Wishin wrote:
I'm a mechanical engineer and struggle to understand how the Blue Ox could manage sway as well as the Dual Cam.
I'm also an engineer (not mech.) I too struggle with the Blue Ox claims from an eng. perspective. JBarca and Ron Gratz have done detailed tech. analysis on it and the conclusion is it's basically just not cracked up to what they claim. A must-read. Posts here:
Eating Crow and
Good and BadWe have the Reese DC and the reason I chose it was because of it's self-centering action and all the positive comments from those that use it. I totally love it. Yes it definitely can take some fiddling and tweaking to tune it up right, as I found. Mind you, I wanted the most possible out of it. I really like how it wants to snap the truck and trailer back into line. I tried a friends setup this year with an ordinary WDH and sway bars. No contest, it's the DC that's much better. It's important to keep the cams centered in the crooks of the bars and that can even change a little depending on how the truck and trailer are loaded up.
Just finished a 2500 mile trip with many hundreds, if not thousands of turns on the highways, low and high speed. It handles like a sports car and couldn't ask for more. On a freeway (up to max. 65 mph) there is NO sway (okay, maybe some tiny insignificant wiggle). Semis can pass all day long like they're never there - the key is to ignore them and keep the truck planted firmly down the center of the lane. Super impressed.
I've done other things as well to improve handling though like Dexter equalizers, shocks on the TT, Bilsteins on the truck, shimmed the WDH to take out play. I religiously check tire pressure before heading off too. Having our longer wheelbase truck and a 3/4T superduty also helps, as does a good B/C for good braking control before entering a corner. Have also scaled the TT & TV and know the weights. Not much else I can do except to upgrade the receiver. Having a marginal TV and TT combo. to start with may not be helped much by the DC WDH alone.
The only thing I do get affected by is
strong gusting side winds, but any WDH is going to be affected to some degree and you need to slow down.
I do wonder what a Hensley or Propride are like on roads with a lot of twists and turns are like for handling as opposed to sway on a freeway which is what seems to be usually discussed.
A TH may not be a good fit for a Reese DC tho. because of the amount that the TW can vary.