Steve6l
Explorer
Joined 11 years ago
User Profile
User Widgets
All Activity
Re: Reese WD head clarification
well i have the htich finally dialed i assume that the front end dropping is more of a ballpark figure and weights on the scale give you exact numbers, sort of like in racing at the drag strip, guys have certain horsepower on the dyno but since all dynos are different (just like trucks suspensions) until you get on the track to prove the time your horsepower is just a ballpark. check and re checked the trailer 3 different times now, have the sway cam lobes perfectly centre on the bars, I angled the hitch head much more then before, grabbing the last tooth on the head so there are no exposed teeth. front end raised about 3/16" on one side lowered 1/16" on the other, i was however on a bit of a side slope where i checked. scale measurement for front diff came in at 4730# not hooked up came in a little lighter at 4550# when the truck was hitched with WD bars rear diff was loaded with quite a bit of weight 3718# unhitched and hitched up with WD bars 5100# hitched up with WD bars here is two pictures of how i set up the hitch head truck squat 1 1/4" at the ball when i put the trailer on it with the WD bars leaving it at a height of 30 3/4" about 3/4" lower then level. not sure if i should go to a 2" rise ball or not. truck seemed to handle awesome on the highway, in town taking corners more tight the hitch does make a lot of noise, not unexpected but it does seem a bit excessive wondering how normal this is, going to try the Vaseline next time i go out. i am kind of driving myself nuts i feel with checking and rechecking all the time, seems as if everytime i need to change something, starting to drive me insane, im going to leave the trailer and go from there. on a side not with the new bigger raise shank the old crappy tailgate i have on there while my 2014 gets sprayed does not hit, hoping the new one will not either. thanks a ton for your help john, i definitely would not have as solid an install as i do now without your help or as stable a tow rig. next thing im not sure if you can help me cover is my varying TWs and how i can counter them609Views0likes0CommentsRe: Reese WD head clarification
By not squat at all I meant I did not put any trailer weight onto the truck just had the ball hitched and was able to engage the snap ups with 7 links very easily. I had almost max head tilt already towards the trailer so it seemed odd. With the serrated teeth more so I was talking about the washer, can the washer every have teeth exposed to air. The washer in itself is smaller then the serrated patch on the head so the head no matter what will always have teeth exposed to the air. Sorry for so many questions Steve611Views0likes0CommentsRe: Reese WD head clarification
As nice as it would be if he sized them I think he just got bigger rims for his f350 so he used the stock 16" tires on the trailer rims. Haha For the holes I'm guessing they are 1 1/4" seperation just like the smaller shank. On the site it show 8 1/4" rise but I think earlier in the post you stated it was 10 1/2" rise got me a little confused. Im thinking Since it will give me 3" more over the 5 1/4" rise shank I have now and that was the exactly how much I had to go up in height for the ball to be 1" higher the then trailer level ill be good with the bigger shank inverted using the top hole. One question about my snap ups, I could just rest the trailer on the ball and not squat on it at all. And engage the snap ups with the bar very easily. If I jacked up the trailer only 3" I could snap them up by hand. Do I not have enough tension on the bars? Need more head tilt or less links? I think you said I want the front end to raise 1/8" to 1/4" vs un hitched right for 150# lighter? Is that correct? Also for head tilt the teeth on the head, can do you always want teeth to be locked into teeth? Once you get to max tilt have to take out a chain link and adjust tilt back again? Thanks for the help John Steve609Views0likes0CommentsRe: Reese WD head clarification
well ended up not having to go to work after all until the 7th called the store i bought the straight line kit from and they are going to trade me for the larger rise shank which is awesome. im going to pick it up tomorrow and weather permitting attempt the install to get the TT perfectly level. earlier on in the post john you had a hand drawn picture of the smaller shank hole sizes in relation to reciever, do you have the larger shank sizes as well so i know which holes to use right off the bat? trailer has LT tires on it i will post back once again once i get the new shank set up, this time im going to make a spreadsheet for my heights and weights as last time i got confused as my 2x2 sticky note space filled up quickly ;)610Views0likes0CommentsRe: Reese WD head clarification
