hey john got the brackets installed, think i did a good job, ill post a bunch of pics below and you can see if you can spot anything. used 8 links and trailer jacked up just so i could hand snap the chains and take some pics for you guys.
first thing is you said max turn of 77 degrees or so, i can go plus of 90 degrees turning forwards with my truck without hitting trailer. i took a few pictures just to show you below. now is this going to be a problem with the wd setup? also my driveway is super sloped and curves with slopes. how does the wd work with steep incline changes, im talking downhill then uphill creating a giant "U" and dont forget to throw the sharp turn in there? will i risk breaking the hitch?
i tried to mount the dual sway and snap ups, symmetrically to ball center, dont know if this is proper but made sense to me for either side of the frame to be "torqued" on in the same spots.
i tried to get the chains installed as vertical as possible pretty much touching the LP tanks. oh well should work.
dual cam brackets got pretty flush to bottom of frame with 2 washers per bolt thanks for the recommendation
in this picture you can see the u-bolt it has some give and seems as if there was more pressure down on the bar it would pull out seems a little mickey mouse again to me, is this proper or should it be changed?
one more question is this the way the dual cam should seat i took the hanger chain off to get a better picture, seems as center as i can make it?
im going to be off to a flat parking lot here in a few hours, the one i found was alright but not perfect and had a bit of a side incline, im hoping i can find better, it seems its very hard to find perfectly level parking lots these days. i guess i have to adjust head tilt, and get my heights today see if its even going to work.
thanks for your help, steve
first thing is you said max turn of 77 degrees or so, i can go plus of 90 degrees turning forwards with my truck without hitting trailer. i took a few pictures just to show you below. now is this going to be a problem with the wd setup? also my driveway is super sloped and curves with slopes. how does the wd work with steep incline changes, im talking downhill then uphill creating a giant "U" and dont forget to throw the sharp turn in there? will i risk breaking the hitch?
i tried to mount the dual sway and snap ups, symmetrically to ball center, dont know if this is proper but made sense to me for either side of the frame to be "torqued" on in the same spots.
i tried to get the chains installed as vertical as possible pretty much touching the LP tanks. oh well should work.
dual cam brackets got pretty flush to bottom of frame with 2 washers per bolt thanks for the recommendation
in this picture you can see the u-bolt it has some give and seems as if there was more pressure down on the bar it would pull out seems a little mickey mouse again to me, is this proper or should it be changed?
one more question is this the way the dual cam should seat i took the hanger chain off to get a better picture, seems as center as i can make it?
im going to be off to a flat parking lot here in a few hours, the one i found was alright but not perfect and had a bit of a side incline, im hoping i can find better, it seems its very hard to find perfectly level parking lots these days. i guess i have to adjust head tilt, and get my heights today see if its even going to work.
thanks for your help, steve
Steve, Quick answers in blue. Can yak more later if needed
There is the 2nd part of this statement. The WD settings. What you are describing is real old school and not correct for your truck. You really do not want to compress the front end below unhitched height.
For your F350, SRW's this is my suggestion.
Adjust WD to have the front end slightly lighter then unhitched weight. This is about 120 to 150# lighter. This will be about ~1/8" to 1/4" higher then unhitched fender height.
The back of the truck is going to carry weight. That 1 ton truck rear axle is made to carry weight. It has a 7,000# rating, let is carry some. For a more stable ride, having the top rear frame bracket touching the helper spring will help greatly in left to right truck roll. The helper springs act like a roll bar. Your aux fuel tank and the camper tongue weight will put you into this area without much issue. It may be there now.
See mine, the front
The rear
When I shifted more weight to the front, the rear springs where spongy way up in the suspension. When I kissed the helper spring, the entire rig was more stable. There are other reasons for the front being a little less in weight with WD as well. That is a post in itself almost. The new thinking is oversteer can occur if the front is a lot heavier with WD engaged. Basically, in a hard panic turn , the front end bites in so to speak and the trailer pushing the truck can help push you into jack knife. They want the front to slide a little, not bite in.
