Warning: Reese Elite Rail Kit on 2011 Chevy
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Should be Chevy Silverado 3500 CC/SB
As a courtesy (hopefully) to anyone contemplating installing a Reese Elite Hitch on a 2011 Chevy/GM CC/SB, here is my experience:
In an effort save others from this aggravation, plain and simple this hitch, specifically the rail kit cannot be properly installed per the instructions provided.
I posted the following on the DieselPlace.com forum and also sent it to Cequent/Reese tech support 10-23:
Greetings all,
Thought I'd pass this along in case anyone else is contemplating this hitch.
Had mine installed yesterday and noticed some problems with it.
1.) The most obvious was the poor fit of the trim rings. Took it upon myself today to remove the pucks to see what was going on. There was only 1 out of 4 where the puck was actually sitting on the rail, the other 3 had the bed squashed in between.
What I found was that the holes had been drilled in the wrong location per the instruction sheet from REESE which specify 33 1/8" from rear of bed.
In the installing dealer's defense, they simply followed the instructions but there is an inherent design /SAFETY problem with this at least as far as the 6.6' box is concerned.
2.) Further investigation revealed an interference problem with the forward bracket mounting bolts - they are simply too close together to be able to even get a socket on either the nut holding the bracket to the frame or the bolt head holding the rail to the bracket. The flats are so close together right now I don't know how they could turn either one.
There is no way possible to get the rail any closer to the 33 1/8" dimension. Going further back obviously puts the pin over the axle instead of the recommended 1" forward offset.
3.) Of greatest concern is the fact that the forward bolts do not appear to have been torqued properly since the conical washers do not look to be fully compressed, this is also evidenced by the lack of thread protruding through the nut. I'd say less than 1 vs. 2 full thread protruding through the rear nut. Again, the bolt is so close to the nut that there is no way to turn it without sliding the bracket rearward.
I doubt that even a socket head cap screw would work as a solution.
4.) I suspect that the only solution is going to be slide the brackets rearward and lose some of the 1" offset, use a crow's foot on the torque wrench and then elongate the holes in the bed so the pucks sit flat like they are supposed to. Hopefully I can go back to Line-X and they can fill in the voids from elongating the holes.
Refer to annotations in attached pdf. Edit: Standby for PDF, upload manager does not appear to be working at the moment. Anyone have any ideas? All I get is the please wait message and no apparent data transfer.
I will be contacting Cequent/Reese first thing Monday to see if they can provide any solutions.
For the time being I am extremely DISAPPOINTED with this product having spent over $2200 for it.
There is a pdf with annotated pictures on the dieselplace.com forum should anyone wish to download.
Regards,
Todd
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