot showing/explaining the hitch make up. We all walk away with different things from sharing pics all helping the good of the fellow camper.
Thanks
John
Oh and I'm envious of your 2" thick solid work bench.... Maybe some day when I build the new work shop. Can have a metal working side and a wood working side.
John & Cindy
2005 Ford F350 Super Duty, 4x4; 6.8L V10 with 4.10
CC, SB, Lariat & FX4 package
21,000 GCWR, 11,000 GVWR
Ford Tow Command
1,700# Reese HP hitch & HP Dual Cam
2 1/2" Towbeast Receiver
2004 Sunline Solaris T310SR
(I wish we were camping!)
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LAdams
Northern Illinois
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I've got to start looking around here for sand blasting places - I really like that idea...
Les
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