Be back later. The other guys can help on the WD too.
Good luck
John
Steve6l wrote:
hey john,
great to hear from you. im going to be taking the trailer on monday to an unsuspecting level parking lot hopefully to install the hitch properly. Good.
in your pictures you use a jack to dummy install your dual cam and snap ups its going to be hard for me to find my jacks in the middle of a move can i just use my truck? I only used the floor jack to hold shank to take a picture.... just hook it up and hold the shank, or a jack stand, block of wood. You are using this just to make sure the DC is in the correct place for you trailer frame. The Reese 1 size fits all instructions doe not always work on every camper made.
from what i gathered from what you said, follow instructions from reese for measurements for the most part. the one thing i guess you said to do differently was to have the 'yoke' in the middle, does that mean to have the same amount of threads on both sides? Yes, but the yoke threads in the middle to start with. This allows lot of adjustment in both directions. All Reese WD bars are not the same length which shifts the location of the DC. While this is a small shift, the number of chain links you setup for also changes the position. If you have the right number of links for "your" setup, then being in the middle of the yoke allows lots of adjustment. When you put the hitch under load the cam adjustment will need to be adjusted as the WD bar flexed requiring it.
hard to put a torque wrench on the yoke how tight do you make the retaining nuts? You do not need to torque the cam nuts. Reese does not tell you too any way as there is no prevision to simply get a torque wreck in there. And they do not have to be dead tight for the size of the nut they are. If you tighten them by feel to a 120 to 150 ft lb they will not come loose.
for the dual cam frame plate, you are saying to use the measurements they give me but if my snap ups wont work with my V-nose configuration to make sure i disregard reese recommendations for distance and just mount where chain will be vertical and yoke is perfectly centre and the cam sits perfectly when the hitch is straight in the highest most point in the curve on the bars ? does the yoke work better when perfectly centre? Correct. The Reese instructions for the cam only get you in the ball park. That is why I suggest to mock up the setup before drilling. The instructions work perfect on some campers and not so good on other. So yes. tweak the yoke to be centered before drilling. The actual DC and the anti sway works the same in any location as long you do not run out of yoke adjustment. Once you run out of adjustment then the DC does not work well as it is not centered.
top of trailer ball, 1 inch lower then hitch ball... check 1" even 1.5" is OK. Just much less than 1" odds are high will not give you what you need.
7 links under tension and adjust head tilt until truck front drops exact same as rear? fender height to ground from unhooked to hooked up? any reason for 7 links just your personal experience preference?
The 7 links under load comes from the 6" A frame, ball coupler on top, the 1" hi rise tow ball, 1,700# WD bars and your Tongue weight. And yes this is from experience as it allows on "your" setup to give the correct clearance between the DC yoke and the WD bar in a turn to not bind. This is all setup dependent. These 7 links will not work on a TT with a different setup or lighter WD bars. Guys with 8" tall frame need to use more links but again it depends on if the ball coupler is on top of the bottom of the frame. Guys with 5" or 4" frames they have a min limit of 5 links as binding will happen then and they cannot go 7 links as the camper is lower to the ground and the cam drag. Reese does not go into all that detail. One size fits all does not always work. .
i took your advice on the carriage bolts, but for the top bolt, i wont be able to use a carriage as there is no square(reese should have made it... whatever), are you saying i should drill and install and see if chain will touch bolt at multiple different angles and if it does take it out? or just leave it out and call it good? another question about the snap up brackets, in the instructions it says to only tighten 1/2 to 3/4 turn no more after hand tight kind of seems a little mickey mouse to me is that actually enough? My suggestion, if you install the 2 carriage bolts, skip the top center one. Reese uses the 1 top center one as they only have to drill 1 bolt. They do not talk about the 2 sq holes in the instructions but will if you ask them on the phone. Or did when I called. The one center bolts can in some case hit the chain and then all you can do it grind the bolt head down.
