Other Hitch mount ski carriers?

[B3IS]

23 minutes to local spot at 75 mph.

4 1/2 - 5 hours doing 75-80 mph to pismo beach and back.

$69.00 Harbor freight 500 lb capacity.

 

[High Speed Industries]

I guess you can always insure your ski if you are that worried about it. . .

 

[B3IS]

Not worried at all. Tested and proven !!!

 

[yamanube]

I was hitch hauler only for the past 4 years, first on a Ranger then on a Cherokee, the Ranger I would go anywhere over anything at any speed but the thin subframe on the back of the Cherokee kept it limited to local beach trips. It will be trailer only for my XC90.

 

[98gti]

Im going to build a wooden hitch hauler.

 

[SuperSteve]

My hitch hauler sets my ski about a foot from the tailgate and that thing has some MILES on it. A handfull of 6 hour one way trips to the coast, getting rear-ended with it and the ski on the back, hooking a chain to it to get pulled out of sand AND pulling other people out.... I can even put a jack under the rear of it to lift the @ss end of my truck.... I have 100% faith in mine thats for sure!

 

[kcmasterpiece]

a lot of people aren't seeing the true point to this thread. most hitch haulers out there are plenty sturdy and i dont see them breaking anytime soon. the thing most people look over are the frames of their trucks.

I never worried about my ski until one day i looked under my jeep and inspected the frame (unibody). there is no meat there at all. its thin metal and the hitch receiver is only held on my 4 bolts.... (class 3). so i went under, dropped the gas tank and threw some more botls through the hitch and frame. I still dont trust it the least bit and cringe over every bump i go over on the way to the beach and a trailer is just a pita around here. So im just going to hope for the best until i can get a pick-up truck.

Yes, the jeep cherokee isnt a heavy duty vehicle by any means, but its still smart to check.

 

[Fro Diesel]

23 minutes to local spot at 75 mph.

4 1/2 - 5 hours doing 75-80 mph to pismo beach and back.

$69.00 Harbor freight 500 lb capacity.

I am pretty sure addict and I put more than enough abuse on the harbor freight over the course of a year. Maybe 10k hard miles or more. For that price we just buy a new one each year.

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[Idok]

Im 50/50 on this..Which one is gonna Buckle under the pressure? Safety First..You dont want to lose your ski, and your daily driver. or make a mess on the highway..Ive seen boats come off trailers..talk about a bullet in a china cabinet.

View attachment 211517

thats nuts...

Ive no problem with towing a trailer from a hitch hauler, but we keep it to a single small standup trailer that is ultra light


putting those barges off the back of it is asking for trouble

 

[Vumad]

wow... you guys over think this stuff.... 90% of the time a receiver hitch will have a rating much higher than the payload of the vehicle... like my pickup, has an 1600lb payload, meaning, the factory doesn't recommend me carry more than 1600lbs on the rear axle.. my receiver hitch itself is "rated" for 2000lbs... meaning the hitch is rated for more than the springs are, this is how most are set up... for you to say a receiver is rated for 500 is funny to me, as most hitch inserts are rated 2000-5000(for a good one)... i have an adjustable one that is rated for 500lbs, funny thing is I pull a car trailer with it all the time.. I've ran a skidsteer to the front of the trailer so far that it was completely in front of the trailer axle(placing 2500-3000lbs on that hitch that's rated for 500lbs)... driving with it like that, of course not, but if you're 300lb ski is going to create 2000lbs of force when hitting a bump you're tires would blow out from the weight of the vehicle every time you hit a bump... as far as having issues with a unibody vehicle, as long as your hitch bolts to the rail from the bottom and the side you'll be fine, unibody is stronger than most people think, if the right equipment is used(i own a body shop, i deal with them all the time), and I've seen just as many problems with hitches on full frames as i have on unibody, it's all in proper equipment... seems like people just need to read less warning labels and acquire more experience...

my point being... your receiver won't be the part that fails... it will be the carrier instead, make sure your main bar will be plenty strong as stated 2x2 1/4" wall me personally would do 3/8" wall... also... strap the ski to the carrier, and run a safety chain to the hitch, just for safe keeping if in the slight chance something would go wrong, it's still attached and won't hit the ditch and tumble or slide into the other lane... do this and check your payload rating(I'm guessing it will be over 500lbs) and mind you, this rating is not a "static weight" rating, so if it says it will hold 500lbs it means it will hold 500lbs, not 300lbs after you factor in the force of bumps, it's tested to withstand the abuse of 500lbs...

Over the rear axle. Tongue weight is significantly lower. The tongue on my Silverado is about 3'-4' behind my rear axle. My 500 lbs of tongue weight can put 1500-2000lbs of weight onto my axle depending on the length of my hitch. You can never put the kind of weight onto a hitch as you can onto the rear axle. That whole foot lbs of torque thing.

As far as tongue weight vs towing capacity. Tongue weight is the downward force. Towing capacity is the horizontal force (front to back). You do not have a hitch rather for 2000lbs of tongue weight.

