whats your bumper carrying? bikes, spare tires, options

I'm adding a front hitch to the TV to carry a 4 bike rack, rear bumper has the spare tire and a super slider tube to carry the Rhino stinky slinky. I like the idea of balancing some of the rear bias from the trailer with some weight on the front axle.

RollandB wrote:
mine doesn't carry anything but dust or dirt. Not even the slinky.

X2!
Stinky slinky in 5" fence post, two bikes on Pin box receiver and spare factory mounted under the 5er.
Well I do have a set of Backup Lights mounted to the bumper. :B

my original bumper carries absolutely nothing. I cut it off. Then welded receiver tubing to the outside of the frame rails. Made a bumper from 4.5 inch 3/16 inch wall square tubing, welded long stingers on it to slide in and out of the frame receiver tube.
drilled 3 different cross holes to allow the bumper to slide in and out 3 positions. have two drop on expanded metal racks that sit on top of the stingers. the biggest one holds a cooler, two rubbermaid boxes for things we need first, put away last, a box for dumping, and a set of wooded ramps.

Then on the bumper I welded on a 2 inch reciever in the center and a 1.5 inch next to it for attaching a bike rack etc. and not needing to use a reducer.
Then on the left side another 2 inch reciever tube to attach my toylock if I need it. and a square tube to mount the spare tire to.

biggest tray adds 2 ft to overall length.

Now my trailer is very tongue heavy, water and fridge near the front, along with 4 GC batteries. Even with the bumper rack loaded up I'm still near 15 percent tongue weight. Don't try this if your already light on the tongue. could end up with way to light a tongue.

has worked out perfect.

Our bumper has a backup camera mounted on it. No worries about bumper falling off now. :) Spare tire is on a BAL hide-a-spare carrier. I like the clean look without the tire on the back.

I've seen some say that if you call the factory they will state a max. of 100 lbs weight directly on the bumper. If you want a receiver, take a look at a Nash trailer and see how they do it. (They make their own heavy duty frames). Some TT manufacturers like Keystone and KZ have rear racks available as an option. Could take a look at those too. It's not just the static load, it's also the cantilever forces (for larger items) when TT is bouncing up and down at the back going down the road. I'm in the camp of not carrying anything other than a tire on the back.

Go here Mount-N-Lock.com and check out what they have. I have the bumper supports and hitch. Works great.

I used a BAL Hide a Spare & put the spare under the trailer. I have 2 storage boxes on the bumper for leveling blocks & chocks in one and firewood or generator in the other.

My factory bumper carries the spare tire that came with the coach. And believe me, the factory bumper can handle the weight! That back bumper is better made than the stock Ford front bumper on the coach

Mine just carries my stinky slinky.

Lwiddis wrote:
Not a good idea without the mods suggested by old guy.

X2, most bumpers are really thin sheet metal and can barely support a spare tire. The flex of the bike rack moving back and forth breaks them in no time. Kinda like bending a beer can back and forth.

What you want to do is possible, but the best way is to fabricate a frame mounted receiver like I did with my old trailer.

As soon as I got my new 2017 trailer home I cut off the factory thin bumper and welded on a 1/4 in wall bumper with some nice gussets, with the factory one mounted under it for Mr.Stinky, then welded a reciever to the new heavy bumper also with gussets.

I wouldn't hesitate to haul most anything on it, and just to keep my hitch rack stable I drill and taped a 3/8 hole on top and on the side of the reciever to tighten down on the hitch tube for zero movement.



I can snap a picture if anyone wants to see.