I just brought my TT home and checked the WD and sway control settings. I have the Reese straight line 1200# trunnion bars for my North Trail 32BHDS trailer (8600lbs GVWR).
I think my shank drop is not enough to have the WD properly set. I have an '06 Chev D/A 3500 crewcab longbox with a Putnam XDR receiver and Firestone ride-rite airbags(5psi). I also have a Marathon sled/atv deck in the bed.
After doing some quick measurements it seems that my hitch ball is approx. 2.5" higher then the trailer coupler(when level). Once the trailer is hitched the truck rally doesn't move very much (which I knew was going to happen...the atv's aren't loaded on yet) which makes setting the wd and sway control kind of difficult.
Right now as the setup stands, I am on the 8th or 9th chain link without making it extremely hard to raise the chains up. I tried the 7th link and even with the cheater bar it was very hard. The hitch head angle looks to be okay....it has the trunnion bars pointing down slightly as they should be. Another thing I noticed is that when the chains are disconnected the bars still have tension on the cams, even when the receiver and trailer are raised to make the bars easier to take off. This is another reason I think my drop is not enough.
I am just looking for some additional info and tips with setting this up but right now I think I need to get a shank with some additional drop.
If your trailer is high in the front when hooked up and ready to go, you are on the bottom hole of the shank, and the shank is pointed down, then you need to get a longer drop shank. The way to level the trailer is by the hitch head position on the shank, not by the WD bars.
If you can get your WD bars drawn up without a good strong effort then you do not have enough tension on the chains and need to either take up another link or tilt the hitch head some more.
To help with that task, hook up the trailer to the truck, use your tongue jack to raise both the trailer and truck together, making an inverted V, until it is possible to draw up the chains fairly easily using a pipe. This will allow you to get the proper amount of tension on the WD bars. I doubt that you have enough now from what you have described.
Take a good look at this sticky post for help in setting up your hitch. It will give you step by step directions and has pictures and help about the Dual Cam system that you have.
Barney
Thanks for the info....I have reviewed that info in the past. The Reese shank I have on there now is the #54970(4" drop I think), but I am having trouble finding the same or similar shank in a 6" drop.
I do believe that this is my biggest problem right now and would like to get it fixed before my wife and I go out again.
I will post a picture once I get home from work. For now I found some measurements: from the ground to the top of the receiver is 23" and ground to the top of the tongue is 21.5". I tried to get the trailer level but it may have been a little off by 0.5" or so.
Again the problem is that due to the 1-ton and airbags the truck doesn't settle much at all.
I take two atv's with me most of the time but I want to have the trailer set up for when I don't have them, then when I do, the truck settles alot, I will hook the trailer up and then air up the bags to bring the truck back up to the hooked up height.
I enlarged your pictures about 300% and from what I can see you have almost no appreciable tension on the bars. The reason they seem to still have tension on them, even when the chains are loose is because the cam arms are probably too tight and will not move up and down easily. You should loosen up the bolt that attaches the arms to the mounting plate slightly so you can move the arms up and down. Then, when you release the chains, push down on the arms with the pipe or your foot. This will release all the tension from the bars.
It does not look to me like you need a longer shank, especially if you normally tow with the quads in the truck. Even if you did get a longer shank, that will not have much, if any, affect on the WD bars. All the longer shank will do is lower the front of the trailer a bit but it looks pretty good right now.
If I were you, I would draw up the chains at least one more link and take the rig to a scale. Go through the weighing procedure as has been posted here several times and see what is actually happening. Looking at the truck and measuring fender well clearances can help you get into the ballpark but to get it right you really need to visit a scale. I have never seen a Dual Cam use the amount of links under tension that you have (8 or 9) and still be doing any good.
Barney
BarneyS wrote: I enlarged your pictures about 300% and from what I can see you have almost no appreciable tension on the bars. The reason they seem to still have tension on them, even when the chains are loose is because the cam arms are probably too tight and will not move up and down easily. You should loosen up the bolt that attaches the arms to the mounting plate slightly so you can move the arms up and down. Then, when you release the chains, push down on the arms with the pipe or your foot. This will release all the tension from the bars.