I use a hitch hauler all the time. It's a harbor freight style and works just fine. It sits close to my tailgate so I don't worry about it much. (edit: I said not at all, but that's not true, kind of scares me at times.)

However, I do worry about the torsional forces on the hitch. The leverage on the outer edges concern me. So far, no issues, but I only use it locally. No long trips like it. If I had something beefy like the rad dudes, I would take longer trips with it. For now, I haul longer distances in the bed.

 

[Kny21]

the thing most people look over are the frames of their trucks.

I wouldn't be worried about frames, granted your's is a different case, rather the receiver hitch itself. I'd assume most of them are coming offshore (China?) and would question metal & welding integrities.

That said I have a homebrew carrier (overkill) and used it on a full sized vehicle that could take the tongue weight (over 600lbs) and had no reservations. But seeing folks do the cheapo HF setup on a vehicle with 3500/350lbs rating scares the crap out of me. Same for anyone that thinks 300lbs sitting 2-3' off a hitch bouncing around is safe.

It's not a "it will" scenario, but rather "if it does" imo.

 

[Vumad]

thats nuts...

Ive no problem with towing a trailer from a hitch hauler, but we keep it to a single small standup trailer that is ultra light


putting those barges off the back of it is asking for trouble

It's kind of irrelevant, no?

Does it matter if you have 2,500lbs of jet skis/trailer or 1,000lbs of jet ski/trailer? If you balance your trailer properly so you have 100-200lbs of tongue weight and minimal bounce, would it matter much? An improperly balanced stand up trailer is no more safe than a properly set up double trailer.

 

[Lumpy]

Im looking to get a hitch hauler myself and i also worry about the haulers torsional force anyone ever had one fail because of this? I pull skidloaders often so im not scared of the weight just the hauler twisting

 

[dragginblazer]

2x2x1/4 wall main tube will not twist in the receiver.

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[Vumad]

2x2x1/4 wall main tube will not twist in the receiver.

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While my harbor freight rack does twist some in the receiver, that is not what concerns me. The part that worries me is how the rack is connected to the 2" steel. The play in the receiver amplifies this concern due to the ability to gain momentum when it rocks. I am confident the weight of my X2/SJ wont result in the failure of my hitch, or in the 2" steel that connects the hauler to the hitch. I'm confident that any failure will come from torsion on the connection points of the rack to the bar. The Rad Dudes style is pretty beefy and doesn't much concern me. However, the cheaper styles like mine definitely have room for failure. I wanted to buy a rad dudes in past Daytona trips but I was told they wouldn't sell me one with an extended 2" bar for hauling a trailer due to liability concerns. I think they did a good job on their design.

 

[aytee]

yup.. realized an hour after I posted it that was going to get some comments... sorry, I was trying to do too many things at the same time... too many numbers bouncing around..

 

[skiwi]

i had one for a while, pulled my sxr everywhere, just used a hitch extension tube 2" and some 2" steel pipe welded together, held great

 

[makejetskiinggreatagain]

you're going to store your ski on the back of your SUV?

all the time? like that's where I keep it because that's where it goes because i have no where else to put it?

rock on brother thats hardcore

if you were a civilized human being i would tell you to just get a storage unit or build a shed considering the price of a hitch hauler, ski cover, and new shocks

but that doesnt apply to you

because you are a savage

ha ha no way man, im not leaving it on there 24/7. I'd have to be insane to do that. A little hitch carrier would be much easier to store in the garage than an entire trailer. I can fit the ski and a car in there if the ski is on a stand. otherwise i'd be leavin it out in the back yard. there's no way im going to do that...unless i build a garage.

 

[makejetskiinggreatagain]

Id inspect the frame very carefully and if its anything less than prefect, I'd beef it up big time. The carrier isnt the thing that will fail, its your car frame. I have a class 3 on my jeep cherokee and its amazing it holds any weight the way its bolted in. I had to drop the tank, and add a bunch more bolts to give me a little but more piece of mind. however, i still dont trust it going down the road.

The rated tongue weight the hitch can carry is 500lbs. most oem skis will be over 300lbs. take that 300 and place it on your hitch carrier (which in other words, its now a lever). That 300 at 2 feet will add a lot more load on the hitch, plus every bump you hit will increase the G-loads greatly (only for a quick Sec). All this together equals a failure somewhere in the future. This is why i do not trust mine...(yet, i still use it every weekend...)

If the SUV has a heavy duty frame, and not the garbage uni-bodies (like my jeep has) cars have now, you should be ok. (inspect anyway). If you have a light duty frame or uni-body, beef up the frame in the back.

I hope this makes sense, i rushed typing this and didnt read it over...

ya i just read my tongue weight capacity...only 300 lbs. Its only a class II hitch...bummer. Looks like I'll have to fork out the cash for a clas 3 or build a garage in my backyard for a trailer......

 

[dragginblazer]

Check on amazon or ebay. I just found a hitch for my truck for $100.

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