Dual cam VS Equalizer...I have both

[chipster]

So here is my humble Opinion. I just picked up a TH that came with a the four point equalizer hitch(1200# bars)so I just used that to tow home over 300 miles and it towed great, mind you that was and empty trailer no water or camping gear or fuel. So I had already pre purchased a Trunion 1700# bars dual cam set up as I had dual cam before and wanted it ready so once we found a trailer I would be good to go to go pick it up. Theoretically it should work better.

So here are my observations.

The equalizer hitch bars make contact on the full surface area that is used to create the friction which is about 2"X 2" plus where the bars lock into on the head add additional friction or sway control and absolutely no play. everything is tight and easy to hook up.

Dual cam, uses the cam method to stop sway by applying more force when the trailer tries to push the bars out of the locked in cam position. Only problem I see is this cam fitment is very very poor. Look at your wear marks on the bars and the cams themselves and you will be lucky if more than a third of the surface area has any wear marks. Thus not providing near as much friction or metal on metal area the equalizer does. Also the trunion style bars have so much play in them at the connection point on the head. Sure under weight will they move not likely but they can where the equalizer has no play thus to me providing an overall better hook up.

My tongue weight is 1650# so I am inclined to keep using the Dual cam but if I had the 1400# setup for the Equalizer I think I would go that route.

Plus the Equalizer is so much easier to set up, trying to get the cams seated 100% takes some time, and also if the TV and Trailer and not loaded exactly every-time it could change the geometry of cam position not seating 100%. Equalizer flat surface, no worries.

Just my thoughts since I was able to compare both on the same trailer, not many have both units kicking around.

I am thinking of bringing along the Equalizer and might try swapping it while on the road to compare the difference. Take all but maybe 30 mins. to swap over, just need to check to make sure dual cam brackets on trailer are not in the way. L brackets for Equalizer bolt on in minutes.

[Hondavalk]

Seems like a lot of friction going on. LOL

[jerem0621]

I love these discussions.

Yes, DC is proactive... Equal-i-zer and friction bars are static or dumb or whatever you want to call them.

I just don't see the difference in sway control as significant . With DC The trailer will try to return to center..... or the DC arm with sheer off and potentially exacerbate the issue. IMHO DC is a volitile design that I simply can't trust with my life and the life of my kids. Is the static sway control better? No its not as far as sway control is concerned. But IMHO it is more reliable.

What I dislike about both Dual-Cam, Blue-Ox, Equal-i-zer, and the other integrated hitches is that if you have a failure (and they DO happen) you lose both WD and Sway Control. Now if you have a HD truck it may not be nearly as big a deal as if you are towing with a near capacity half ton and suddenly... uh-oh, no WD and No sway control and you may be at 60 plus mph.

However, if add on sway control fails, you don't lose WD.... or if the WD fails you don't lose Sway Control. I like the redundancy that is built into traditional WD and Friction Sway Control... I also like the fact that if something happens to my WD hitch I can remove it from the truck's receiver and pull out my 16k forged draw bar with dual friction sway mounts and keep on trucking... Can't do that with an "integrated" sway control.

Thanks

Jeremiah

[BenK]

Both has friction from metal on metal.

Those who grease/oil theirs to reduce the 'noise' also reduce the friction to remove
a fraction of the purpose of that friction

Think of a traditional friction bar, but in these two WD Hitch systems, the
friction if metal on metal. While a friction bar has scartificial friction material
that has an adjustment to increase the pressure as the friction material wears

The DC has an added 'raise' the bar tension as the cam rides up the bar end
ramps

The DC has a higher (my guess) resistance because of the incline the cam has
to ride up on in either direction

[dodge_guy]

Ron Gratz wrote:

dodge guy wrote:
No. The trailer will want to return to center because of the cams! Think of it as trying to pull a log out of a ditch as opposed to dragging one across the flat ground. Let go of the log in the ditch half way up and it will go back to the bottom. Same theory goes to the dual cam. Now stop dragging the log on the ground at will stay where it stops (friction sway bar/EQ). Very simple physics really!

Your rolling log analogy doesn't apply to the dual cam because the "cam" does not roll.
The cam simply is a rounded surface which slides along the bar slope.

If the cam is moving away from center, the friction force increases.
If the cam is moving toward center, the friction force decreases.

Ron

I said dragging, not rolling. and yes a log will slide back down just like the DC will. and yes the friction increases as the WD bar slides up out of the cam, but it is also being forced back down by the same friction.

[Ron_Gratz]

Hondavalk wrote:
Could be wrong but it seems like the cam on the outside of the turn is sliding down against the sharp bend on the arm increasing the pressure to the cam pushing it back towards the centered position.

Friction force doesn't "push". Friction force resists movement.

When the trailer tries to swing away from center, the cams try to move away from their centered positions.
The friction force between cam and bar resists this movement -- up to the point at which the static friction is exceeded.
Then the cams begin to slide along the bar slope with slightly reduced friction force.

When the trailer tries to return to center, friction force between cam and bar also resists that movement.
But, the friction force is significantly less than when the trailer is trying to move away from center.

