Rubbing sway bars

[John and Jo]

Hi all,

I seem to remember that this topic was discussed some time ago but cannot find it back.

My reese hitch bars hit the A frame when turning.

They sit 10/15mm above the bottom of the frame and hit every time obviously damaging the galvanising and makes a horrible noise.

Is there any body out there who can help me with this?.

I have contacted the factory and they suggested the easy-lift system as this comes up from below, but I have the Reese and was hoping to modify this some how?

Thanks in advance

John

[John and Ann]

Hi John,

Making an Assumption here in that you are talking about WDH bars rather than Sway Bars, my apologies in advance if you really meant Sway Bars.

Sounds to me like your WDH needs to be angled back a little further, this is a real simple job that I have done recently to give me a little capacity to tension the bars. How many chain links are there between the bar and the snap up hook? I suspect that you have too few, this creates two problems, first bars could rub on chassis rail when turning, second there is insufficient slack when tensioned to allow for cornering and thus the tensioning hook will slide back and forth on the A frame. I used 5 links (min recommended by Reece) as the target between tension bar and snap up hook, but am currently at 7 I think, this means the bars hang a little low but for the most part this will be OK for me.

Before you start anything load up the rear of your car with everything you would normally carry when traveling including fuel and measure from the ground to the wheel arch at the centre of each rear wheel, make a note of the measurement.

To adjust the angle undo the top bolt (28mm sockets/spanners needed), once loose move the sawtooth washer one set of teeth so that the hitch tilts back a little, re-tighten and test by hooking up your van, remember though to jack up your van little while hooked onto your car (lift the vehicle rear and the van front) before tensioning your bars, use the link that is closest to the hook with the yoke of the snap up hook parallel to the ground.

Now release the jack and remeasure at the rear wheels of your vehicle, if the sag is close to 15mm or so, then you are pretty well done, if not, you need to angle the hitch back a little more or if you have more than 5 links between the bar and the snap up bracket go one link more and re-measure (you might need to jack the car and van a little higher to go another link).

It is important to remember, NEVER, try to tension or release the tension bars unless you have taken up the tension by jacking up the van while hooked up to the car.

Good luck, hope this helps. I have attached what Hayman Reece sent me when I asked for setup information, it provides more detail but is essentially along the same lines as I have posted here. 1000lb WDH.pdf, thanks to Hayman Reece for supplying me with this document and although you might not have a 1000lb WDH John, I believe the principals for setup will still apply.

[John and Jo]

Thanks John, we will have to catch up some day as you only live up the road well 400kms away.

The Reese system we have is different than yours, ours has square-tapered bars which fit between rather than come up from below.

However the adjusting method is probably the same.

We had Glen at the factory set this up for us last year, and he said thats as good as it can be, but I am not at all happy with this .

I will have an other look tomorrow and will let you know how it went

Thanks again

John

[John and Ann]

John,

I'l send you my details, if your ever in Perth give me a call, we have room if you want a stopover.

You have me curious now as to what exactly it is that you have. Any part numbers? Perhaps a couple of photo's?