The 1/2 turn on the set screw, yes I know it sound Micky. The reason is if you start cranking on it, you will spring open the snap up and they will bend it from the get go. If you bolt them on from day 1, and tighten the set screw 1/2 to 3/4 turn, then your good to go. I myself added a jam nut on the set screw. Maybe over kill but I felt better.
for the bracket i just wanted to take the picture so you could see it was bent, ill install properly dont worry.OK good. Just checking as many have mixed this up to the point Reese stopped making the bent angle ones as when it is backwards, you start bending things.
one thing i dont know about is whether or not ill be able to back up without worrying about snapping anything, if i set up correctly will i only have to worry about my truck hitting trailer and nothing bad happen to the hitch? If needed later I can show how this all works if needed. You can back up as tight as you can turn going forward. The difference is backing up you can jack knife easier. You can turn 74 degrees left and 65 degree right before you hit. Set it up right and this becomes a non issue. But there is a point you can break something in a 75 to 77 deg left turn. That is about the time the bumper hits the LP tanks anyway.
thanks so much for your help, hoping to get it perfect first shot
Steve wrote:
7 links under tension and adjust head tilt until truck front drops exact same as rear? fender height to ground from unhooked to hooked up? any reason for 7 links just your personal experience preference?
There is the 2nd part of this statement. The WD settings. What you are describing is real old school and not correct for your truck. You really do not want to compress the front end below unhitched height.
For your F350, SRW's this is my suggestion.
Adjust WD to have the front end slightly lighter then unhitched weight. This is about 120 to 150# lighter. This will be about ~1/8" to 1/4" higher then unhitched fender height.
The back of the truck is going to carry weight. That 1 ton truck rear axle is made to carry weight. It has a 7,000# rating, let is carry some. For a more stable ride, having the top rear frame bracket touching the helper spring will help greatly in left to right truck roll. The helper springs act like a roll bar. Your aux fuel tank and the camper tongue weight will put you into this area without much issue. It may be there now.
See mine, the front
The rear
When I shifted more weight to the front, the rear springs where spongy way up in the suspension. When I kissed the helper spring, the entire rig was more stable. There are other reasons for the front being a little less in weight with WD as well. That is a post in itself almost. The new thinking is oversteer can occur if the front is a lot heavier with WD engaged. Basically, in a hard panic turn , the front end bites in so to speak and the trailer pushing the truck can help push you into jack knife. They want the front to slide a little, not bite in.
Be back later. The other guys can help on the WD too.
Good luck
John
It looks like you have a good handle on the situation, and yes the 2" hi rise tow ball can be used "IF" you need to get the ball up higher in place of buying the monster 2 1/2" rise shank. You really are going to have to find out what level really is to know. As it stands now, the tow ball is not high enough by these pics. But again need to know what trailer level is
Accounting for truck squat, it should look like this unhitched with camper level. Ball higher than coupler. Again if your numbers are correct, the 2" hi rise ball can help fix this.
Here is some tips beyond the instructions.
Make sure the DC frame bracket is dead tight to the bottom of the A frame before drilling. Us a C clamp of something to hold it tight before drill. You do not want any air space under there or over time it will start fatiguing the bracket and bolts.
The distance from the ball to the DC, the new instructions are a lot better then the old. Start by using the instruction to locate the brackets, BUT before drilling mock up the setup with the WD bars in place and make sure the cams are in the middle of the yoke adjustments, like this.
For your camper and your 1,700# WD bars, I suggest you start with 7 chain links under tension. Yours will look like this, 7 chain links from snap up hook to DC chain plate
Those 7 links under tension will stay that way for the most part unless you have large varying loads in the camper tongue weight. With the DC, you start with a set number of chain links under tension and then adjust the head tilt to get the weight distribution correct on the truck. Make sure the camper is loaded when making the WD adjustments.
