Hitches, Tongue Weight and Bike Racks

[rdblatch]

Hi All,

Hoping you can help. I purchased a wheel mount bike rack to go along with my CX-7's Class III hidden hitch: http://www.etrailer.com/pc-H~87421.h...cleid=20077499

Here is the bike rack I bought: http://www.etrailer.com/pc-br4b~S64665.htm

I have one problem. I can't fold the rack up as it's designed to do because the CX-7's bumper gets in the way. Therefore, I need some sort of hitch extender.

The rack weighs somewhere between 55 and 62 pounds. I used a bathroom scale to weigh it, so it's hard to get an exact measurement. It comes out from the hitch about 4 feet or so.

Here is the extension I plan to purchase: http://www.etrailer.com/pc-EXTENDER~HE06.htm It adds 7 inches to the length of the base, so we'd be looking at closer to 4.5 feet from the back of the hitch.

Etrailer stated that if you use an extender for your hitch, it decreases the tongue weight by 50%. They also stated that the tongue weight of my hitch is 350 pounds, but that I should be looking at the tongue weight of the vehicle as well. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but I've seen websites that say the towing capacity of the AWD CX7 is around 2000 pounds. The tongue weight is typically 10-15% of the towing capacity, so that puts us at around 200 pounds.

So, if I have to decrease tongue weight by 50%, it's 100 pounds for the car - or 175 pounds for the hitch.

I figure the total weight of the bikes and rack will come out to about 175 pounds (60 for the rack and 115 for the bikes).

I'm nervous no matter what, but I'm not sure I should be. Is tongue weight really only a problem if we're talking about towing something? Is there reason to be concerned that I'm: 1) going over the hitch's max tongue weight (if you decrease by half due to the extension), or 2) going over the CX-7's max tongue weight (if you decrease the 200 pound estimate due to the extension)?

What could happen if I add a 7" extension to this hitch and then have 175 pounds worth of rack and bikes attached to it?


Any further thoughts here? Anyone had this problem before? Thanks again.

 

[cmdavis3rd]

Hi All,

Hoping you can help. I purchased a wheel mount bike rack to go along with my CX-7's Class III hidden hitch: http://www.etrailer.com/pc-H~87421.h...cleid=20077499

Here is the bike rack I bought: http://www.etrailer.com/pc-br4b~S64665.htm

I have one problem. I can't fold the rack up as it's designed to do because the CX-7's bumper gets in the way. Therefore, I need some sort of hitch extender.

The rack weighs somewhere between 55 and 62 pounds. I used a bathroom scale to weigh it, so it's hard to get an exact measurement. It comes out from the hitch about 4 feet or so.

Here is the extension I plan to purchase: http://www.etrailer.com/pc-EXTENDER~HE06.htm It adds 7 inches to the length of the base, so we'd be looking at closer to 4.5 feet from the back of the hitch.

Etrailer stated that if you use an extender for your hitch, it decreases the tongue weight by 50%. They also stated that the tongue weight of my hitch is 350 pounds, but that I should be looking at the tongue weight of the vehicle as well. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but I've seen websites that say the towing capacity of the AWD CX7 is around 2000 pounds. The tongue weight is typically 10-15% of the towing capacity, so that puts us at around 200 pounds.

So, if I have to decrease tongue weight by 50%, it's 100 pounds for the car - or 175 pounds for the hitch.

I figure the total weight of the bikes and rack will come out to about 175 pounds (60 for the rack and 115 for the bikes).

I'm nervous no matter what, but I'm not sure I should be. Is tongue weight really only a problem if we're talking about towing something? Is there reason to be concerned that I'm: 1) going over the hitch's max tongue weight (if you decrease by half due to the extension), or 2) going over the CX-7's max tongue weight (if you decrease the 200 pound estimate due to the extension)?

What could happen if I add a 7" extension to this hitch and then have 175 pounds worth of rack and bikes attached to it?


Any further thoughts here? Anyone had this problem before? Thanks again.

Are you really going to be driving around town with that thing attached all the time? If not, I wouldn't worry about folding it up.

Also, the rack you reference holds 4 bikes. If you have 115lbs for bikes, that would be about 28lbs per bike. Those would be some heavy bikes. I know, mountain bikes weigh more than road bikes, but I can't see them weighting much more than 30 lbs. Plus, how often are you going to have 4 bikes on the rack.

I think tongue weight becomes more of an issue with a trailer since you have both a linear and a vertical force/load on the hitch/attaching bolts/chassis versus just having a bike rack that really only exerts a vertical force/load. Also, have you ever loaded a car onto a car trailer? That is a very inexact science and I am sure more often than not the tongue weight is more than it should be. Heck, I know I had probably too much tongue weight when I was towing my RX-7 to various race tracks and the only issue I ran into was the handling of the truck and the trailer wasn't that great. After a while of interstate driving I finally had the thought to reset the car on the trailer and things were much better. That was probably a couple hundred pounds over what it should have been.

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it. If you are really worried, just make sure the bikes are as light as they can be, ie. no cargo packs, water bottles, etc. Leave all those in the back of the Mazda till you get to your destination.

 

[Alpha Wolf]

200lbs is not going to break that hitch.

Just as long as the rear of the vehicle is not squatting so it handles badly or you drag parts you will be okay.