Hi Chase_WV,
Your sig says the 2014 2500HD but it seems you are now using a 2017 Ram 3500 SRW? Is this correct? Did the 2500HD work OK and what hitch did it have?
The Reese DC is a good hitch and part of well setup rig. Is this the trunnion bar hitch or the round bar hitch? They each have different setup needs and we need to know what you have. But the whole rig needs to cooperate to make a smooth towing setup.
First is the camper. I looked up your camper. Keystone Hideout 2012 31RBDS. This is a 35' 8" long with a 10.2% dry tongue weight.
http://www.keystonerv.com/previous-years?brand=Hideout&year=2012They have built this camper with the low empty camper tongue weight. They are counting on you to load it to bring the tongue weight up into the 13% to 15% range. And on a camper this big & long, it needs to be up in that range to help it tow more stable. Have you weighed the camper gross weight and the tongue weight? and what size WD bars do you have?
Now the WD hitch. Yes, if the trailer is nose high, this on some campers can aggravate towing stability. Once the WD on the truck is setup correctly, then yes you adjust the hitch head on the shank to level out the camper. Does your truck have the 2 1/2" pin box? If so, Reese make 2 different shanks that go from 2 1/2" at the truck down to 2" to fit into the hitch head. It looks like this on my F350.
That shank is setup in the drop shank mode but it can be flipped up too if needed. They also make a 6" drop shank as well. It looks like this. This is on my flat bed trailer.
If you have a 2" receiver, then they sell enough drop shanks that if your Dodge is still on stock tires and suspension, then they should be able to drop down low enough to level out the camper.
There is also a setup item on the DC to have the right clearance between the DC arms and the WD bars. Can you post a picture of the side of your hitch hooked to the truck? And what is the height of the A frame side rails? Depending on your A frame height and where the ball coupler is on the trailer tongue, you may need a high rise tow ball to lower the hitch head down to help create the right clearance at the DC. You need to get this sorted out before you buy your new shank as this also affects the trailer nose height.
Truck tires and trailer tires pressures. Even on a 1 ton truck these make a large difference in the truck being stable enough to control the trailer. What size and brand is on the truck and what pressure front and rear do you tow with? If the tire side walls are too soft, the truck will shift side to side and the DC will not hold the rig solid. Also the trailer tires need to be aired up to max side wall pressure. The spec sheet showed they are 225/75R15D's. Did you have this up to 65psi?
Next is the WD setting on the truck, how did you set the WD hitch up and did you take any fender height measurements front and rear axles with truck loaded unhitched and then hitched with the camper and WD bars engaged? If so what where the numbers?
I went from a K2500 Suburban to my F350 with the same camper in my sig. Due to truck payload I could not load the camper full on the Suburban until the F350 came. Then the learning experience started all over again. All the things I listed above needed to be checked and optimized and then the rig became solid.
We can help you go through your setup and help figure out what WD shank drop you will need. Give us the info above you know and we will see what we can do to help get your right setup and stable.
Hope this helps
John
