Reese strait line.

[needgas__]

Having a little trouble with my weight distribution hitch with new tow vehicle. Had 2500 ram for years, switched to 1/2 ton for a while, and now back to 2500. I cannot seem to get enough pressure and my spring bars to move weight to front of vehicle. Do I simply need to tilt my hitch head back more? Everything is pretty level though not dropping any height in front end and minimal sway control.

[bobndot]

Then I would agree , its sounds like you need more tilt.

[needgas__]

Myredracer, I will post picture later today. and will also tilt the head out more.

BobnDot, I don't seem to have much sway control with limited tension on spring bars. I can pull up on them with my hand with only a little effort. Just not enough tension on them to function properly.

[bobndot]

OP, your setup doesn't seem so bad to me.
Is your combo having a handling issue ?


"Had 2500 ram for years, switched to 1/2 ton for a while, and now back to 2500".
Could the spring rating be a factor ? Maybe it matters...maybe not
Could the rear coil springs on the Ram have something to do with it ?

[myredracer]

needgas$$ wrote:
MYredracer, thanks for your reply. I feel I know this hitch setup very well as I have had it for 15 years on this trailer and 5 TV. Setup from vehicle to vehicle has been straight forward. My new to me 2015 Ram 2500 just doesn't seem to want to cooperate. My hitch weight is just shy of 900lbs. and I have 1200lb trunion bars. My truck dips about 1 inch in rear and up 1/2 inch in front without weight distribution. I have head tilted back pretty far (Could go a little more) and can only reduce the amount front rises by 1/4 inch. I can pull the bars up with snap up brackets to the point the bars hit the frame without assist of tongue jack. Not much force on bars at all.

You've got the right bars then. It sounds like you might not have the them at enough of a downward angle. The bars should never be able to touch the A-frame. You want either 5 or 6 chain links under tension and 7 at most, no more or no less. This photo is how it should look. Reese specifies 19-3/8" from the coupler ball to the center of the cam arm bracket. This is important so that you can get the correct bar angle and the threads on the cam arm positioned so there is enough thread in both directions for adjustment.

There is an excellent sticky in the towing forum on setting up these Reese WDHs and is a recommended read. Posting a couple of photos would help - one close up and one from a distance with TT hooked up.

[needgas__]

MYredracer, thanks for your reply. I feel I know this hitch setup very well as I have had it for 15 years on this trailer and 5 TV. Setup from vehicle to vehicle has been straight forward. My new to me 2015 Ram 2500 just doesn't seem to want to cooperate. My hitch weight is just shy of 900lbs. and I have 1200lb trunion bars. My truck dips about 1 inch in rear and up 1/2 inch in front without weight distribution. I have head tilted back pretty far (Could go a little more) and can only reduce the amount front rises by 1/4 inch. I can pull the bars up with snap up brackets to the point the bars hit the frame without assist of tongue jack. Not much force on bars at all.

[myredracer]

Assuming it's installed properly, do you know your actual tongue weight and do you have the correct spring bar rating?

I had this problem at first on our new TT. Just could not get enough weight back onto the steer axle no matter what I did. The spring bars were curved like bananas (exaggerated a bit for emphasis). The rear end of the TT bobbed up and down like a duck in water (not good). Went to a scale and discovered that the dry TW had gone from 540 lbs dry to around 950 lbs actual. (The TW works out to around 14.5% which is above the average of 12-13%.) I had pre-purchased 800 lb rated bars thinking that'd be plenty. Bought a new set of 1200 lb bars and problem solved. Took me a long time with our Reese DC WDH to fiddle with all the parameters to get it right. When it was, it was like wow!

Note that Reese is different than the other WDH manufacturers. Their bar ratings are defined by TW plus cargo in the TV. This will in itself mean a higher bar rating figure. Also note that when you get over 1000 lbs you may need to upgrade the mounting of the cam arm brackets and snap-up brackets plus the snap-up brackets may need to be their heavy duty ones. One other thing is that a full holding tank can really throw off the adjustment of where the cam arm lobes sit in the "crooks" in the bar ends depending on tank location. The lobes/crooks MUST be centered. You'll want to monitor this in the initial set up phase as you do more and more miles/trips.

Our TT is 29' and almost 7K lbs and we tow it with an F250. After dialing in the WDH and getting it as good as it was going to get, the last thing I did was get the trailer slightly nose down. Had to use a ball with a 1" rise and could only find one online. Made a noticeable improvement. That was 4 seasons ago and haven't had to touch the WDH since. No sway (woohoo)!

[Lynnmor]

Bobbo wrote:
Tip the head down to put more pressure on the bars.

And follow the instructions in the installation manual.

[Bobbo]

Tip the head down to put more pressure on the bars.