Ok Folks-
I have a tray that slides into a 2" receiver hitch, to carry my motorcyle on the back of a car. Note this carries the bike perpendicular to the car, like most bike carriers. As I started looking at class two and three hitches most have mentioned "total tongue weight not to exceed 350 lbs" The tray weighs 50lbs and my XR650l weighs about 360lbs. My Dad has a used this carrier on his truck w/o problems. Are the max weight warnings pretty conservative?
Anyone else carrying a motorcycle like this? Don't want to throw down the money on a hitch if it won't work.
Thanks Josh :?

If I understand right, this method doesn't touch the ground and is, essentially, a bike rack for a motorcycle?

The E itself is rated for a tongue weight of 150 lbs. For various reasons, we believe that number is conservative. However, there's no way I would put that much tongue weight (410lbs.) on a hitch on the E.

-brendan

I have a bicycle rack for 4 bikes and with 4 regular street bikes, ie; Huffys, I tie it to the roof rack just because I am worried the weight is too much. So I say g'head and buy yourself a trailer.

[quote:ed39ee6f14=" "]I have a bicycle rack for 4 bikes and with 4 regular street bikes, ie; Huffys, I tie it to the roof rack just because I am worried the weight is too much. So I say g'head and buy yourself a trailer.[/quote:ed39ee6f14]

i second that idea. all of that weight would be considered tongue weight in my opinion, which is too much...esp if you are going to be off-road driving to trailhead.

buy yourself a trailer and take your buddy with you. that way you can drive!

:shock: Thanks for the responses. Did a little checking and found out that max tongue weight is figured at 1/10th of weight cap. of hitch. So the most popular class III hitches towing cap. of 3500 lbs equals max tongue weight of 350 lbs. My bike weighs 325lbs (dry) and the tray weighs approx. 50lbs Best case, I'd be exceeding max cap. by 50 lbs. Maybe not a huge deal but not going to chance it. Might have to neighbor my Dad's 225 ttr when he isn't looking. It weighs about 75lbs less. :twisted:

[quote:337f3d7581=" "]:shock: Thanks for the responses. Did a little cecking and found out that max tongue weight is figured at 1/10th of weight cap. of hitch. hSo the most popular class III hitches towing cap. of 3500 lbs equals max tongue weight of 350 lbs. [/quote:337f3d7581]

Er, that's bad math. Honda only recommends a Class I hitch for the vehicle with a cap of 1500 lbs. By that standard, your math gives 150lbs max. Just because a 3rd party makes a Class II/III hitch that is rated for higher towing, doesn't mean you can necessarily use 1/10 of its limit for tongue weight.


With all that said, I'd probably not be *too* concerned with a situation of a *static* 200lbs. or maybe even 250lbs. That is, a cargo carrier that doesn't touch the road. I'd be somewhat more conservative using a trailer with a similar tongue weight, since the geometry changes due to weight shift on hills can increase or decrease the tongue weight when in motion).

[I will skip the whole issue of the CRV's higher Australian towing specs vs. the CRV's lower US towing specs, which may have some bearing on the E.]

-brendan

In reference to the "bad math" comment, I think it has more to do with the way the hitch receiver mounts to auto's body. Granted this idea is predicated on my experience with pick-up trucks and the bigger hitches having more contact/bolted points on the vehicle. The last class 2/3 hitch I had put on a car, went much further forward cantilevering the load. My, neighbor has a class one hitch on his escape; which is made out of pretty light material and does not go very far forward with it's connection points.

trailer is the way to go, i have 1, me and dad made it ourselfs. we got a welder and went to the junkyard and welded some pecies together. all in all it cost maybe $100 and its just as good as the others. The only prob is that it weighs like 400P. so..... i dont intend using it on my e