Dual Cam Setup

Same here, I keep checking to see if anybody has anything else to comment on. As for me, trailer is sitting out in the back yard at 17 degs. Nothing to do till late winter or early spring.

I'm actively searching for a pair of older style 1K bars so I can use my old head. The new 1200# system looks like it may be detrimental to the trailers health at this time. I really don't want to keep trying to get the setup good and have the frame and snap ups taking a beating.

Will keep watching, though!!!

Weird to see that this thread just died out. Kind of disappointing, especially after seeing the video of the snap bracket popping in and out at the bottom of page 10.

Passenger side is a little tweaked as well.





I'd really like to know if my 11 Gauge A-Frame is thinner than others with tongue weights in the 900-1200+ lb range.

[EDIT]

The frame is 11 Gauge according to the manufacturer

[/EDIT]

TUCQUALA wrote:
I was noticing on mine that when I put them on temporarily, they both seemed to want to just fall down, no over center at all. One moves easily, the other is a bit stiffer. BUT, the older style that I have used for years, have a very definite over center so the chains are only pulling down. I also wonder how much force is applied to that pin. I find it hard to believe that it would be able to hold up to a huge amount of side force.

I know what you are talking about. Ideally, with the snap up, you can feel it go up (you have to push hard) and then you can feel when you at the "top (you don't have to push hard, but it hasn't snapped down yet) and then once you get "over" the top you fell it firmly pull back down (the "snap"). I've had a number of times where it got to the top but it never really snapped down.

TUCQUALA wrote:
I also wonder how much force is applied to that pin.

I bent one pretty good when my frame got messed up.

Also, the other one seem to have gotten a littler harder to get in. I just realized now that it could be slightly bent vs me just getting worse at putting it in.

Neat video, and kinda makes me think more like not using the new hd snap ups. I was noticing on mine that when I put them on temporarily, they both seemed to want to just fall down, no over center at all. One moves easily, the other is a bit stiffer. BUT, the older style that I have used for years, have a very definite over center so the chains are only pulling down. I also wonder how much force is applied to that pin. I find it hard to believe that it would be able to hold up to a huge amount of side force. But then, the weak frames that we both are dealing with would probably fail first!!

Still, I feel that the older style may have less undesirable forces due to its more inside positioning of the hook. Just my .02 worth!!!

I made a video of the snap up and the spring bar on one side. It's pretty boring, but it does show that's there's some motion in the snap up. It was surprising to me how often the little keeper pin is holding some amount of weight. I assume that when "popped out" the keeper is bearing a non-trivial (or certainly non-zero!) load.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg8XwpmSy_w

I'm not sure if this help at all with the Dual Cam issue. I guess it does if whatever force is causing the arm to want to go "out" still exists with the Dual Cam setup.

mrekim wrote:
I need to tow the trailer before getting it fixed. It's somewhat local - a couple of trips within a 50 mike radius.

I'm not hooking up the dual cam, just WD bars. I was going to use my 800 lb bars since I don't need to swap chains around, etc. If I don't adjust the head, the bars will be at 8 or 9 links. Is there any problem with that, other than ground clearance?

There should be no problem other than the ground clearance issue you already mentioned. You do have to make sure your snapup brackets are secured so that the chains are vertical.

I need to tow the trailer before getting it fixed. It's somewhat local - a couple of trips within a 50 mike radius.

I'm not hooking up the dual cam, just WD bars. I was going to use my 800 lb bars since I don't need to swap chains around, etc. If I don't adjust the head, the bars will be at 8 or 9 links. Is there any problem with that, other than ground clearance?

JBarca wrote:

Campin LI wrote:
I had binding issues with my old dual cam setup. Sometimes the detent on the inside bar would not unlock from the cam on a turn. This put a lot of outward pressure on the outside lip of the cam. When this happened, sometimes the cam would lift up leaving slack in the chain because the cam was lodged into the detent. It would eventually let go and make a real loud bang. When this happened, the bolts that hold the cam to the frame would become loose or tear out. Sometimes on not so tight turns, when the detent of the bar was jammed onto the cam, I got bent snap bracket from the outward pulling of the chain, maybe 25-30 degrees off vertical alignment (on edit - maybe less of an angle than this). I did eventually get tired of trying to stop the problem and I switched to Equal-i-zer brand hitch. The commonality was that the bar did not unlock from the cam and it was related to binding. I could never get rid of the binding. No matter what I did, the instance of binding was just moved to another location. I think a lot may have to do with the slop between the hitch and the receiver of the truck. I also think the angle the bar makes on the cam plays a role. There is a lot to analyze. I also think the stiffer bars are less forgiving.

Hi,

Did you have the HP DC or older standard DC with the U bolts holding it to the frame?

And what capacity WD bars?

The older standard DC in some cases had WD bar flare interference with the newer 1,200# WD bars. And the newer HP DC had flare issues too as I posted just above.

Thanks

John

It was a Reese 1200 lb HP round bar syatem. The first one was the second generation type with the gold colored cams. When the bolts for the cam ripped out of the trailer frame, Reese replaced the entire hitch with a newer third generation system (silver colored cams) because the mount holes for the cams are in a slightly different location. Needless to say, the same thing happened. I worked very closely with Reese to try and work this out and even you tried helping me out. Neither of the 2 sets of bars I had were with any bulges or imperfections. I even ground a little steel off one set at the top of the detent anyway. My original instal had level bars. I tilted the head up so the bars would be angled up and I tilted the head down so the bars would tilt downward. Nothing ever worked flawlessly. Every time I got to a destination or home, I was always wondering what that hitch would look like. The first time I noticed the binding (where the cam was jammed in the detent and lifted up with slack in the chain was at a dump station and I was turned maybe 20 degrees from center on level ground. I used the snap bracket bar to bang on the cam a little and it became unbound to the detent. It didn't seem like there was much downward force on it. The force was definitely pushing outward against the outside lip of the cam. The bolts holding the cam to the frame were loose once it let go.

My frame never bent where the cam attaches and after reading what the OP did, I'm wondering if what he did is why. He tightened the bolts until they felt like they were going to strip (about 30). That may have made his connection tighter causing the frame to bend. Mine were tightened to 50 so I may have started stripping the threads causing that to be my weak point. At some times, I had large hose clamps holding the bolts in the frame, but being afraid one may come out, I stoppped doing that and just eliminated the cams for the ride home.

So you know, the cam arm on the left side did bend inward over time. I also went through 4 snap brackets. Only the left side cam ever tore loose from the frame. The snap brackets bent were 3 on the left side and 1 on the right. I never bent a snap bracket when not using the cams which was generally the ride home from just about every camping trip the first year I had the trailer. I once used a bent snap bracket to drive home without the cams and it did not get bent worse during the trip. Also, I never actually saw the right side detent jammed on the cam., but I can't say it never happened because it sounded like it did.

By the way, if the snap bracket was bent, the cam never jammed in the detent.

Hope some of this info helps you.