Reese 20k for RAM oem hitch prep

[pressure_welder]

Good evening everyone hope all is well. I have a question for those of you using a reese hitch with the RAM factory hitch preparation. I purchased another reese elite 20k for this RAM, as I really liked its operation on my 2015 gmc with universial rail system.

Upon mocking up, and test fitting my new reese elite 20k on my ram I have found that she just wont fit! As instructed I assembled the unit with everything loose, placed hitch in pucks, obviously slid into place with no issues. Tighten the head unit bolts which sucks the legs in and boom! the hitch is as tight as kryptonite. HOWEVER! I couldn't lift the hitch out with a crane if I wanted too so I loosen the bolts, make some adjustments, re-install, tighten bolts same thing!

I then measure my center to center distance on the factory hitch prep pucks, and the center to center distance on the TEE-pins on the hitch (with the head bolts snugged up)39-1/16" on the pucks, and 38-11/16 on the hitch so bang on3/8" too short on the reese hitch itself. This would be fine if it was the length of the truck as you are able to adjust the tee-pins front to back but not side to side. I have a plan to fix this... being a welder I can easily make up two full 3/16" spacer plates to cover the full face of the adjustment holes. However I am going to have to call reese to inquire about these spacer plates just for safety sake. I know there wouldn't be an issue with such a smaller spacer plate however I don't know what reese will say. I don't want liability to be passed onto me that's for sure. SOooo if I cant do the spacer plates I would say I am screwed as theres zero adjustment available in the puck system.

anyone else have this issue? with any hitch on the market ? I know I could use the hitch in this fashion as the t-handles do lock in place and there is zero play up and down but I feel as though there would be far to much tension on the Tee pins as they would be sucked into the sides of the pockets from tightening the legs, and there would also be zero chance of actually removing the hitch without undoing the hitch head bolts.

[pressure_welder]

ya I don't really care about what TFL has to say. They do, complete some tests that are fun to watch for sure. I am not brand loyal to either GM or RAM ive owned many duramax's. I am just reporting what was immediately noticeable during initial miles of towing with the RAM. Exhaust brake was one thing I noticed that was more aggressive compared to my 15 GM.

[IdaD]

Bigfoot affair wrote:

pressure_welder wrote:
Well finally was able to hook up the fiver to the new RAM for the first time, being that the B&W was on the lowest setting I had to make a pinbox adjustment to bring the nose down as much as possible, its not perfectly level but its not too bad either. 8-1/4" at the bedrail to front of the cap, and 7-3/4" at the tailgate. The fact that the box is shallower on the RAM compared to my GMC drastically helped my situation!

Hook up was a breeze with the B&W however it is a little different feeling with the cam jaw system, I am definatly used to hearing the nice "CLICK" when the king pin engages the jaws. Very quiet hitch to use which I noticed soon. Iam not too sure if it is my suspension on the truck making noise OR the pistons on the hitch head but I am getting a slight squeeking. Not horribly noticeable though. About the only complaint I have is B&W not making the locking pin holes on the feet big enough for a decent pad lock. I plan on drilling one out slightly, along with one of the pins on the hitch head for pad locks.

As for the first RAM towing experience (this is comparing to my 15 GMC), I took the fiver for about a 45min highway spin on the way to the dealer for some warrenty work. I noticed right away the Aisin felt strong and very similar to my Allison, shifting was on point. I was pleasantly surprised with the low end torque while getting going from a stop it was definatly more abundant. We have quite a steep grade to climb which is about 2 miles long almost directly off of our acreage so this was a good test, and it felt like the cummins loved every minute of it, I would say it nudged out the 15 duramax slightly on the hill climb. Crusing down the highway loaded I would say both trucks are quite comparable for ride comfort. Now I am a massive user of exhaust brakes while towing, I love them and always have, this RAM completely and utterly destroys my 2012 and 2015 duramax in this department, holy **** is the exhaust brake ever effective, sections of hill where ive had to apply additional brake with the duramax, ive actually had to apply acceleration disengage the RAMS exhaust brake to maintain speed, I am going to love this even more when the 5000LB boat is hooked up too. I must also note that I have the brakes set on Heavy elec and started with the gain on 6.0, I was happy with the brake test, however upon driving I noticed the camper was a little aggressive so I ended up down to 4.5 which seemed perfect. I will admit I am not as heavy as most with the fiver at 11,500 so these numbers may be skewed for those of you with heavier units, although I will be up around 16,500LBs with the boat/camper hooked up so I may have to make additional adjustments. But at this point I will admit I am happy with the brake controllers operations.

ha long story short, I am excited put more miles on with the RAM and B&W

Completely opposite from what their experience was... Clicky

If that's the TFL video that was posted a month or two ago where the Ram required more brake touches, it's worth noting that the brake touches were only required because they were using full mode instead of auto mode (I believe GM and Ford only offer the equivalent to the Ram's auto mode). There was a long discussion about this in the Tow Vehicle section.

