We have a jayco greyhawk 31ss on the E450 super duty chassis, with helwig helper springs on the rear. We are going to be bringing my wifes motorcycle with us on our big trip this year (2005 Suzuki Boulevard S40). Which weighs about 400 pounds, i purchased a SMC600R carrier which is rated at carrying 600LBS, the carrier weighs about 80 pounds. My question is for anyone that also uses a hitch mounted carrier and if it effects the steering of the coach by "unloading" the front suspension. Im not overly concerned but figured i would ask to see if anyone has had experience with thisThanks

The only way to know for sure is load it up and get to a {hopefully}, nearby scale. My guess is you will be so light on the front axel as to be dangerous not to mention well over the rear axel rating. IMHO: Adding 500 extra pounds on the rear end just is not going to work. you might want to look at some of the motorcycle trailers that are available. Here are a couple of shots of the Kendon single that I use. It stands up and stores taking very little space {at your site or back in the garage}:I added the 2 X 8's to provide a nice stable place to put my feet when walking the bike {Harley Dyna Super Glide - 700#} on or off:

That rack does not look all that heavy duty to me. The problem may be that the 400lb bike and the hitch at 80 lbs mounted 10 feet behind the rear axle will be like a lever and may remove more weight from the front axle than would be considered safe. Plus the 480lbs bounching 10 feet behind the rear axle will multiply the weight and could fail the rack your using causing the bike to end up on the road. Without having the motorhome run over scales to get the before bike and after bike weights your not going to know for sure what the weights hanging out back will do to the front steering. I would think a trailer like Desert Captin is describing would be a lot safer for your transporting. Just my opinion as an Ex-Weigh-It-Guy.

It would probably be better to put a receiver hitch on the front of the motorhome and carry the motorcycle up front. Motorhomes usually have unused front axle carrying capacity, while using up all of the rear axle carrying capacity.Other alternative is to put the motorcycle on a small utility trailer. On the trailer, you can also put other storage items, such as fire wood, gas can, chairs, etc that you may not want inside the motorhome.

I'd be somewhat concerned about that much weight on the hitch itself. I assume the motorcycle carrier extends further back than a typical trailer ball hitch, so the torque from the tongue weight is magnified somewhat due to the additional leverage. Many class C hitches are already relatively constrained in terms of tongue weight (it's not uncommon, for example, to find them with hitches rated to tow 5000 pounds but with a tongue weight limit of 350 pounds).You can compute the effect on the weight and balance by measuring the distance from the motorcycle to the back axle and from the back axle to the front axle. If, for the sake of simple computation, they are equal, then you're unloading the front axle by the weight of the motorcycle plus carrier (or about 500 pounds) and loading the rear axle by twice that amount (about 1000 pounds). It's probably not going to work out very well weight wise.

Maybe you could borrow or rent a rack to try. Local cycle shop or Craigslist? The best rack I've had was a custom build and it did not use the standard trailer hitch set-up. It used two 2"trailer hitch receivers welded to the ends of the frame rails. Two 2" square tubes extended out the back and the rail was welded to the square tube. This was used to haul a Yamaha TW200 (300 lbs.?) This was with a 22-24' MH with much shorter overhang. You could feel it on the back, but it was OK. Can't say how yours would be. Currently I use a 5X8 Wells Cargo enclosed trailer. Pluses for the trailer: The bike is out of sight, protected from the elements and I can throw other stuff in the trailer (BBQ, ground cover etc.). The best part is I leave the bike in the trailer and it doesn't take up space in my shop. Tows like it's not there.Negatives: A short trailer behind a long MH is a bear to back up. Many states have lower trailer speed limits. You need a space to park the trailer and you are adding several feet to the overall length of your rig.Norm's 2 cents

Hitch mounted motorcycle carrier on class c | Good Sam Community

samven1
Explorer
Jul 04, 2016
I have a 24' Class C and carry a KLR250 on an 80 lb rack. Total weight is 380 lbs and I went to a frame shop and had them weld braces on the extensions and put air bags on. The static weight is no problem but the constant pounding over bumpy roads or the speed bump you dont see will be. According to the Flying J scales the 380 lbs subtracted 200 lbs from the front and added 580 lbs to the rear. Your overhang is longer so it will be even more dramatic. I dont carry full water and pack light in the storage compartment and leave the spare at home. The other down side is loading the bike if the campsite is not level. All that said I have hauled it around the country for the last 15000 miles without a problem and have gotten allot of use from it but still feel a trailer would be easier on the rig and my nerves and if I had a travel companion to help backup in tight situations I would go that way.
tpi
Explorer
Jul 04, 2016
I carry M/C on 5X8 utility trailer which I also use for my ATV. While I do back it up using the backup cam, I often don't sweat it. I just offload the bike somewhere convenient, then pull up to campsite, remove trailer and roll it around by hand-usually push it into a back-in site.
klutchdust
Explorer II
Jul 05, 2016
Dakzuki wrote:
Unless I missed it I haven't seen anywhere what the hitch weight rating on the RV is. Now since the motorbike is going to be cantilevered out more than a trailer ball would be, that increases the effective load on the hitch.....and frame extensions.

On my 09 Itasca Cambria the hitch weight is 350 pounds.
j-d
Explorer II
Jul 05, 2016
Not uncommon for the hitch itself to have a higher rating, say 5000/500, and see the coach builder impose a lower rating. For that 5000/500 hitch, the RV could be rated 3500/350, 5000/350 or something else.

A hitch's tongue weight rating IS based on a cantilever factor as Dazuiki mentions. I remember 10-inches, but not clear to me if that 40-inches "to the hitch ball" is from the retention pin or the receiver opening. But there IS such a rating, and putting a heavy load a few feet out is way in excess of a rating based on less than one foot.

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Hitch mounted motorcycle carrier on class c

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