rear hitch for rack

[Bankerbob]

Our 2011 Outback has a hitch system welded to the frame and is located just behind the bumper. Supposedly it can support 200lbs and we have found a box for our Gen set that works with a 2 inch receiver which is what is on this attachment. The Gen set weighs 412 lbs when fully gassed. Before I spend 950.00 on this I am interested in some opinions. On another general RV forum site several folks have these and have experienced no problems.

[Bankerbob]

sorry for the posting error - the gen set weighs 141 llbs fully gassed

[Bob Landry]

Originally Posted by Bankerbob

Our 2011 Outback has a hitch system welded to the frame and is located just behind the bumper. Supposedly it can support 200lbs and we have found a box for our Gen set that works with a 2 inch receiver which is what is on this attachment. The Gen set weighs 412 lbs when fully gassed. Before I spend 950.00 on this I am interested in some opinions. On another general RV forum site several folks have these and have experienced no problems.

Just my opinion, but I have a couple of issues with this setup. The receiver is actually bolted to a piece of angle iron on each end. The angle iron is attached to the trailer frame, but the seams where it's attached is just welded with "segments" meaning the weld does not run the full length of the seam. Keystone says that receiver will support 200 lbs. It probably will, but it's meant for a bike rack and a couple of bicycles. If you hang a 140lb generator and box on that receiver and go over rough roads, that weight is going to be tranformed into several hundred lbs of weight torquing and leveraging on that assembly. The other issue is that if you stick some kind of carrier in the receiver to carry the genny, it will protrude quite a distance past the spare tire and you are already dealing with a 35' trailer.
You may want to consider something like this..





I had this box custom made to the dimensions that would let it occupy the right half of the bumper, and a height, that with the front opening door, lets me get maximum height without a top opening lid interfering with the taillight. Top of the bumper to the bottom of the taillight is 19". It's 16" deep which does not protrude past the spare tire. My Craftsman air compressor fits nicely in it, a generator will probably also fit. It's mounted to the bumper using 4" U-bolts with plywood pads on the inside to distribute the load. There are angle iron supports welded to the bumper supporting the overhang of the box and the box is bolted to the supports at each end to keep it from "bouncing" I did away with the bike receiver and a piece of 1/4" square tubing is welded across the span of the frame and then short pieces of the same tubing welded between that cross member and the bumper. That bumper is going nowhere. The box was cheaper than a carrier. I paid $275(custom built) plus $60 for Fed Ex to deliver it, and I spent around $200 total to get the support system for the bumper fabricated and welded in place at my local hitch shop. I'll post photos of the support system a soon as I can get back to the trailer with my camera. Peace of mind going down the road.. Priceless.

[jq1031]

Originally Posted by Bob Landry

Just my opinion, but I have a couple of issues with this setup. The receiver is actually bolted to a piece of angle iron on each end. The angle iron is attached to the trailer frame, but the seams where it's attached is just welded with "segments" meaning the weld does not run the full length of the seam. Keystone says that receiver will support 200 lbs. It probably will, but it's meant for a bike rack and a couple of bicycles. If you hang a 140lb generator and box on that receiver and go over rough roads, that weight is going to be tranformed into several hundred lbs of weight torquing and leveraging on that assembly. The other issue is that if you stick some kind of carrier in the receiver to carry the genny, it will protrude quite a distance past the spare tire and you are already dealing with a 35' trailer.
You may want to consider something like this..





I had this box custom made to the dimensions that would let it occupy the right half of the bumper, and a height, that with the front opening door, lets me get maximum height without a top opening lid interfering with the taillight. Top of the bumper to the bottom of the taillight is 19". It's 16" deep which does not protrude past the spare tire. My Craftsman air compressor fits nicely in it, a generator will probably also fit. It's mounted to the bumper using 4" U-bolts with plywood pads on the inside to distribute the load. There are angle iron supports welded to the bumper supporting the overhang of the box and the box is bolted to the supports at each end to keep it from "bouncing" I did away with the bike receiver and a piece of 1/4" square tubing is welded across the span of the frame and then short pieces of the same tubing welded between that cross member and the bumper. That bumper is going nowhere. The box was cheaper than a carrier. I paid $275(custom built) plus $60 for Fed Ex to deliver it, and I spent around $200 total to get the support system for the bumper fabricated and welded in place at my local hitch shop. I'll post photos of the support system a soon as I can get back to the trailer with my camera. Peace of mind going down the road.. Priceless.

Bob, where did you get the box made? Thanks, Joe

[Bob Landry]

Mark Proul
203 228 2164
[email protected]

I think he's located in Conn.
He's pretty busy so email is probably the best way to contact him.

[THedges]

The thing you want to try and prevent is the constant twisting from the box going up down while driving. That weight has a lot of torque behind it.

I was able to attach an eye-bolt threw the rear wall. I then used a turnbuckle to pull the box towards the rear wall of the TT. The result is no movement at all. I am very pleased with this except for one thing, we now feel more vibrations while running the generator.

@ Bob: That is one sweet setup!!

[The Sod Father]

Twist and torque on a hitch receiver will wreak havoc on your frame. I would advise against it. Why? Because I had a receiver welded to the frame of my last trailer. Similar to BobLandry's observation, my receiver was tacked to the frame with angle iron. We had a Yakima bike rack and 3 bikes riding on the back of the trailer. One day, while cruising down the road, a cop pulled me over and said I was dragging the bikes. Apparently, the weight of the rack and bikes bouncing around put so much stress on the frame, that it sheared the I beam lengthwise.

Before this happened, I also noticed that the bikes and the rack were getting banged up quite a bit. This is because a travel trailer does not have shock absorbers so every little bump in the road is transferred throughout the trailer and anything in/on it.

The other issue is weight transfer and subsequent sway issues. 200lbs on the back end of your trailer is going to negatively effect your tongue weight and how it is distributed.

[Bob Landry]

Here is the welded support system for the bumper.



The piece on the left is where the cross support for the bike receiver was. It's 1/4" thick steel tubing spanning between the frame. The short pieces are welded between the cross support and the bumpr, so the bumper is attached to the frame in four places. The brunt of the weight of the box and it's contents sit directly above the bumber so there is minimal weight torquing up and down like there would be from a receiver type carrier.

I havn't towed since I installed all of this but I anticipate minimal effect on towing and sway since the contents of the box used to travel in the rear of the trailer and now are only a couple of feet further back.