Today we are going to do an install of part number 66067 we have a full size van and an enclosed toy hauler and as you can see here it is kind of sloping down pretty bad. We will go ahead and install weight distribution to help straighten things out. To begin our install we have to uncouple the truck and trailer, get the trailer level and get the measurement off the ball mount. At this point we can go ahead and pull the van out of the way and get a little more working room. We will go ahead and take out the ball mount and then then go ahead and measure for a rise or if needed for the shank for the weight distribution. What we are going to do is measure from the bottom of the coupler to the ground and that is 22 inches. We will do the same thing for the vehicle. We will measure from the top of the hitch on the vehicle to the ground. Roughly it will round off to 18 inches so we will need to raise it 4 inches.
Now we just pick out a shank with a 4 inch rise to it. Next we will go ahead and loosely install the head assembly on our shank and adjust it as close as we can to the couplers 22 inch height. We will go ahead and install our adjusting washers. To adjust the tilt of the head you just turn these washers here to make it go up or down as needed. Once you have the hitch set the height you want, if it is in between always go with the next higher slot up. Because it is better to have it up to take care of any vehicle squat when you put the weight on the trailer hitch. Go ahead and install the ball on here. Turning it sideways will make it easier to tighten down. We will go ahead and tighten up the bolts that hold down the head assembly. Next we need to get a few measurements on the van before we put the weight on there. We will measure from the top of the wheel wells then down to the ground and note those. Ideally we want to have about a 1/2 inch of sag overall and the rear measurement should not sag more than 1/2 inch. Looks like the back wheel is 36 and the front wheel is 35. We will go ahead and attach our chains to our spring bars here. They just attach them with a U bolt. Go through a couple of washers and lock nuts. It does not have to be super tight either just tighten them down a few threads past the nut will be fine
The next part is to go ahead and put the trailer back on the truck and get it back to original ride height. We will go ahead and install our swing bars and locate where our lift lock brackets need to go. What you want to do is go ahead and pull up the chain as straight as possible until it gets vertical. Then line the lift lock bracket just with it. That will give us plenty of clearance for this little ferrying here. Once we have our alignment set we will go ahead and put a few marks on here just so we know where to place it when we put it back. We will take it off and then put our set bolts back in and reinstall it. Once you have it set you want to tighten down your set screw tightened right until it touches then about a half turn it will fall into place. Then go ahead and repeat for the other side. Now at this point you have the trailer and the van coupled up. We will go ahead and raise both of them with the trailer jack. Rise it back up to original trailer height. Then we will install our chains and see how our dimensions come out on the wheel wells. One note is you should have a minimum of 5 links showing. So I think we will be on 7 maybe. We will go ahead and pull it up and repeat for the other side. Now we will take the tension off of the jack and let the bars do all the work and check our measurements. Go ahead and measure here 35-1/2. About a 1/2 inch difference which is just fine. Then 35-1/4 which is pretty close. The rear was okay but the front did not settle like it was suppose too, in fact it went up just a little bit. Also one detail we will look for is that the spring bars if you notice should be parallel to the bottom of the tongue.
In this case they are actually pointing up towards the tongue. Which is not right, they should be pointing straight or down. So to remedy that you will have to tilt the whole head assembly one notch then see what we have there. This requires disassembly then we tighten it back up and try it again. With adjusting it one more notch down and we have gained about an 1/8th of an inch overall in front which is fine. Then on the back we settled it about a 1/2 inch. So a load is being distributed across the vehicle and trailer. That concludes the installation of part number 66067 from Reese. What we have here is our dual cam high performance sway control. Part number 26002 from Reese. We are going to install it on an existing weight distribution system. That system would be the round bar system from Draw Tite. We do have to make a few modifications to it. First off we have to take the spring bars back off and disconnect the chains there on the end. Then the chains get reattached to another bracket and get reinstalled. This is our new bracket we are bolting our chain too. It just goes through a loop and then through here. All we need is a minimum of 2 threads past the nut will be good enough. Then repeat for the other one. Next thing we do is make sure the yolks are centered on the threads here. Basically you want to make sure they have even threads on both sides. You pretty much tighten until they stop. Then go ahead and mark the frame to mount these onto. Next is to install one of our spring arms to do a trial fit. What you want to do is make a center point 18 inches from the center of the ball out to the end of the frame.
As you can see we already did that all we want is the center of this bolt to line up with this mark. Then you want the this part here about 1/2 inch in front of the indent. When you bring up tension this round ball part will rise up into the indention. Once you are certain it will fit decently we will go ahead and line it up and just mark our holes out. We will drill these out with a 1/4 inch first then come back through with a 7/16 bit. We can go ahead and just start threading our bolts in the front end without the bracket first just to get them started. Then we will go ahead and install our main bracket. We are going to go ahead and install our bracket now to the sway control. When you get the bolts tightened down snug then go ahead and tighten them up about a 1/4 turn thats all the torque you need. Now we can go ahead and install our set screw here on the back of it. Before we can install our set bolt we have to install this jam nut first about 3/4 of the way. Then we will lock it in place with the jam nut. Before we hook up our chains we need them back off these nuts now. Get a free range of movement. Then we can go ahead and put up our lift lock brackets. We will go do that for the other side also. Next we need to go take it on a test drive making left and right turns, about 20 degrees. So that you can make sure that sway control cam fits properly into indention on the spring and then we will snug those nuts back down and tighten them good. After you have had your test drive and things are sitting they way they are suppose to go ahead and tighten down these nuts right here. You want to get them torqued down so we can get the lock washer flattened out. That concludes our install of part number 26002 from Reese. The dual cam high performance sway control.
Questions and Comments about this Video
have dual cam system should it be greased at bar contact points
comment by: DON B - 10/6/2012
There is no need to lubricate the ends of the bars that ride on the cams. You do want to use a heavy oil to lubricate the trunions in the head, not a grease though. Check the instructions that came with the kit, it should have further details regarding lubrication. Check page 3 of the instructions linked below for an example, but be sure to follow the instructions for your specific system.
Helpful Link?pn=RP66130
Patrick B - 10/8/2012Weight Distribution Trailer Hitches Information
Today we are going to cover a few questions about weight distribution in general that we get a lot. First we will start off with the hitch itself. A common question is can any hitch be used with the weight distribution assembly. Virtually any two inch receiver hitch as the one we have here, can accommodate weight distribution. However there are a few odd ones out there that do not, mainly they are on small SUVs and maybe a couple of minivans, for the most part almost any two inch receiver hitch can accommodate weight distribution. The only real bulletproof way to find out is to look at the sticker on the hitch itself and you will see some numbers on there. The numbers you want to look for here are right here. This one says weight carrying and that is for the hitch itself which means that is the maximum weight the hitch can carry without any assistance.
Measuring for Weight Distribution Review
Today were going to show you how to measure for a weight distribution shank. It looks kind of confusing with the different lengths and amount of holes on it and different measurements. Were going to keep it basic and simple so you can pick out the right one the first time and well show the steps that are needed to do that. First thing we do is get two measurements, we need to measure from the bottom of the coupler down to the ground. Also we need to measure from the top of the hitch opening down to the ground. The difference between the two measurements will tell us what size shank to get. Well make that 13 1/2 inches and looks like we have a measurement of 21 inches. With some simple math, the difference will be 7 1/2 inches, so we need to find a that is close to that. The closest one we have is part # 3344. That part will have a eight inch total so that will be as close as we can get. Well check that out to make sure it works. With our measurements in hand, lets go ahead and test it. As you can see the ball height is the same as the coupler so it looks like a perfect match.
