Dual Cam Snap Up Comments
Having towed for 10 yrs with my old round bar DrawTite hitch, I have never had any of the "common" dual cam problems, ie: broken cams, cracked cast heads (trunnion of course!), or the famous bent snap...
Forum Discussion
ktmrfs wrote:
Also, not sure that the HD ones would have done any frame damage. In fact might have prevented it. Looking at the brackets, what happens is that w/o the extra support gussett the HD bracket have, if you get much doutward force from the chain, it will cause the std bracket to bend on the outside surface. that then trys to pull the inside towards the frame as it moves in and up, causing the bolt to dig into the frame.
On the HD brackets, the gussett supports the weak point that tries to bend outward from downward/outward cam forces. And also support the "U" section at the top from deflecting.
That's possible, I admit that I'm somewhat negatively biased on any "stock" DC system on a tube frame. Hopefully this won't come across as argumentative, that's not the intent.
On thing I want to point out is that, without a bolt holding it in, the HD bracket will only touch a tube frame in 4 places under load.
1) The pinch bolt
2) The outside top corner of the frame corner
3/4) The bottom of the bracket on the face of the frame.
If there's enough force present to bend the old style bracket and start to dig the pinch bolt into the frame then it seems like the new style would transfer all that force to the frame rather than absorb it by bending. Given where the bracket contacts the frame (assuming mine is not unique), these places aren't ideal for supporting a large load.
Now if the HD bracket is securely bolted to the frame, then the face of the bracket stays parallel to the frame and there's no point load at the bottom of the bracket in the weakest part of the frame. This also helps to prevent the pinch bolt from digging in.
This is all speculation on my part, but hopefully drilling down into this stuff is something that will help us all.
I made a little drawing. Forgive my artwork. Everything in the drawing is greatly exaggerated. When you tighten up the snap up, it sits on the frame like the left drawing. There's gap on the bottom of the snap-up between the snap-up and the frame maybe between 1/8 and 1/4". Once you apply a load there's a gap at the TOP of the snap-up on the face of the frame. This is why I'm guessing that the HD one could cause problems if it's not bolted flat to the face of the frame.