Ron

[Ron_Gratz]

dodge guy wrote:
No. The trailer will want to return to center because of the cams! Think of it as trying to pull a log out of a ditch as opposed to dragging one across the flat ground. Let go of the log in the ditch half way up and it will go back to the bottom. Same theory goes to the dual cam. Now stop dragging the log on the ground at will stay where it stops (friction sway bar/EQ). Very simple physics really!

Your rolling log analogy doesn't apply to the dual cam because the "cam" does not roll.
The cam simply is a rounded surface which slides along the bar slope.

If the cam is moving away from center, the friction force increases.
If the cam is moving toward center, the friction force decreases.

Ron

[BarneyS]

VintageRacer wrote:
The dual cam is an active sway control system that uses the increased pressure of the arm to actively force the trailer to stay straight. Friction has nothing to do with it.Snip...

Brian

Friction has nothing to do with it? :E
Just what do you think the increased pressure of the arm does? It increases the amount of friction between the WD bar and the cam! The Dual Cam system is totally dependent on that friction between the WD bars and the cams. It works so well because, once the static friction is overcome, the amount of friction increases when the trailer tries to sway or turn and decreases when the trailer tries to return back to center.
Barney

[VintageRacer]

The dual cam is an active sway control system that uses the increased pressure of the arm to actively force the trailer to stay straight. Friction has nothing to do with it. I used to lightly grease the cams on my Dual Cam to make it work better. For me the key to making a dual cam work great is to use arms that are one size larger than the tongue weight, since that drives the cams a bit harder. I have never used a friction based system that impressed me at all, so I would personally not use the equalizer, but each to their own.

Brian

[Hondavalk]

Huntindog wrote:

Hondavalk wrote:
Not sure if the load in the TV would really change the DC setup but what I do just in case is before I hook up to the TT I use the airbags I installed on the truck to return the TT to the height it was at when I setup the DC. Also, IMO its not the size of the friction area that makes the DC effective but instead its the bars pushing the A-frame back into a straight line.

That's not how it works. The DC is a total friction based system. It has MORE friction when moving away from center, and LESS friction when returning to center, but it does NOT push the TT back to center. The TT returns to center on it's own, just like a TT with no away control at all will. The DC actually will slow down the return to center somewhat due to the friction....This is probably a good thing.

Could be wrong but it seems like the cam on the outside of the turn is sliding down against the sharp bend on the arm increasing the pressure to the cam pushing it back towards the centered position.

[dodge_guy]

Huntindog wrote:

Hondavalk wrote:
Not sure if the load in the TV would really change the DC setup but what I do just in case is before I hook up to the TT I use the airbags I installed on the truck to return the TT to the height it was at when I setup the DC. Also, IMO its not the size of the friction area that makes the DC effective but instead its the bars pushing the A-frame back into a straight line.

That's not how it works. The DC is a total friction based system. It has MORE friction when moving away from center, and LESS friction when returning to center, but it does NOT push the TT back to center. The TT returns to center on it's own, just like a TT with no away control at all will. The DC actually will slow down the return to center somewhat due to the friction....This is probably a good thing.

No. The trailer will want to return to center because of the cams! Think of it as trying to pull a log out of a ditch as opposed to dragging one across the flat ground. Let go of the log in the ditch half way up and it will go back to the bottom. Same theory goes to the dual cam. Now stop dragging the log on the ground at will stay where it stops (friction sway bar/EQ). Very simple physics really!

[Huntindog]

Hondavalk wrote:
Not sure if the load in the TV would really change the DC setup but what I do just in case is before I hook up to the TT I use the airbags I installed on the truck to return the TT to the height it was at when I setup the DC. Also, IMO its not the size of the friction area that makes the DC effective but instead its the bars pushing the A-frame back into a straight line.

That's not how it works. The DC is a total friction based system. It has MORE friction when moving away from center, and LESS friction when returning to center, but it does NOT push the TT back to center. The TT returns to center on it's own, just like a TT with no away control at all will. The DC actually will slow down the return to center somewhat due to the friction....This is probably a good thing.

[chipster]

I'd be curious myself also to now how much difference there is, now that I have the tongue scale. I'll be able to re-weigh it at the end of the season with most everything out(especially the water). I'm going to theorize about 3-400# lighter. Extra battery alone probably added another 50#. Sure makes it important to empty the Gray and block tanks I would think before heading back home as they are farther forward than the fresh water.

[Atlee]

Of course you were pulling a completely empty TT. Bet the tongue weight was not nearly as heavy as it will be when fully loaded for travel.

chipster wrote:
I have a Class V hitch on TV, forget what that's rated for. As far as using 1200# equalizer setup I have, I know it's under rated but oddly enough it worked great for the tow home. Read allot last night about hitch setup and I think I was trying to hard to get truck to squat equally instead of concentrating more on front end before and after heights. I did get it front end to within 1/2" from original height. Love all your opinions here.
Thanks

[chipster]

fla-gypsy wrote:
I'm a Dual Cam fan but use what you like the best. I am also just befuddled about statements about lining up the Cams? Once you have done the initial set up you never have to line up anything again. Slap on the bars and apply tension.

Yeah that's just me trying to dig to deep and think to hard 🙂

[fla-gypsy]

I'm a Dual Cam fan but use what you like the best. I am also just befuddled about statements about lining up the Cams? Once you have done the initial set up you never have to line up anything again. Slap on the bars and apply tension.