Our T@G is extremely light-weight and we pull it with mid-sized SUV, so we did not expect any towing issues. Our solution for hauling bikes produced a concern related to tongue weight. While what we originally had did not work, altering to a various receiver has been verified by E-Trailer to do the job!
We have hauled bikes with our teardrop by using a double receiver. It enabled us to put a bike rack on the back of our SUV. However, we did not totally comprehend the effect on the tongue weight of our automobile.
Our Initial Understanding
When we bought the bike rack, a customer care representative at E-Trailer explained that our dual drawback was splitting the hauling capability of the double drawback into two amounts, each part one half of the capacity of the hitch.
Our dual drawback has a capability of 400 pounds, so each part would have a capacity of 200 pounds. Our trailer’s tongue weight is 160 lbs with LP and battery (less than 200 pounds) and our bike rack plus bikes weighed 100 lbs (once again less than 200 pounds).
We also thought about the capability of our towing car, which is 350 lbs. One half of 350 is 175 lbs and as this is under the weight of our trailer for one part and the bikes for the other, we thought we were fine.
What we did not initially understand is that by utilizing a dual drawback, the general capacity of our pulling automobile was decreased. My partner purchased the hitch online and was not knowledgeable about the impact of the drawback on tongue weight. This left our hauling lorry with a capability of 175 pounds and the tongue weight of our towing was 240 lbs.
Fortunately, we received feedback from members of outdoor camping groups on Facebook who are more well-informed than we and they alerted us to this problem. Due to the fact that of the multiple things to think about, we were quite baffled.
Dual Hitch Considerations
As I understand it now, if utilizing a dual drawback, you need to compare the tongue weight of what you are transporting against 2 separate restrictions.
1) The tongue weight capacity of the tow lorry, reduced by 50% since the dual hitch is used. In our case, this was 175 lbs. Our total tongue weight was 240 pounds, and we had a real issue here.
2) The tongue weight of the dual hitch. Our drawback has a tongue weight capacity of 400 pounds, with 200 lbs for each half. At 160 for the trailer and 100 for the bikes, we did not have an issue with the hitch.
It is the capability that needs to be used when determining our transporting weight because our SUV has a lower tongue weight capacity.
Our Results
We carried our bikes on 2 outdoor camping trips that were reasonably close to home. We had to change our tires on the back earlier than we needed to replace the front tires. We do not know that the excess tongue weight caused the tire concern.
Now the bright side! I was communicating earlier with James Phipps, who is in a number of teardrop groups on Facebook. James and I communicated quite thoroughly about his concerns and he posted a concern to E-Trailer to confirm his theory. They validated that he was right relating to the tongue weight concern but likewise provided two services that should be viable. The reaction E-Trailer sent to James is listed below.
We could transport our bikes in a similar manner as we have in the past without exceeding tongue weight capacity. We should just utilize a multipurpose ball mount instead of the dual hitch extender.
If we were to utilize alternative 1 below, we would have a tongue weight of approximately 260 lbs and a capability of our initial 350 lbs. It would be well within our capability.
