Written by:

David Hosea

Last updated: October 20, 2023

My wife and I bought a used Airstream with a Blue Ox sway control hitch as part of the package.  The hitch was configured for a pickup truck that sits lower than mine and while the configuration didn’t cause any towing problems for the first 4,900 miles, I still wanted to make sure that the hitch was configured correctly for my rig.  As time went on, adjusting the configuration began to float to the top of my priority list and I wondered if it was going to be easy to get the help I needed.  It was. 

I found the help at the Blue Ox factory in Pender, Nebraska and at Leach Camper Sales in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

We bought our Airstream (“Sheila”) from a couple that towed her with an F-150, but we tow her with a Ram 2500. Our truck sits a bit higher than the truck used by the original owners, so the shank used on the original truck doesn’t drop far enough for ours.  I need to set the bed of my truck to the alternate trailer height and while that adjustment drops the bed a bit, it does not drop the front end of my truck, so I drive a little nose high.  Also, dropping the bed to the alternate tow height helps, but does not drop Sheila into a completely level tow.  She rides with the hitch just a bit high and while it wasn’t so high to be imminently dangerous or to be unstable in our travels so far, it wasn’t completely level and I wanted to fix that.

It seemed to me that the best place to learn about the tweaks I needed to make was from the service center at the factory that produces the hitch, so I called and asked questions about the configuration.  During the conversation, I decided that going to the factory and asking Blue Ox to assess my specific set-up was a great way to answer my questions and since I had the time, why not?  Our call ended with a campground reservation and an appointment with Blue Ox service.

Driving to Pender, Nebraska is a good way to get off the beaten path.  As of our travel date, the fall colors were showing, fields were harvested, and the views along the way were fantastic.

Service from the Blue Ox Factory

Steve Denker drove out to our site as scheduled and looked at the truck, the shank, and he took some measurements.  Steve confirmed that the hitch was installed correctly on the Airstream but added that we would likely need a different drop for the truck.  Since the factory didn’t sell parts directly to consumers, he recommended one of their partners in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Leach Camper Sales.  Steve asked if I could wait just a little while so he could address an issue with the hitch for one of our campground neighbors, and he promised to return with a document showing the address and phone number for the service manager and his primary contact at Leach Camper Sales, Bob Saunders.

When Steve returned, he mentioned that he already called Bob, explained the situation, and asked him to expect a call from us.  When I called Bob, he was fully prepared and asked when we planned to arrive.

Service from Leach Camper Sales

Leach Camper Sales is about an hour and forty-five minutes southeast of Pender, Nebraska and lucky for us, right on the way home to Kansas City. I walked to the front desk, asked for Bob Saunders, and a tall man sitting at a desk just behind the main counter stood up and said, “well I didn’t do it” to which I replied, “and nobody saw you and we can’t prove it right?”  We both chuckled a little bit and walked out to the Airstream.

Bob was prepared for my arrival and already had the drop that he thought we would need for the Ram.  I don’t think I need to describe every step that Bob took to reinstall my hitch on a new drop, but my rig took a little extra effort to configure.

Because of the auto leveling system on the Ram, resetting the ball height once wasn’t enough.  Bob measured the distance from the ground to the fender well, attached the ball to the new drop, then removed/reattached the ball to its correct height.  He helped me figure out how to turn off the auto leveling system on my truck while we worked through the fine tuning required to get the ball in the right position and the sway control bars tensioned correctly. 

Bob showed me how to adjust the tension settings on the sway control bars themselves, then showed me the correct way to unload the pressure on the chains to make unhitching easy. 

Until the lesson, we used a method passed down from the previous owners which included a socket on the end of a twenty-five inch handle to get the leverage we needed to release the chains from the latches.  After Bob’s lesson, we could turn the latches by hand.  It was a discovery that led me to think, “ah… that feels right.”

Before I left, Bob made sure I had his contact information so if I experienced any difficulties going down the road, I could call him directly to get some help.  I didn’t need to call.

The next morning, Bob called me to make sure that my trip was uneventful and that everything was okay. He asked for my email address because after I left, he called Blue Ox and received a file with installation instructions specific to the Ram.  He forwarded the service bulletin with installation instructions for a Ram truck with the auto leveling system.  You can get a copy of that service bulletin here.

The Overall Experience

Steve Denker (Blue Ox) could have suggested that I look up Leach Camper Sales on the Internet and call them myself to initiate the configuration change, but he didn’t.  He did the groundwork for us by calling Bob in advance which ensured an unbroken “continuity of care.”

In my former role as a manager for an IT provider, that was called a warm hand off and it is one of the differentiators between average service and great service.

Bob Saunders (Leach Camper Sales) was prepared for our arrival to the dealership which minimized the delay in our trip home.  He patiently explained how the hitch worked, how the sway bars should look when configured correctly, and he made multiple adjustments with checks and double-checks to ensure that the system was tuned as finely as possible.  Then, after his part in my service experience was finished, he took the initiative to follow up with Blue Ox and he closed the loop by sending me a copy of the Installation Service Bulletin for Ram trucks.

We’ve all seen people who do just the minimum required for the job.  Steve and Bob are not two of those guys.  They seemed to go above and beyond what was expected, and the result is that I am extremely satisfied with the overall experience.

When we took possession of Sheila and the Blue Ox Sway Control Hitch, I trusted that we were inheriting a good product.  After about 5,000 miles of towing, I believe that we did and I would make the same decision now if I was in the market for a new hitch. 

The level of care provided by Bob at Leach Camper Sales gives me the confidence that if I live or work in the Council Bluffs area or if I’m passing through, I can get better-than-expected service.  I would stop again.

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