WD hitch head wear issues

It is working great! I had everything adjusted to where I thought it was good. But noticed that I was still a bit low on the trailer and the front of the truck was up 3/4 of an inch. I raised the ball mount up one set of holes and tilted it back one tooth. I now got it to where the front of the X is at the same height and the rear is down 1 1/4 inches. Sits nice and level now. Now just waiting on the next trip to see how it tows!

Thanks again everyone!

Hi Dodge Guy,

Been out camping and saw your favorable reply. Great!!! Yes, you are in for a total reset of the hitch with the new head.

Happy camping and thanks for reporting back

John

OK. Wow, fast service! I sent my old hitch head on tues. afternoon. And received my replacement at almost the same time right to the minute today (Thursday.) I'm in the Chicago area and Cequent is in Northern IN. so that helped a lot.

The new head is the same as the one posted above. I shouldn't have anymore issues. Now I just have to redo all my adjustments.

Thanks again to everyone and Cequent manuf. (Reese) for excellent customer service!

OK. I`ve got some pics to give a better idea of what is going on.

Here you can see the mark on the trunnion head where it is hitting the ball nut.



This is where the trunnion starts to just touch the nut.



And here it starts to go under. this is where the downward pressure starts to push down on the trunnion. I also think it may be hitting the threaded portion of the ball and pivoting the trunnion lug out which is also putting more side loading stress on the lower pockets.



So as you can see, as the trunnion gets pushed down it in turn pushes down the lower socket. when I turn back to go straight the trunnion pops back up and the lugs now have less surface area to pivot on. this is why it looks as if it is pulling out!



The new hitch head has the raised area for the ball. it looks to be at least an inch higher. this is exactly the clearance I need. as you can see the nut attaching area is recessed up in the head to clear the trunnions. these are JBarca`s hitch heads. as you can see the head on the right is the older design, and it looks as if the trunnion will touch the nut on a tight turn. the newer head on the left has the prominent raised area. as you can see this will clear the larger 1200lb and up trunnions.

Thanks for the explanation! Congrats on getting the hitch replaced. I thought Reese would come through for you - even if you did have to "prod" them a bit. :)
Barney

OK. Called Reese and Emailed back and forth. At first their guys said normal wear!? And then also said that it looked as if the trunnions were hitting the ball nut in extremely tight turns. If you look close you can see some "witness" marks on the nut. I checked my trunnions and sure enough there are very small marks on there too. So what is happening is the trunnions are hitting the nut then being forced under, this in turn is pushing down the trunnion into the lower pocket and bending it down. Then that allows the trunnion to start to wear into the hitch head pocket due to less surface area. I'll get mockup pics tonite if I can.
At first they said no to a warranty replacement. I politely explained that the new design has a raised ball mount area which will allow the trunnion to turn without hitting the nut. Seems it was a design error that was remedied with the new design head. I offered to pay half of what the hitch head costs plus shipping. He then came back and said if I send in the old hitch they'll send me a new one. So tomorrow I will be sending them the hitch head. Should have the new one next week sometime!

Reese customer service comes through again.

Thanks guys! Yes John as I was researching I never ran across this hitch head design, and it is Reese as it has there name and part number stamped into it. I`m also starting to think it is older than 10 years, maybe closer to 20!

I`m going to call Reese today and see what they have to say!

Either way it`s getting a new hitch head!

Replaced by the OEM under goodwill or not...a new hitch is needed ASAP.

Hi Dodge Guy,

That hitch head is a lot older then 10 years. At least of the new ones of the time.

That said, it may be new to you 10 years ago, but it may have been sitting in a dealer pile for a long while before you bought it.

This hitch head is from the 1996 to approx 2001 time frame. Notice the square corner washer for setting head tilt. All cast Steel.


This head is my first one, I bought in 2003 and is a 3 piece welded head to replaced the all cast one shown above. Uses serrated washer for adjusting


Then approx 2008/2009 an all cast version started coming back. Looks like this




The 2003 vintage (right) next to the 2008 vintage (Left).


I have seen the heavy wear you show on some buddies Reese heads but only when they did not use grease of any kind. Then the lower lugs swedge in short order. I can attest from mine at 1,600#, if you use grease there is very little wear (the 2003 series). Those who use no lube, the lower trunnion lobes swedge up around the edges from the extreme friction and load. Yours does not show the swedge of no grease.

I have an educated "guess" on what may have happened on yours.

Your head is a 3 piece welded head. Forged top and bottom welded to formed steel U to go over the shank. Your bottom lug looks bent down. See here in this pic, the bottom lugs are leaning down at the end and the trunnion lug is not sitting in place like it is supposed to.


This one does not look right either, the right side looks bent down more then the left. Might be an optical illusion or not.


Here is the "guess" Maybe Reese can fill in some missing pieces.

I have only seen that head on the older trunnion hitches that used straight tipped WD bars. And back in that time frame 1,000# use to be a somewhat limit of the higher tongue weight ratings. And there use to not really be any kind of sticker on the hitch heads as far as ratings. That head may have only been targeted as a 1,000# head. Reese will need to confrim.

When the first one I showed up top as all cast head, the 1,200# WD bars started coming on the scene. I do not know exactly when Reese started the 1,200# bars but they became more popular in the mid 90's early 2,000 years.

The guess is, the lower lugs are bending under load. Since that load is that high, you may have worn through a case hardened area of the lower trunnion lugs. Now into softer steel the wear progresses at an accelerated rate.

I may be off on some of this, but there is something going on that is for sure. I take your word for it, if it has seen grease since day one, and your trunnion lugs show little wear and there is no swedging of the lower pocket up, this backs up you used grease. The head has changed temper somehow and is wearing aggressively for the load being applied. And the load may have finally gone past the yield limit of that design what ever the rating was and bent the lower lugs down.

Please report back what you find. This is a new one for me. Trying to learn as we all are.

Hope this helps

John

I've always wondered why they tapered the trunnion ends...works exactly like
what you are seeing...they are trying to wiggle out of the holding cavity

That taper should NOT be there, IMHO, but straight sides or even reverse taper
and much longer