Reese WD Hitch failure
Hello,
Today I went with my father to take delivery of his new 2014 Windjammer 2618W. When we arrived at his house we experienced a catastrophic failure of a Brand NEW Reese 1200/12000 Weight distribution setup as he backed it into his driver way. The length of the trip home was about a 45 mile trip home from the dealer. Below are photos of the failure (Click-able Thumbnails):
Now prior to this, the initial hitch up was what I will call difficult. My fathers truck is a 2009 GMC sierra 1500. The trailer label stated the wight as measure off the line at 6100 lbs. Now this was brand new, so the only thing extra would be the full LP tanks, and the battery. The MFG specs are:
Dry Hitch Weight
638 lbs. (289 kg)
Unloaded Vehicle Weight
5,985 lbs. (2,715 kg)
Cargo Carrying Capacity
1,665 lbs. (755 kg)
The dealer first tried to use a Reese Pro setup up with 1000lbs round bars. These are the type that the bars are inserted from the bottom of the hitch head. after the got everything on, in order for the chains to reach the snap up bracket, this “dealer” had to have the truck/nose of the trailer so high the tires were barely touching the ground, and the jack was fully extended with about 3” of wooden blocking under the jack. This was the last link… This is when I stepped in a told them no way, the set up is wrong. The said all they had to do was remove two washers and tip the head up more. I said no way, the head was already level, and removing the washers would result in the head having forward tilt. We are fighting two issues here. 1, the GM factory receiver has “slop” in the square tube, and when no tension is on the head, it looks like it had some slight tilt back. Under tension when the slop was taking up, the head was level. Second problem is the ball coupler is on the bottom of the trailer frame, making the chain to snap up bracket distance even further. Now mind you this was just to get on the LAST link. I told them flat out the only option was to move to the trunion style, because in my experience the bars are probably about 2 links closer to the frame. So an additional $100 later they are setting up a 1200lbs/12000 trunion style WD setup (Don’t even get me started on what they are charging him for the WD setup). This time after a mild lift of the truck and trailer tongue, we can easily get the second link under tension. However looking at the setup, I note a problem, but at this point I figure when we get home we can correct it. See if you can see the problem here (Click-able Thumbnail):
It might be hard to see, but the hitch head is tilted forward.
Now mind you the reese setup that failed is the same exact style I have for my 2010 Grey Wolf 28BHG. The MFG specs for my trailer are
Dry Weight (lbs/kg) 5834 /2646.3
Payload Capacity (lbs/kgs) 1834 / 831.9
GVWR (lbs/kgs) 7708 / 3496.3
Hitch Weight (lbs/kgs) 708 / 321.1
I have towed with this setup for around 8000 miles with no problems.
Towing home, everything was fine, no sway, no jerking, no bouncing, nothing. Truck handled the weight fine, and even got 11mpg down the highway.
We backed it in to the driveway, and he wanted to move it more toward the side of the drive way so he pulled forward 15 feet, and just as he put the truck in reverse, “BAM” down the tongue went. I will post some more photos of the hitch after we removed it in a second post.
Today I went with my father to take delivery of his new 2014 Windjammer 2618W. When we arrived at his house we experienced a catastrophic failure of a Brand NEW Reese 1200/12000 Weight distribution setup as he backed it into his driver way. The length of the trip home was about a 45 mile trip home from the dealer. Below are photos of the failure (Click-able Thumbnails):
Now prior to this, the initial hitch up was what I will call difficult. My fathers truck is a 2009 GMC sierra 1500. The trailer label stated the wight as measure off the line at 6100 lbs. Now this was brand new, so the only thing extra would be the full LP tanks, and the battery. The MFG specs are:
Dry Hitch Weight
638 lbs. (289 kg)
Unloaded Vehicle Weight
5,985 lbs. (2,715 kg)
Cargo Carrying Capacity
1,665 lbs. (755 kg)
The dealer first tried to use a Reese Pro setup up with 1000lbs round bars. These are the type that the bars are inserted from the bottom of the hitch head. after the got everything on, in order for the chains to reach the snap up bracket, this “dealer” had to have the truck/nose of the trailer so high the tires were barely touching the ground, and the jack was fully extended with about 3” of wooden blocking under the jack. This was the last link… This is when I stepped in a told them no way, the set up is wrong. The said all they had to do was remove two washers and tip the head up more. I said no way, the head was already level, and removing the washers would result in the head having forward tilt. We are fighting two issues here. 1, the GM factory receiver has “slop” in the square tube, and when no tension is on the head, it looks like it had some slight tilt back. Under tension when the slop was taking up, the head was level. Second problem is the ball coupler is on the bottom of the trailer frame, making the chain to snap up bracket distance even further. Now mind you this was just to get on the LAST link. I told them flat out the only option was to move to the trunion style, because in my experience the bars are probably about 2 links closer to the frame. So an additional $100 later they are setting up a 1200lbs/12000 trunion style WD setup (Don’t even get me started on what they are charging him for the WD setup). This time after a mild lift of the truck and trailer tongue, we can easily get the second link under tension. However looking at the setup, I note a problem, but at this point I figure when we get home we can correct it. See if you can see the problem here (Click-able Thumbnail):
It might be hard to see, but the hitch head is tilted forward.
Now mind you the reese setup that failed is the same exact style I have for my 2010 Grey Wolf 28BHG. The MFG specs for my trailer are
Dry Weight (lbs/kg) 5834 /2646.3
Payload Capacity (lbs/kgs) 1834 / 831.9
GVWR (lbs/kgs) 7708 / 3496.3
Hitch Weight (lbs/kgs) 708 / 321.1
I have towed with this setup for around 8000 miles with no problems.
Towing home, everything was fine, no sway, no jerking, no bouncing, nothing. Truck handled the weight fine, and even got 11mpg down the highway.
We backed it in to the driveway, and he wanted to move it more toward the side of the drive way so he pulled forward 15 feet, and just as he put the truck in reverse, “BAM” down the tongue went. I will post some more photos of the hitch after we removed it in a second post.