You understand the flat washer shimming and the DC frame plate agasint your square corner channel iron frame. Good.
This DC frame plate is the most newest one they have made. The welded plate on one side and the offset of the yoke mount gives it away.
There is no issues with this vintage, I'm just point out you have the latest and greatest as made upgraded within approx the last year by Reese.
Heads up, this chain plate is put on backwards. You need to flip it around.
It needs to be like this when mounted and under load.
This pic has the chain plate correct but was it is showing the gap between the frame which is wrong. I do not have a handy pic with the new bent plate and everything else correct to show.
When you have the DC all dialed in perfect, mark the WD bars left and right and always put them back on the same side. The WD bars are forged and the DC is not an exact machining. So the bars & Cams create a wear pattern that will create a perfect match. But only is the WD bar stays on the same side all the time. If you flip flop the WD bars all the time the lengths are different affect the DC setting and the wear pattern is all screwed up starting all over again.
Also the cams will wear metal dust when brand new. This is normal. The wear in and then slow down over time. On real heavy TW's you can use vas-o-line on the cams. Never good grease but vaseoline is OK. I use the vase-o-line on my heavy tongue weight. It helps on the noise and the wear. So you can see, this wear on mine was at 24,000 miles
I have now more than doubled that, the wear is a little deeper but not a lot. As you can see, the wear pattern is different on each side. This is OK as long as you do not flip flop the WD bars
You already know about bolting on the snap up's and you have the latest heavy duty snap'up. You have the square hole to use carriage bolts. And I see Reese added the top middle center bolt hole too. The carriage bolts do not bind on the chain as easy, but head up if you use the top center home that the bolt head does not hit the chain.
Good luck
John
Accounting for truck squat, it should look like this unhitched with camper level. Ball higher than coupler. Again if your numbers are correct, the 2" hi rise ball can help fix this.
Here is some tips beyond the instructions.
Make sure the DC frame bracket is dead tight to the bottom of the A frame before drilling. Us a C clamp of something to hold it tight before drill. You do not want any air space under there or over time it will start fatiguing the bracket and bolts.
The distance from the ball to the DC, the new instructions are a lot better then the old. Start by using the instruction to locate the brackets, BUT before drilling mock up the setup with the WD bars in place and make sure the cams are in the middle of the yoke adjustments, like this.
For your camper and your 1,700# WD bars, I suggest you start with 7 chain links under tension. Yours will look like this, 7 chain links from snap up hook to DC chain plate
Those 7 links under tension will stay that way for the most part unless you have large varying loads in the camper tongue weight. With the DC, you start with a set number of chain links under tension and then adjust the head tilt to get the weight distribution correct on the truck. Make sure the camper is loaded when making the WD adjustments.
You understand the flat washer shimming and the DC frame plate agasint your square corner channel iron frame. Good.
This DC frame plate is the most newest one they have made. The welded plate on one side and the offset of the yoke mount gives it away.
There is no issues with this vintage, I'm just point out you have the latest and greatest as made upgraded within approx the last year by Reese. Heads up, this chain plate is put on backwards. You need to flip it around.
It needs to be like this when mounted and under load.
This pic has the chain plate correct but was it is showing the gap between the frame which is wrong. I do not have a handy pic with the new bent plate and everything else correct to show.
When you have the DC all dialed in perfect, mark the WD bars left and right and always put them back on the same side. The WD bars are forged and the DC is not an exact machining. So the bars & Cams create a wear pattern that will create a perfect match. But only is the WD bar stays on the same side all the time. If you flip flop the WD bars all the time the lengths are different affect the DC setting and the wear pattern is all screwed up starting all over again.