[Bigfoot_affair]

pressure_welder wrote:

Bigfoot affair wrote:

pressure_welder wrote:
Well finally was able to hook up the fiver to the new RAM for the first time, being that the B&W was on the lowest setting I had to make a pinbox adjustment to bring the nose down as much as possible, its not perfectly level but its not too bad either. 8-1/4" at the bedrail to front of the cap, and 7-3/4" at the tailgate. The fact that the box is shallower on the RAM compared to my GMC drastically helped my situation!

Hook up was a breeze with the B&W however it is a little different feeling with the cam jaw system, I am definatly used to hearing the nice "CLICK" when the king pin engages the jaws. Very quiet hitch to use which I noticed soon. Iam not too sure if it is my suspension on the truck making noise OR the pistons on the hitch head but I am getting a slight squeeking. Not horribly noticeable though. About the only complaint I have is B&W not making the locking pin holes on the feet big enough for a decent pad lock. I plan on drilling one out slightly, along with one of the pins on the hitch head for pad locks.

As for the first RAM towing experience (this is comparing to my 15 GMC), I took the fiver for about a 45min highway spin on the way to the dealer for some warrenty work. I noticed right away the Aisin felt strong and very similar to my Allison, shifting was on point. I was pleasantly surprised with the low end torque while getting going from a stop it was definatly more abundant. We have quite a steep grade to climb which is about 2 miles long almost directly off of our acreage so this was a good test, and it felt like the cummins loved every minute of it, I would say it nudged out the 15 duramax slightly on the hill climb. Crusing down the highway loaded I would say both trucks are quite comparable for ride comfort. Now I am a massive user of exhaust brakes while towing, I love them and always have, this RAM completely and utterly destroys my 2012 and 2015 duramax in this department, holy **** is the exhaust brake ever effective, sections of hill where ive had to apply additional brake with the duramax, ive actually had to apply acceleration disengage the RAMS exhaust brake to maintain speed, I am going to love this even more when the 5000LB boat is hooked up too. I must also note that I have the brakes set on Heavy elec and started with the gain on 6.0, I was happy with the brake test, however upon driving I noticed the camper was a little aggressive so I ended up down to 4.5 which seemed perfect. I will admit I am not as heavy as most with the fiver at 11,500 so these numbers may be skewed for those of you with heavier units, although I will be up around 16,500LBs with the boat/camper hooked up so I may have to make additional adjustments. But at this point I will admit I am happy with the brake controllers operations.

ha long story short, I am excited put more miles on with the RAM and B&W

Completely opposite from what their experience was... Clicky

I would say they are doing a slightly different style of towing as myself. Just commenting on what I have experienced thus far. Kind of funny that even the 2016 gmc dually barely made the list due to it almost being off by 10,000lbs towing capacity. Either way I still love both trucks.

Thats funny, because the way I see it is the Ram wasn't even at its max rated payload and wasn't performing as good as the one that was... Makes one wonder about Rams ratings.

[pressure_welder]

Bigfoot affair wrote:

pressure_welder wrote:
Well finally was able to hook up the fiver to the new RAM for the first time, being that the B&W was on the lowest setting I had to make a pinbox adjustment to bring the nose down as much as possible, its not perfectly level but its not too bad either. 8-1/4" at the bedrail to front of the cap, and 7-3/4" at the tailgate. The fact that the box is shallower on the RAM compared to my GMC drastically helped my situation!

Hook up was a breeze with the B&W however it is a little different feeling with the cam jaw system, I am definatly used to hearing the nice "CLICK" when the king pin engages the jaws. Very quiet hitch to use which I noticed soon. Iam not too sure if it is my suspension on the truck making noise OR the pistons on the hitch head but I am getting a slight squeeking. Not horribly noticeable though. About the only complaint I have is B&W not making the locking pin holes on the feet big enough for a decent pad lock. I plan on drilling one out slightly, along with one of the pins on the hitch head for pad locks.

