Concerns or Problems with Reese Dual cam

Thanks Jeremiah, It's not the gap at the end of the shank to the front of the head. It's the gap between the ears of the hitch head and the sides of the shank. The shim takes up most of it but even with the two bolts torqued down there's still a visible air gap. I called Reese this morning and talked to a tech about it. He said not a problem and the only reason for the shim is to prevent customer complaints about rattles. Perfectly ok to have the gap and it won't cause a stress fracture to pull the ears in to the shank when tightened down. I thought maybe I had a defective head. :B

Hannibal wrote:
After paying a dealer many years ago to have their mechanic install our 5th wheel hitch, I've installed it in all of our trucks there after. It was really bad. Now we're going back to a travel trailer and bought a Reese HP trunion WDH that'll accommodate DC if I feel we need it. What's causing me lost sleep is, the air gap between the shank and head. Even with the shim in, there's still a gap. Maybe not enough for a second .042" shim but enough to see light through. Might be normal but it bugs me. My last WDH was a welded Quality S trunion with no sway control. Do they all have a little visible air gap?

Yes all weigh distribution hitch heads that volt together have that gap. It's how you can adjust hitch head angle. More angle the better...imho...

BlueOx has a fixed hitch head angle but I am not sure if they have the air gap.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

I'll add to the list of dealer screw ups. Mine put their newest tech on the job and drilled all four bolt holes to big. This was after I asked several times if they were comfortable doing the install. I also even directed them to Reese website for directions. I let them do it because I had done it before and didn't find it that difficult and I didn't want to do it in the parking lot.
I completely lost my mind and was ready to fight for a new unit because in my mind I had a damaged frame.
They brought in their master welder who worked on it several hours filling in the holes and redrilling.
Sorry for the ramble but yes, it can be installed very easy IF you read the instructions.
However, if you're not 100% confident doing it you can really mess things up real quick.

I used the 1200# DC during my TT years. TT was about 10K loaded, 1100# tongue weight. It was called a Reese Strait-line. After progressing thru several different TT with WD systems and sway controls, it made me really appreciate the DC system...hated the friction sway control idea. I'm not familiar with the Reese RP66155 system.
I installed my own DC and even tho I learned, it would be easier if there is ever a second time. Main issue was the correct angle of the turnbuckle/cam stud and understanding how the DC worked. I attached the turnbuckle to the tongue too close to the hitch...meaning I ended up about 35deg between the TT tongue and turnbuckle. It should be 45deg under load. Thus I had less adjustment when I tighten chain lengths. The bars bending too much out of horizontal meant they could contact the buckle during turns and hitch/ball alignments. That is the main reason bars/buckles/studs get broken. Next time I would do a dry run, install hardware with clamps, etc. and put weight on before I drilled any holes.

After paying a dealer many years ago to have their mechanic install our 5th wheel hitch, I've installed it in all of our trucks there after. It was really bad. Now we're going back to a travel trailer and bought a Reese HP trunion WDH that'll accommodate DC if I feel we need it. What's causing me lost sleep is, the air gap between the shank and head. Even with the shim in, there's still a gap. Maybe not enough for a second .042" shim but enough to see light through. Might be normal but it bugs me. My last WDH was a welded Quality S trunion with no sway control. Do they all have a little visible air gap?

I've only ever read of a handful of people that were happy with how the dealer installed the DC. Anyone else, including me had to redoe what the dealer did. But when setup and dialed in it is a very good system!

My Son bought a LeCrosse and had the dealer install WDH with dual cam sway control. He was unhappy with the performance so we took a look at it. The installation was terrible to the point that the cams weren't even adjusted to the bars. The installer obviously used an impact gun as some screw heads were twisted off and many others were stripped. The shank was too short and was never going to work anyway. It took us about 3 hours to dial it in and since he has been very happy with the set up. Not so with the dealer.

The following is based on my experience. (Apologies for being long.) I love our DC hitch and wouldn't change it for anything else except for maybe a Hensley or Propride. Getting it all set up properly did not happen overnight tho. You may want to ask to have this thread moved to the towing section - there's a few there with extensive experience with the DC hitches.

First, do NOT ever let a dealer touch one of these WDHs, let alone any other WDH. These hitches are somewhat finicky to install and set up and it's better if you study up on how to do it yourself. They are an excellent WDH with their integral self-centering pro-active sway control. Secondly, you need to weigh the TT asap to get an actual tongue wt. You can't just slap one of these on and go and expect it to work properly... You will find that you need to go through a process of adjusting the bar angle, number of chain links under tension and adjusting the cam position (to center on the bar's "notch") over a period of time before it works optimally.

