Bent WD snap up bracket on dual cam setup.

Frozen001 wrote:
As a side note… I posted about a month ago about the drivers side seeming to have more tension that the passenger side. Not sure if those event and that are related… but makes me wonder.

Hi,

You already have the answers to the bent snap up, I'm commenting on the one bar seeming to have more tension.

What size WD bars are you running and are they the trunnion style? While both the round bar and the trunnion bar hitches can have this effect, the trunnion bar style may have more of it.

For the trunnion bar hitch head, the head trunnion lug sockets are forged into the head. The trunnion head on the WD bar is cast steel and may be forged as well. And then there is the WD bar itself that is forged. And not to forget, differences in the snap up chain lengths, and the snap up bracket. All those mating parts are not machined where they fit together. As such, the WD bar locks up under load in the hitch head when the WD chains become tight and under load. Those unmachined parts are not exact. The lock up point on the left WD bar and the right WD bar in the hitch head can be/most likely will be, at a different spring load on the WD bar due to those small differences of unmachined parts. This creates a level of more tension on the one side.

I notice this issue most with my 1,700# WD bars then the 1,200# bars or even less on the 800# WD bars. I have several hitch setups on campers/trailers all using the DC.

The heavier rating of the WD bar, the stiffer it is, so a slight difference in lock up angle in the hitch head allows you to "feel" this difference easier when hitching up. When using the pipe on the snap up bracket and applying a small amount of snapping up tension to the WD chains, you will show/produce the feel of this. What little tension you can create with that pipe against a 1,700# WD bar is not much. You have to jack the camper and truck way up to get the WD bars on to relive some of the high spring load. Same goes for the 1,200# WD bars, even the 800# bars in many cases. That small, but yet, felt difference in WD snapup should not really affect the operation of the hitch.

I have my camper on level concrete and the truck too and can feel this difference. If the trailer axles and the truck axles are on uneven ground creating a slight axle angle against truck and camper, then the snapping up feel can also be found. This is more from one WD bar being down hill or uphill in relation to the other due to the axles not all being on parallel ground as the A Frame is not parallel the the hitch head in its normal setting.

Reading that, does this now explain how you "feel" one WD bar harder to snap up then the other?

I mark all my DC WD bars left and right so the cams and WD bars wear as a set and always put them on the same side. The same WD bar is always harder on the drivers side on my truck with the camper in my sig. The smaller campers and the flat bed trailer are different which side is a stronger feel. They all have different hitch heads, WD bars and snap up chain sets.

Hope this helps

John