As for the first RAM towing experience (this is comparing to my 15 GMC), I took the fiver for about a 45min highway spin on the way to the dealer for some warrenty work. I noticed right away the Aisin felt strong and very similar to my Allison, shifting was on point. I was pleasantly surprised with the low end torque while getting going from a stop it was definatly more abundant. We have quite a steep grade to climb which is about 2 miles long almost directly off of our acreage so this was a good test, and it felt like the cummins loved every minute of it, I would say it nudged out the 15 duramax slightly on the hill climb. Crusing down the highway loaded I would say both trucks are quite comparable for ride comfort. Now I am a massive user of exhaust brakes while towing, I love them and always have, this RAM completely and utterly destroys my 2012 and 2015 duramax in this department, holy **** is the exhaust brake ever effective, sections of hill where ive had to apply additional brake with the duramax, ive actually had to apply acceleration disengage the RAMS exhaust brake to maintain speed, I am going to love this even more when the 5000LB boat is hooked up too. I must also note that I have the brakes set on Heavy elec and started with the gain on 6.0, I was happy with the brake test, however upon driving I noticed the camper was a little aggressive so I ended up down to 4.5 which seemed perfect. I will admit I am not as heavy as most with the fiver at 11,500 so these numbers may be skewed for those of you with heavier units, although I will be up around 16,500LBs with the boat/camper hooked up so I may have to make additional adjustments. But at this point I will admit I am happy with the brake controllers operations.

ha long story short, I am excited put more miles on with the RAM and B&W

Completely opposite from what their experience was... Clicky

I would say they are doing a slightly different style of towing as myself. Just commenting on what I have experienced thus far. Kind of funny that even the 2016 gmc dually barely made the list due to it almost being off by 10,000lbs towing capacity. Either way I still love both trucks.

[dapperdan]

pressure_welder wrote:
WELL just made my phone call, not impressed. They wont go for the spacer plate idea which I kind of assumed. Aparently this fitment issue is a well known issue for the reese model for the RAM factory OEM prep.... which would've been great to know. So I guess my question is... before I go and send this hitch back in and buy the B&W.... does the B&W fit with zero issues?

Yup!!! Mine did. :B Took all of about 15 minutes to set in place.

There are adjustment bolts on the "feet" of the B & W should you need to "tweek" a bit, set it and forget it.

It's a pricey hitch but you'll love it, I do. :B

Dan

[Bigfoot_affair]

pressure_welder wrote:
Well finally was able to hook up the fiver to the new RAM for the first time, being that the B&W was on the lowest setting I had to make a pinbox adjustment to bring the nose down as much as possible, its not perfectly level but its not too bad either. 8-1/4" at the bedrail to front of the cap, and 7-3/4" at the tailgate. The fact that the box is shallower on the RAM compared to my GMC drastically helped my situation!

Hook up was a breeze with the B&W however it is a little different feeling with the cam jaw system, I am definatly used to hearing the nice "CLICK" when the king pin engages the jaws. Very quiet hitch to use which I noticed soon. Iam not too sure if it is my suspension on the truck making noise OR the pistons on the hitch head but I am getting a slight squeeking. Not horribly noticeable though. About the only complaint I have is B&W not making the locking pin holes on the feet big enough for a decent pad lock. I plan on drilling one out slightly, along with one of the pins on the hitch head for pad locks.

As for the first RAM towing experience (this is comparing to my 15 GMC), I took the fiver for about a 45min highway spin on the way to the dealer for some warrenty work. I noticed right away the Aisin felt strong and very similar to my Allison, shifting was on point. I was pleasantly surprised with the low end torque while getting going from a stop it was definatly more abundant. We have quite a steep grade to climb which is about 2 miles long almost directly off of our acreage so this was a good test, and it felt like the cummins loved every minute of it, I would say it nudged out the 15 duramax slightly on the hill climb. Crusing down the highway loaded I would say both trucks are quite comparable for ride comfort. Now I am a massive user of exhaust brakes while towing, I love them and always have, this RAM completely and utterly destroys my 2012 and 2015 duramax in this department, holy **** is the exhaust brake ever effective, sections of hill where ive had to apply additional brake with the duramax, ive actually had to apply acceleration disengage the RAMS exhaust brake to maintain speed, I am going to love this even more when the 5000LB boat is hooked up too. I must also note that I have the brakes set on Heavy elec and started with the gain on 6.0, I was happy with the brake test, however upon driving I noticed the camper was a little aggressive so I ended up down to 4.5 which seemed perfect. I will admit I am not as heavy as most with the fiver at 11,500 so these numbers may be skewed for those of you with heavier units, although I will be up around 16,500LBs with the boat/camper hooked up so I may have to make additional adjustments. But at this point I will admit I am happy with the brake controllers operations.

ha long story short, I am excited put more miles on with the RAM and B&W

Completely opposite from what their experience was... Clicky

[Jessie02]

pressure_welder wrote:
no you definatly have to change that manually from Light electric to heavy electric, if you have the uconnect 8.4 it its in the settings page. You can also save different trailer settings so all you have to do is click on what trailer setting you have preset to correspond with what trailer your towing

Ok awesome thanks!