well john im beat, spent 7 hours today leveling, checking, re checking, moving to a different parking lot, doing it all over again, moving to a flat piece of road, checking again to make sure my measurements were perfect. went to scales once installed and verified my weights were alright. however hitch is not setup correct, as per your instructions of having hitch ball head 1"-1 1/2" higher matter of fact i was out huge... trailer level top of ball mount = 31.5" hitch height top of square= 20 3/4" (slip tank empty, maybe 100 pounds of wood and tools if that) tv Ball height = 29 1/2" (same weight as above, 1 inch raise ball) now i was baffled when i got trailer level and realized it was a lot higher then the hitch and i wasted $150 on a shank that in the meantime is useless to me. anyways i took lots of pics for you to see, i used a 4 foot level, on 4 points on the frame as well as inside on the floor to determine level. took pics as best i could in 1 inch increments from trailer level with ball height all the way up to trailer level and even 1 inch higher. the ground i used to determine my final heights and level is going to be the spot i continue to make adjustments to keep a constant. in the meantime i need to tow about 350 miles tomorrow and i need the hitch setup as trailer feels super unsafe without it. now i did not adjust head tilt at all from where i guessed off the bat, and couldn't go any higher without buying more stuff and at 9pm at night that wasn't going to happen, as well as not having the time before i leave in the morning. now i got the TV front fender measurements once setup up to rise 1/4" on both sides, back end dropped 1 3/4" on driver side 2" on passenger side. dont know whats up with that just my measurements. this was later on into the event so numbers could have started to have human error. the 1/4" rise in the front resulted in a 250# decrease in weight on the scales opposed to hitched without the WD bars. i now flushed the black, grey and water tanks, have them totally empty as im towing to full hook ups, filled my propane bottles for all of this process. ended up giving me the same tounge weight right in the 1400# ball park. realistically what i learned today is you want my ball height 3" height to be proper. i can see how trailer being level will make towing "nicer" on the TV trailer length is 21 feet from center in between axles to the ball. first picture TV ball(29.5") 1" higher then trailer(28.5") TV ball(29.5") level with trailer(29.5") TV ball(29.5") 1" lower than trailer(30.5") TV ball(29.5") 2" lower than trailer(31.5" trailer is now sitting in this picture perfectly level according to my level) TV ball(29.5") 3" lower than trailer(32.5") TV ball(29.5") 4" lower than trailer(33.5") this is now hooked up with TV ball originally at 29.5" i did not get the measurement after it squat prob important but oh well. these next two are just how my setup looks right now the way i will be towing tomorrow, took 3 tries to get the cam lobes dialed in. these last two are just more pictures i took at how the camper sits level (TT hitch height of 31.5") as frustrated as i got today and how mad i was i bought the wrong shank, i made it work i think and it should not have any negative effects besides there being more weight effecting my tounge and the trailer not riding level. i really do not like how the truck squats, im definitely going to opt for air bags in the near future, then im guessing you set up your WD perfectly once and then just adjust PSI on the bags to obtain the exact same height as original setup. if my theory is correct this would be an awesome way to deal with my varying loads and not wanting to readjust hitch all the time. learning a lot about this hitch and i really appreciate your help for that john, will be a lot easier to fix in the future or adjust knowing exactly how the hitch is working. fwiw in my opinion this hitch greatly improved my confidence behind the wheel. i went on the highway and got the girl moving to 85 mph, felt comfortable, didnt stay there long just wanted to see, without the hitch on i was scared to break 60mph, now cruising at 70mph is a breeze. i cant wait to have it setup perfectly and get bags in there to add a whole new component to the ball game that i have no understanding on how it will effect. steve610Views0likes0CommentsRe: Reese WD head clarification
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, steve304Views0likes0CommentsRe: Reese WD head clarification
I figure I have a good handle on the information you have given to me. Realistically I can setup the cam and hanger brackets in my driveway and then go to a flat parking lot to dial in the adjustment afterwards? Without the wd bars on of course on the way there.219Views0likes0CommentsRe: Reese WD head clarification
Install and uninstall instructions, don't get hit in the nuts by the bar... Check Bags may be in the future and needed with my varrying tounge weights, but we can touch on that if the time comes... Make the front come up 1/8" to 1/4" check ill aim fr just shy of 1/4" and ill get back to you with scale weights One more thing on your setup with the jack/hand/jack stand in your picture it's not level like it will be in the reviever of the truck, yes I can use a jack stand and have it on a 30 degree angle or so you are showing off horizontal plane, will this not effect the placement of the snap up and dual cam mounts vs perfectly horizontal plane more so how it's mounted in the truck?219Views0likes0CommentsRe: Reese WD head clarification
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. 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? 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? hard to put a torque wrench on the yoke how tight do you make the retaining nuts? 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? top of trailer ball, 1 inch lower then hitch ball... check 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? 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? for the bracket i just wanted to take the picture so you could see it was bent, ill install properly dont worry. 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? thanks so much for your help, hoping to get it perfect first shot219Views0likes0Comments
Groups