Also the cams will wear metal dust when brand new. This is normal. The wear in and then slow down over time. On real heavy TW's you can use vas-o-line on the cams. Never good grease but vaseoline is OK. I use the vase-o-line on my heavy tongue weight. It helps on the noise and the wear. So you can see, this wear on mine was at 24,000 miles
I have now more than doubled that, the wear is a little deeper but not a lot. As you can see, the wear pattern is different on each side. This is OK as long as you do not flip flop the WD bars
You already know about bolting on the snap up's and you have the latest heavy duty snap'up. You have the square hole to use carriage bolts. And I see Reese added the top middle center bolt hole too. The carriage bolts do not bind on the chain as easy, but head up if you use the top center home that the bolt head does not hit the chain.
Good luck
John
well john and other guys following and helping with my thread, i bit the bullet and bought the hitch today. got the 1 inch rise ball made by curt with machine finish 25000# could not find a 1/4" washer to use as a spacer and dont have a 450# torque wrench so just torqued the ball on at the shop and hopefully it works out for me. i can go back and use it again if i need. also the store that sells the 1" rise can also get me the 2" curt rise as well for $30
so for my hitch height it was at 21 1/4" empty and 19 1/4" slip tank full right now it is empty so i took a picture of how it is sitting.
i got about 9 inches out of the ball rise the way i inverted the shank and used the top hole sitting at 30 1/4" empty slip tank
my trailer is far from level, and my driveway even though paved has so many holes and uneven that its to difficult to get correct numbers. right now it sits at 32" when the trailer is level. but driveway slopes down from wheels so im guessing closer to the 30" range where the hitch is at now if not lower. have to find a big empty parking lot somewhere i guess and soon, need to tow on july 2nd about 400 miles and it could be a super windy day. the other problem is having my trailer loaded full of tonnes of my belongings as im moving on june 30th and into the 1st, doesnt give me a lot of time to dial in the hitch.
i attached pics of what i got, looks like i got the new silver style cams, 26002 (still unclear on the difference between them and the 26025 classic style as the classic is $250 more at most places) also they have the bent style brackets.
read through the instructions seemed pretty straight forward. should i be following reese specs for sizing or have you guys found from trial and error different distances and locations for mounting better?
picked up carriage bolts, some extra grade 8 1/2" washers for spacing on dual cam bracket and some 1/2" bolts and hardware if needed.
i want to have the sway cam mounts installed and adjusted perfectly so come july 1st the only thing i might have to adjust is the head angle and height if necessary. i gave the head a bit of tilt towards the rear just as a guess you should be able to see in pics i have play both ways a bit. have a torque wrench that will go to 300# so im good there.
thanks for all y'alls help
so for my hitch height it was at 21 1/4" empty and 19 1/4" slip tank full right now it is empty so i took a picture of how it is sitting.
i got about 9 inches out of the ball rise the way i inverted the shank and used the top hole sitting at 30 1/4" empty slip tank
my trailer is far from level, and my driveway even though paved has so many holes and uneven that its to difficult to get correct numbers. right now it sits at 32" when the trailer is level. but driveway slopes down from wheels so im guessing closer to the 30" range where the hitch is at now if not lower. have to find a big empty parking lot somewhere i guess and soon, need to tow on july 2nd about 400 miles and it could be a super windy day. the other problem is having my trailer loaded full of tonnes of my belongings as im moving on june 30th and into the 1st, doesnt give me a lot of time to dial in the hitch.
i attached pics of what i got, looks like i got the new silver style cams, 26002 (still unclear on the difference between them and the 26025 classic style as the classic is $250 more at most places) also they have the bent style brackets.
read through the instructions seemed pretty straight forward. should i be following reese specs for sizing or have you guys found from trial and error different distances and locations for mounting better?
picked up carriage bolts, some extra grade 8 1/2" washers for spacing on dual cam bracket and some 1/2" bolts and hardware if needed.
i want to have the sway cam mounts installed and adjusted perfectly so come july 1st the only thing i might have to adjust is the head angle and height if necessary. i gave the head a bit of tilt towards the rear just as a guess you should be able to see in pics i have play both ways a bit. have a torque wrench that will go to 300# so im good there.
thanks for all y'alls help