[pressure_welder]

no you definatly have to change that manually from Light electric to heavy electric, if you have the uconnect 8.4 it its in the settings page. You can also save different trailer settings so all you have to do is click on what trailer setting you have preset to correspond with what trailer your towing

[Jessie02]

pressure_welder wrote:
I must also note that I have the brakes set on Heavy elec and started with the gain on 6.0

Since i'm new to this towing thing....I noticed when I plug in my evic shows "light electric." Does the brain switch between light and heavy electric automatically, or is that user controlled?

My B&W was a little squeaky at first (I'm using a sidewinder pinbox) however it went away after a short time, and some lithium grease on the hitch plate. I also put some lithium grease on the hitch legs where they tighten against the inside of the pucks which may have helped ( I recalled seeing that in the instructions on the Reese Elite so I figured it couldn't hurt on the B&W as well).

[pressure_welder]

Well finally was able to hook up the fiver to the new RAM for the first time, being that the B&W was on the lowest setting I had to make a pinbox adjustment to bring the nose down as much as possible, its not perfectly level but its not too bad either. 8-1/4" at the bedrail to front of the cap, and 7-3/4" at the tailgate. The fact that the box is shallower on the RAM compared to my GMC drastically helped my situation!

Hook up was a breeze with the B&W however it is a little different feeling with the cam jaw system, I am definatly used to hearing the nice "CLICK" when the king pin engages the jaws. Very quiet hitch to use which I noticed soon. Iam not too sure if it is my suspension on the truck making noise OR the pistons on the hitch head but I am getting a slight squeeking. Not horribly noticeable though. About the only complaint I have is B&W not making the locking pin holes on the feet big enough for a decent pad lock. I plan on drilling one out slightly, along with one of the pins on the hitch head for pad locks.

As for the first RAM towing experience (this is comparing to my 15 GMC), I took the fiver for about a 45min highway spin on the way to the dealer for some warrenty work. I noticed right away the Aisin felt strong and very similar to my Allison, shifting was on point. I was pleasantly surprised with the low end torque while getting going from a stop it was definatly more abundant. We have quite a steep grade to climb which is about 2 miles long almost directly off of our acreage so this was a good test, and it felt like the cummins loved every minute of it, I would say it nudged out the 15 duramax slightly on the hill climb. Crusing down the highway loaded I would say both trucks are quite comparable for ride comfort. Now I am a massive user of exhaust brakes while towing, I love them and always have, this RAM completely and utterly destroys my 2012 and 2015 duramax in this department, holy **** is the exhaust brake ever effective, sections of hill where ive had to apply additional brake with the duramax, ive actually had to apply acceleration disengage the RAMS exhaust brake to maintain speed, I am going to love this even more when the 5000LB boat is hooked up too. I must also note that I have the brakes set on Heavy elec and started with the gain on 6.0, I was happy with the brake test, however upon driving I noticed the camper was a little aggressive so I ended up down to 4.5 which seemed perfect. I will admit I am not as heavy as most with the fiver at 11,500 so these numbers may be skewed for those of you with heavier units, although I will be up around 16,500LBs with the boat/camper hooked up so I may have to make additional adjustments. But at this point I will admit I am happy with the brake controllers operations.

ha long story short, I am excited put more miles on with the RAM and B&W

[pressure_welder]

Iam pulling the camper out and making whatever adjustments I may need to hitch height and then going for a quick test pull ! First time on this new Cummins and B&W

[Jessie02]

Just did about 400 miles with my new B&W and Jayco trailer....towed awesome!! hitch didn't make a sound, and towed very smooth. I'm sold!!

[tinner12002]

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Send it back and get one of these. Drops right in and you will be impressed with the quality and ease of hitching.

X2! Love mine!

[Cummins12V98]

"as everyone seems to say that it is the quietest hitch on the market with little to no chucking"

"Chucking" is the fore and aft tugging between the RV and TV. You are referring to a loose hitch "Clunking". That is one place where the B&W shines there is zero clunking/ratteling.