Reese WD head clarification
Hey Guys I have a Reese weight distributing hitch with trunnion bars along with dual cam setup. It was purchased in 2010 may but wether it was made in that era is unknown. It came with 1200/12000 b...
Forum Discussion
Steve,
Here is about turns and the crash point. Your longer hitch shank allows the truck and camper to turn sharper then those with a shorter shank.
That said there is a crash point. Yours will be right about at the 74 degree point on a left turn. You might get a little bit more but not much.
You need to slowly back up, or go forward, and with a spotter watching the hitch, "stop" before the crash point while turning. Then in the truck look at your mirrors. Burn in your brain the image of the side of the camper and in what relation it is to the side the truck. You do not want to be going that far or something can break.
On my truck and wheel base, I have 4 x 4, I can crank the wheel hard and do a 180 turn and never approach this point going forward. BUT, if I back up or go super slow I can go beyond this point. Here lets see what I am talking about.
Here is 74 deg with my prior K2500 Suburban. Look at the hitch. The inside WD bar is starting to go under the frame a lot.
Here is another view, same turn
And here is the outside WD bar. About ready to pop over the cam
And in my case, on the older 3 piece welded head, My WD bar hit the ball nut. And chicped the head. The WD flying out sounded like a shot gun going off follow by the sound of spring steel hitting the concrete, bang...
Your newer head may allow you a few degrees more before this happens. Now this was all "left turning" the more natural way to turn or back up as it is on the driver side.
Turning right, you can only go 65 deg and then the friction sway bar arm is going to hit the A frame. See here
The hit
And if you are using the friction sway bar setup, you hit the ball coupler going LH turn.
So all that said, I have never broke anything since... that one sharp turn in my driveway. Ya know, we too learn the hard way...
So now I do this with the F350, take the bars off and do this hard 180 which requires back up and turning and going forward. No more binding.
Since I have the heavy hitch equipment and the F350, I can do this. But I would not be towing down the road this way. Put the WD bars on.
Hope this helps
John
Here is about turns and the crash point. Your longer hitch shank allows the truck and camper to turn sharper then those with a shorter shank.
That said there is a crash point. Yours will be right about at the 74 degree point on a left turn. You might get a little bit more but not much.
You need to slowly back up, or go forward, and with a spotter watching the hitch, "stop" before the crash point while turning. Then in the truck look at your mirrors. Burn in your brain the image of the side of the camper and in what relation it is to the side the truck. You do not want to be going that far or something can break.
On my truck and wheel base, I have 4 x 4, I can crank the wheel hard and do a 180 turn and never approach this point going forward. BUT, if I back up or go super slow I can go beyond this point. Here lets see what I am talking about.
Here is 74 deg with my prior K2500 Suburban. Look at the hitch. The inside WD bar is starting to go under the frame a lot.
Here is another view, same turn
And here is the outside WD bar. About ready to pop over the cam
And in my case, on the older 3 piece welded head, My WD bar hit the ball nut. And chicped the head. The WD flying out sounded like a shot gun going off follow by the sound of spring steel hitting the concrete, bang...
Your newer head may allow you a few degrees more before this happens. Now this was all "left turning" the more natural way to turn or back up as it is on the driver side.
Turning right, you can only go 65 deg and then the friction sway bar arm is going to hit the A frame. See here
The hit
And if you are using the friction sway bar setup, you hit the ball coupler going LH turn.
So all that said, I have never broke anything since... that one sharp turn in my driveway. Ya know, we too learn the hard way...
So now I do this with the F350, take the bars off and do this hard 180 which requires back up and turning and going forward. No more binding.
Since I have the heavy hitch equipment and the F350, I can do this. But I would not be towing down the road this way. Put the WD bars on.
Hope this helps
John