There is lots of tension on them. The cam arm bolts are not too tight because I checked them when I got home. They were quite loose actually so I tightened them up but they still move freely.
BarneyS wrote: It does not look to me like you need a longer shank, especially if you normally tow with the quads in the truck. Even if you did get a longer shank, that will not have much, if any, affect on the WD bars. All the longer shank will do is lower the front of the trailer a bit but it looks pretty good right now.
That's what I was thinking but when the quads are not on the truck the trailer is too high. It's too high as in the truck doesn't drop enough to even need the WD bars. When I measured the wheel wells before and after the trailer and WD was hooked up, the rear was actually higher then when unhooked. This was done without the quads on the truck.
BarneyS wrote: If I were you, I would draw up the chains at least one more link and take the rig to a scale. Go through the weighing procedure as has been posted here several times and see what is actually happening. Looking at the truck and measuring fender well clearances can help you get into the ballpark but to get it right you really need to visit a scale. I have never seen a Dual Cam use the amount of links under tension that you have (8 or 9) and still be doing any good.
Barney
I do need to stop at a scale, I will agree there. If I go to the 7th link I really don't think I will be able to get it hooked up. The reason for this it that even on the 8th link I have to lift both the truck and trailer quite high to get tension off enough to get the bars on/off. Even at that, and using the cheater bar on the chain hook, it still snaps up with difficulty.
H'mm I see a few unique things on this setup. I did the Barney zoom in even further.
Is that a 6" wide frame? The ball coupler in on the bottom which makes for great DC clearance.
However you also have considerable bed weight aft of the rear axle. And then there are air bags in the mix.
To set this WD up need to know where the resting height is going to be on the truck reciever with the bed weight in there and the air bags at what ever pressure they are going to run with.
Ideally, load the truck, air up your bags to what you are going to run them at, bed loaded, than then start sorting out the WD.
If not, then the WD is acting on that large bed load and you may very quickly run out of WD bar and hitch componet ratings trying to distribute the bed weight aft of the rear axle with the WD hitch.
The hitch shank, yes Barney is dead on, once the WD is set move the hitch head up and down the shank to level out the TT. But this all starts with where the reciever is going to be at before ever hitching up.
As far as drop shanks, I myself really like this one. This is a 6" drop shank 1,200# WD rating. Reese 54917 with lots of fine adjustment and solid steel
Here is is next to the std shank
And here it is on that same HP hitch.
Is your 2500HD the Duramax or the 6.0 gasser?
Do you know your loaded TT tongue weight?
Turk2500 here on the forum has a 2500 HD with a 1,200# tongue, same hitch and ball coupler on the bottom that can be used as a guide. I belive his setup is in the 7 link range under tension, but no quads in the bed. And he has a confirmed by scale tonuge weight.
If you are at 8 or 9 links under tension on the chains, and you are knowing you are straining to hitch up, this does stick out as something is not adding up. I agree wiht Barney. If you are trying to lift that heavy bed weight that can casue a problem.
My 2 cents we have to sort out the quads and air bags first then start setting WD.
And you need to know the loaded TT tongue weight. A scale trip needs to occur here so we can really tell what it is we are dealing with.
Hope this helps
John
PS to be able to tow with and without quads
Leave quads out, lower air bags pressue, setup up WD correctly and then level the TT no quads with the right shank. Find the reciever height unhitched with that setup.
Then for setup 2, load the quads, increase air bags to get truck back to the same reciever height as above and then hitch up using the same WD settings. This way the WD hitch is acting on the same weight with and wihtout quads.
Some where in all this, do not trip a TV rear axle rating and a TV GVWR rating. You are going to be close on GVWR if you have a real high TT tongue weight.
* This post was
edited 07/08/09 11:54am by JBarca *
John & Cindy
2005 Ford F350 Super Duty, 4x4; 6.8L V10 with 4.10
CC, SB, Lariat & FX4 package
21,000 GCWR, 11,000 GVWR
Ford Tow Command
1,700# Reese HP hitch & HP Dual Cam
2 1/2" Towbeast Receiver
2004 Sunline Solaris T310SR
(I wish we where camping!)
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