Every breakthrough in towing safety starts with a problem that refuses to be ignored.
For Jim Hensley, that problem was trailer sway, experienced firsthand long before modern RVs, sway bars, or weight distribution systems even existed. What followed was a decades-long journey of innovation that ultimately led to the most advanced trailer sway elimination hitch ever built: the ProPride 3P® Hitch.
This is the true story of how the Jim Hensley hitch evolved — and why the ProPride 3P® represents its final and most advanced form.
In 1955, Jim Hensley was serving in the U.S. Army and stationed in Colorado. Granted leave to return home for the birth of his first child, Jim planned to bring his wife and newborn son back with him.
To do that, he purchased a 30-foot house trailer — as travel trailers were known at the time.
Unable to afford a commercially available hitch, Jim built his own solution using a used trailer dolly with two caster wheels to carry tongue weight. When one of the dolly tires blew out just 40 miles into the trip, the family continued the 1,000-mile journey with the front of the car lifted, the rear end dragging, and the trailer fishtailing the entire way.
Amazingly, they made it.
Five months later, Jim was sent to Korea — and the family made the return trip the same way.
That experience planted a single thought that never left him:
“There has to be a better way to tow a trailer.”
At the time, companies like Reese were addressing weight distribution using spring bars — but those systems did little to address sway.
Jim realized something critical:
He explored early ideas similar to what would later become under-vehicle pivot systems, but rejected them due to complexity, frame modification, and concerns about mechanical failure.
The solution had to be:
In 1972, Jim built a small, simple prototype using what became known as a converging link design. The idea was revolutionary:
👉 Project the trailer’s pivot point forward, closer to the rear axle of the tow vehicle.
The prototype worked.
A patent search in 1976 confirmed the idea was completely original — nothing even remotely similar existed.
Despite personal hardships and a booming trailer business, Jim continued refining the concept. In the late 1980s, he committed fully to bringing the idea to market.
This was the first-generation Jim Hensley hitch.
In 1993, Jim licensed his patent to Colin Connell. In early 1994, Hensley Mfg., Inc. was formed in Davison, Michigan, and the hitch was renamed the Hensley Arrow®.
CII continued manufacturing during the transition.
The Arrow proved one thing beyond doubt:
Trailer sway could be eliminated — not managed.
For the next 14 years, Jim received royalties while continuing to develop improvements — many of which were never implemented.
By the mid-2000s, limitations in the Arrow design were becoming clear through thousands of customer experiences:
At the same time, the relationship between Jim Hensley and Hensley Mfg. came to an end in 2007.
That same year, Sean Woodruff, Vice President of Hensley Mfg. for 10 years, also left the company.
The timing couldn’t have been better.
In October of 2007, Jim Hensley and Sean Woodruff joined forces to build what Jim had always envisioned:
The most advanced Hensley hitch design possible — without compromise.
Using decades of engineering knowledge and real-world towing data, they redesigned the hitch from the ground up.
The ProPride 3P® Hitch is not an iteration — it is a full evolution.
Every weakness of previous designs was engineered out.
Earlier hitches reduced sway under certain conditions.
The ProPride 3P®:
This is true trailer sway elimination, perfected.
The ProPride 3P® Hitch exists because:
It is the final evolution of the Jim Hensley hitch — designed by the inventor himself.
Trailer sway was never an unsolved problem.
It simply needed the right mind — and the patience to get it right.
The ProPride 3P® Hitch is the culmination of more than 50 years of experience, innovation, and real-world towing knowledge.
True trailer sway elimination wasn’t discovered.
It was engineered.