New bike with a 135 qr rear skewer which is unbranded(probably inhouse cannondale) external cam design. 3rd ride and the wheel came out, I’m 99% sure it was tight so looking to replace the skewer just in case.
I rate the XT design but also noticed the DT Swiss RWS option, thoughts on what’s the better option?
RWS looks interesting but I did see a you tube vid where the guy stripped the nut doing it up however I guess you could argue that proves it is capable of a higher clamping force!

RWS is good.
I use a QR 10mm. Kind of like a thru-axle that works in QR drop outs. You need the right end caps for the hub though.

Shimano are pretty bombproof. Unless the DT Swiss ones are cheaper I’d pick Shimano every time.

Shimano every time

Without swapping end caps or any of that sort of faff, shimano and salsa have always been the most secure.

Shimano here too. I have xt and a plain shimano, both been perfect for me.

Last one got came with a shimano hub i got on clearance somewhere for a tenner, cheaper than buying a QR, so worth a look.

Shimano. SJS Cycles have them on sale at the moment. £10 for XT or £2.99 for Deore.

Yep Shimano here. Had this issue on a road bike that came with some crappy external cam qr skewers. Wheel kept coming lose. Replaced it for a Shimano one from SJS and all was good.

Shimano are cheap and reliable. If you want something prettier anything which over cams (eg goes loose-tight-slightly looser) with a proper seat and no shim should be fine (except hope unless they’ve fixed the threads being made of cheese).

I got a crank brothers split lever one cheap as chips years ago and it’s been bombproof but seem to recall them being seriously pricey normally.

Dt rws works very well but really doesn’t bring much to the party for the cost. Don’t read too much into a couple of YouTube videos and comments, everything fails now and again.

Clamping force on your qr isn’t the problem, you should be able to get a lot more force on the qr than you’d ever want, the issue with cheap qr is they tend to have shims which fail or move or they don’t over cam. (or even with good qr, people lock them down facing the triangle so the frame prevents it being closed properly as it won’t push beyond “flat”.

Mavic

bx 601 v2450401

Shimano. Deore or XT, there’s a reason the design has lasted so well.

I’ve got XT on my hardtail and it’s been faultless for years, when it comes to traditional cam style QR’s then Shimano is the best.

However I have a 4x bike with horizontal dropouts and the wheel would slip with a cam style QR, I now have a DT Swiss rws and it doesn’t move. The rws can definitely clamp tighter but shouldn’t be necessary unless you have horizontal dropouts.

Absolutely Shimano every time. Even the cheap steel ones are good if heavy.

FWIW I have Hopes on my Hardtail and they seem rock solid but the daft wee ball on the end of the handle makes it a faff to close.

Shimano are probably the best option. I use Halo Hexes, they’re not QRs but I have never in my life wanted to remove a wheel when I didn’t have a multitool or allen key to hand.

Thanks for the feedback guys, XT looking like the best cost/function option.
I get the 135mm measurement what what’s the 173? Doesn’t seem to line up with anything I can measure.
Also some XT skewers are for thick dropouts but what’s classed as “thick”?

173mm should be the standard skewer length for a a 135mm rear from the head of the cam to the end of the thread(168mm for 130mm road and 163mm for skinny dropout 130mm)

Roughly 135mm internal spacing
3.5-6mm ish dropout thickness
12-15mm each end for the cam and nut

So bit of closure on this subject…..
Went for the £10 XT as highlighted by Slackboy and finally got around to fitting it today. Interesting that it was about 4 or 5 mil longer than the original (and the spare in the toolbox) so now it fully engages with the drive side nut.

Still keep looking at the RWS option as I like the idea behind it but that’s for another day as I’m sure the immediate problem is resolved.

Thanks everyone for the input.