Upgrade WD Bars?
Bought a new, heavier trailer last year & upgraded my Reese Dual Cam WD bars from 800 to 1,000lbs. Trailer weighs about 8,200 lbs & tongue weight is just over 950lbs. Any harm in going to 1,200lb bars...
Forum Discussion
Reese dual cam user here (5+ years). This is an excellent WDH when everything is properly set up. I think you should upgrade to 1200 lb bars if you have smaller rated ones now. Your trailer may tow well or you may *think* it tows well, but if your bars are undersized and you upgrade to the correct size, I think you'll find the trailer tows better still and possibly even much better. Going to 1200 lb bars means just swapping out the bars. If you wanted to move up to 1500 lb bars, you'd need to upgrade the hitch head too.
Reese defines their bar rating by Tongue Weight + Tow Vehicle Cargo Weight and on this basis, your existing bars are too small. This is different than how the other WDH manufacturers size their bars. See Reese's chart below.
I don't think Reese has 1,000 lb bars (round or trunnion style)? They aren't shown on their website for the strait-line. Unless you have an older WDH?
How did you get the trailer weight and tongue wt? Did you go to a scale or use a tongue scale? What is the TT's GVWR? Tongue wt. is typically in the 12-13% range of the TT actual weight and can be up to about 15% in some cases (ours is 14.5%). If your tongue wt. is 950 lbs and trailer weighs 8200 lbs, you have 11.6% which is a tad on the low side. More tongue wt. can be beneficial providing you have the payload capacity. You can more accurately fine tune a WDH at a scale too.
Since you would appear to have under-sized bars, how did you set up the weight transfer onto the steer axle? Did you measure front fender heights? I don't think you can properly transfer enough wt. with 800 lb bars based on my experience setting up ours. Also, what is the tow vehicle and payload capacity rating? Going to heavier rated bars can reduce the bounce in a TT and result in less vertical motion being transferred onto the TV's ball, resulting in a more comfortable ride.
If you don't have them now, you might want to upgrade to Reese's heavy duty snap-up brackets.
We tow a 29' TT weighing about 6800 lbs. I started out using 800 lb bars based on the brochure tongue wt. of 514 lbs which I ordered in advance of the TT arriving here. A scale showed it ended up being approx. 950 lbs fully loaded for camping. I could NOT get enough wt. back onto the steer axle, even after going to a scale and making numerous adjustments and passes through the scale. The bars were bent like a banana. The tail of the TT was extremely bouncy too. I bought 1200 lb bars and was able to set them up properly and it made a huge difference. The heavier bars also reduced the bounce in the tail end significantly. We have zero sway and the handling is excellent on the twistiest of mountain roads at speed (max. 65 mph). We also have Bilsteins on the truck and shocks on the TT which are a HUGE improvement.
FWIW, what tire pressure do you run? TT tires should be max. sidewall psi. TV tires can be up to or near max. psi rating - I run ours at 75 psi front and 80 rear which gives better performance. Have you got the trailer level to slightly nose down? You might benefit from more tongue wt. - if you can load the trailer differently and shift wt towards the front. You want the TT to sit level to slightly nose down if you shift cargo in the TT. The towing sub-forum has an excellent sticky on setting up the dual cam WDHs which may help if you need to go through the adjustment process again with heavier bars. When you've tweaked all the variables that can contribute to sway, the improvement in tow experience can be amazing.
Reese defines their bar rating by Tongue Weight + Tow Vehicle Cargo Weight and on this basis, your existing bars are too small. This is different than how the other WDH manufacturers size their bars. See Reese's chart below.
I don't think Reese has 1,000 lb bars (round or trunnion style)? They aren't shown on their website for the strait-line. Unless you have an older WDH?
How did you get the trailer weight and tongue wt? Did you go to a scale or use a tongue scale? What is the TT's GVWR? Tongue wt. is typically in the 12-13% range of the TT actual weight and can be up to about 15% in some cases (ours is 14.5%). If your tongue wt. is 950 lbs and trailer weighs 8200 lbs, you have 11.6% which is a tad on the low side. More tongue wt. can be beneficial providing you have the payload capacity. You can more accurately fine tune a WDH at a scale too.
Since you would appear to have under-sized bars, how did you set up the weight transfer onto the steer axle? Did you measure front fender heights? I don't think you can properly transfer enough wt. with 800 lb bars based on my experience setting up ours. Also, what is the tow vehicle and payload capacity rating? Going to heavier rated bars can reduce the bounce in a TT and result in less vertical motion being transferred onto the TV's ball, resulting in a more comfortable ride.
If you don't have them now, you might want to upgrade to Reese's heavy duty snap-up brackets.
We tow a 29' TT weighing about 6800 lbs. I started out using 800 lb bars based on the brochure tongue wt. of 514 lbs which I ordered in advance of the TT arriving here. A scale showed it ended up being approx. 950 lbs fully loaded for camping. I could NOT get enough wt. back onto the steer axle, even after going to a scale and making numerous adjustments and passes through the scale. The bars were bent like a banana. The tail of the TT was extremely bouncy too. I bought 1200 lb bars and was able to set them up properly and it made a huge difference. The heavier bars also reduced the bounce in the tail end significantly. We have zero sway and the handling is excellent on the twistiest of mountain roads at speed (max. 65 mph). We also have Bilsteins on the truck and shocks on the TT which are a HUGE improvement.
FWIW, what tire pressure do you run? TT tires should be max. sidewall psi. TV tires can be up to or near max. psi rating - I run ours at 75 psi front and 80 rear which gives better performance. Have you got the trailer level to slightly nose down? You might benefit from more tongue wt. - if you can load the trailer differently and shift wt towards the front. You want the TT to sit level to slightly nose down if you shift cargo in the TT. The towing sub-forum has an excellent sticky on setting up the dual cam WDHs which may help if you need to go through the adjustment process again with heavier bars. When you've tweaked all the variables that can contribute to sway, the improvement in tow experience can be amazing.