The cam arm bracket mounting bolts *can* back out sometimes. One factor is the tongue weight. I've read of this happening at tongue weights of around 1200 lbs. Ours loosened a bit (were properly torqued) and our tongue weight is around 950 lbs. Specs for the Salem TT (29BH I assume?) has a GVWR of 9165 lbs (UVW + CCC). Typical TW is around 12-13 percent of trailer's weight so using the GVWR as a max. wt., the TW *might* be 1191 lbs. Occasionally TWs can be up to around 15%. Ours is about 14.5% the last time I went to a scale.

The rivnuts are better than just using the forming bolts, but they have a shoulder on them which is proud of the A-frame and the bracket will not be tightly flush against the A-frame tubing. For TWs on the heavier side, they *may* or *may not* hold up. You could probably install a say min. 1/16" plate with holes large enough to keep the rivnut shoulders away from the brackets.

It appears that you might be in the range where bolts have a higher possibility of not staying put. The A-frame tubing is only 1/8" thick which results in less than 2 threads being engage by the Reese forming bolts. I would use the Reese DC hitch without the cam arms installed until you go to a scale and weight the TT fully loaded up for camping. Provided the bars are rated 1200 lbs and not the next ones down which are 800 lbs. 800 lb bars will not work properly with a TW near 1191 lbs.

You should ensure that you have the correct spring bar rating. 1200 lb bars *might* be okay but you need to know what you have now. What is the TV? Hopefully the receiver is rated 12,000/1200 lbs (max 1200 lbs TW). If the TW is over 1200 lbs, you'll need an upgraded receiver and higher rated Reese dual cam WDH. IIRC, 1200 lb bars are good for 1,000 - 1,700 lbs but if over 1200 lbs actual tongue weight, will need the 1,700/17,000 hitch head/shank.

Another thing to know is that Reese's trunnion spring bars vary in length. The 800 lb bars are about 1/2" shorter than the 1200 lbs ones but Reese does not say this anywhere AFAIK. Not sure about their 1700 lb bars. Reese specifies a distance of 19 3/8" from the coupler to the cam arm brackets. The problem I found is with 800 lb bars, there was not enough thread left on the cam arms to position the cam where it needed to be. I had to upgrade to 1200 lbs shortly after getting the 800 lb bars which solved this. If I were you, before drilling any holes, temporarily position the brackets with some C-clamps to make sure you can move the cam arm forward or rearward enough. If had stayed with the 800 lb bars, I would have been faced with drilling new holes to re-position the brackets.

If your TW is indeed much over 1000 lbs, you may want to avoid just using the Reese forming bolts or the Rivnuts. Not wanting to ever have our bolts back out again, I drilled holes into the A-fame, welded nuts to a plate and inserted the plate into the tubing from the end of the tubing. Link to a thread with details on how I installed the plate and Reese brackets. The photos below should how I did it.

Keep an eye on the snap-up brackets if the TW is on the high side as they can bend, break or otherwise become damaged and even damage the A-frame tubing. You may want to consider using one of the Reese forming bolts (maybe along with a rivnut) - there is a hole provided for that. IIRC, the snap-up brackets on the 1700 lb Reese package are stronger.



How old are the dual cam brackets? A few years ago they had a run of poorly made brackets which do not fit up against A-frame tubing very well. I got replacements directly from Reese. Even with their better made ones, the radius of the brackets does not mate up against the A-frame tubing the greatest and for heavier TWs, it's worth installing a spacer to help overcome this.

Links to some previous posts I made on the brackets:
dual cam brackets Photo of the older/newer bracket profiles:

The newest DualCam HP system should come with large rivnuts for mounting the cam brackets to the frame and the self tapping bolts also. I would recommend using the rivnuts, stronger hold on the frame (75# vs 45# torque), clamp real well!!

That size of trailer should have a fairly thick frame thickness in the tongue section. Our Timber Ridge is 1/8" approx, and the self tappers would still loosen up (never stripped out) over time, due to the side loads the brackets and cams see during normal towing. Since installing the rivnuts, the brackets have never loosened up.

Biggest concern on the install is getting the frame brackets in the proper position! Measure, measure, measure!!! Cams need to be as "centered" as possible in the cams. If not right, you will lose adjustment on the arms in one direction or the other!! Swapping the brackets side to side can overcome some of that, but not all!! Also, consider bolting the chain hangers to the frame due to the tongue weight your trailer probably has!! The self tapping bolts do very well there, don't need the rivnuts.

As many have said, once dialed in, the DualCam is a great hitch. After getting ours setup totally, wife stated during trip, that she didn't even notice the trailer!!

Brockc wrote:
I guess what concerns me is seeing my neighbors mess. Really nice TT but a dis tater in the installing the system by the delarship. Backed out screws, bent hanger brackets.. So bad they actually welded the system on. Probably reading to many horror stories on r net doesn't help either. Seems like a good system for someone with some mechanical know how and equipment to do the job

If you're mechanically inclined at all and have some decent tools you can do it. Just take your time and read the instructions thoroughly. Etrailer has some instructional videos on YouTube as well. Main thing is you have to have your rig level.