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How much do you worry about racks and tongue weight?


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The Transit Connect has a fairly low 200 trailer tongue weight for a car with it's payload capacity. I'm considering getting something like the Kuat Pivot that allows a bike rack to swing out of the way. The swinging adapter is near 50lbs; the bike rack is near 50lbs; and then you add several bikes.

 

How worried would you be if you were right around the tongue weight?

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"Tongue weight" isn't about the maximum weight, but about the handling characteristics of the vehicle.  Too much tongue weight can cause steering issues and increase the chance of jack knife on hard deceleration.

If you're just placing 200 pounds on the back of your T.C., then it won't have [quite] the same effect on your steering.  You won't have the weight of the trailer pushing your vehicle from behind.

I think you'll be fine at or even a little over 200.

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4 hours ago, Mike Chell said:

"Tongue weight" isn't about the maximum weight, but about the handling characteristics of the vehicle.  Too much tongue weight can cause steering issues and increase the chance of jack knife on hard deceleration.

If you're just placing 200 pounds on the back of your T.C., then it won't have [quite] the same effect on your steering.  You won't have the weight of the trailer pushing your vehicle from behind.

I think you'll be fine at or even a little over 200.

Thanks. That's what I was thinking, but I was curious what others thought.

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4 hours ago, Mike Chell said:

"Tongue weight" isn't about the maximum weight, but about the handling characteristics of the vehicle.  Too much tongue weight can cause steering issues and increase the chance of jack knife on hard deceleration.

If you're just placing 200 pounds on the back of your T.C., then it won't have [quite] the same effect on your steering.  You won't have the weight of the trailer pushing your vehicle from behind.

I think you'll be fine at or even a little over 200.

Thanks. That's what I was thinking, but I was curious what others thought.

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I'm not really worried so much about the towing part.  You can get the little 4 cylinder motor to move a decent amount of weight.  My biggest concern is stopping.  The Transit Connect is surely capable of towing more weight, than it can safely stop.  

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11 hours ago, Mike Chell said:

He's not planning on towing anything, Fifty.  It's a bike rack.

Yep. The absolute maximum I could ever imagine being on it would be ~250 lbs (50 adapter, 75 rack, 4x 35lb bikes). No problem stopping there. It's just overloading the tongue weight.

 

And that is a very high estimate. Right now I would have a 35lb bike rack. I'll probably choose the Yakima Backswing over the Kuat Pivot as it appears to lose less ground clearance (and it's a bit lighter at 37lbs). My wife and my mountain bikes are probably 60 lbs together. So I'm currently only looking at 130lbs total, well within the limits. I was just thinking ahead to when my son will have a bike as well and I'll need a heavier rack as well as three bikes.

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  • 8 months later...
  • 1 year later...
On 3/22/2019 at 11:27 PM, Sudsy said:

I have a similar question - how would a swing out cargo rack be calculated ?

just posted i in a separate thread:

 

 

 

 The worry would be the weight on the extended piece while driving.  Dont' think the extra tongue weight is going to matter a whit when the car is stopped and you're using it.  On extended back from the hitch weight, the recommendation is halving the max tongue weight.  I used a hitch hauler with a heavy 4 stroke dirt bike ((300lbs) on a VW Touareg with 750lb  tongue weight max.  It handled it flawlessly, but you could see their was a load on it.  Tongue weight drops the rear of the vehicle a lot (relative) and can make for a very HIGH front end.  :)    But only matters driving.

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